Chapter 9

Lying next to him, he dozes off and I slip out of bed. Walking to the main room, I walk to the bar and the prospect puts another coffee in front of me. Nodding my thanks, he moves on. I sit there, looking into my cup of coffee when Kelly walks over. "You okay?" she asks. "No. I'm not." I tell her. "Come on." she tells me. She looks at Lee and he nods towards the chapel. Walking inside, she closes the door and we sit. I sit there for a minute before speaking. "Tell me honestly, Kelly. How close did it come to being more serious than it is?" I ask. "Another inch and he wouldn't have made it back here." she tells me honestly. "Shit." I tell her. "Look, Vanna. He's okay. If you let yourself think about all of the what if's, it'll kill you. He's okay." she tells me. "I know. I just don't want to lose him." I tell her as the tears start to fall. She pulls me to her and let's me cry. Once I get myself together, I say "Thanks Kelly. I'd rather cry with you than let him see me weak." I tell her. "Spoken like a true Old Lady." she says, laughing.

After talking to Kelly, we walk out to the bar and Lee asks. "You good?" I look at him and say "Yeah. Just needed a minute." He nods. "I'm gonna head back to my Old Man." I tell them. "Night Sweetheart." Lee says. "Night guys." I say before walking back to the room. Getting undressed and under the covers with Herm, I snuggle into his side. He pulls me closer and asks "Where'd you go?" I look up at him and his eyes are still closed. "Needed to talk to Kelly." I say. He opens his eyes and looks at me and I say "I'm okay. I promise." He kisses me softly and says "No matter what, I'm gonna do everything I can to make it back to you." He tells me. "That's all I ask." I say.

The next morning, I wake up before Herm and sit up in the bed with a sketch pad I got from Happy. Sitting there sketching, Herm wakes up and sits up next to me. Kissing me softly he says "Morning Babe." I smile softly and say "Morning. How are you feeling?" I ask. "Better. Sore but okay." he says. Looking at my sketching, he asks "What's that?" Without looking at him, I say "Sketching out the garden for the backyard." He looks at me and says "That's really good. You ever done anything like this before?" I shake my head and say "Sketched out a lot of garden plans but never made them real." He puts his arm around me and asks "You ever thought about it?" I nod my head and say "Used to be my dream." I tell him. "What about now? Still a dream?" he asks. "Yeah. I thought about, at one time, starting my own gardenscaping business but with mom and George, I didn't see that happening." I say. "Let's get our garden done and see what we can do about making that dream come true." he tells me. "Really?" I ask shocked. "Yeah babe. Really." He says. I straddle him and kiss him deeply, still being mindful of his injuries. Grinding myself against his hardening member, "Babe, shit." he groans against my lips. I stand and slide my shorts and panties off, pulling my shirt off too. Sliding his boxers down his legs, I straddle him again. Sliding my warm, wet heat onto his hard cock, his hands go to my hips and I start to slide up and down at a steady pace. One hand goes from my hip to the back of my neck, pulling me to kiss him as I ride his hard cock for dear life. Feeling myself start to get close, he whispers, "Cum with me baby. Let me feel you cum." Burying my face in his neck, I lose myself with him following right behind me. "Fuck babe. I'll never get tired of this." He says. I look into his eyes and don't say anything. We just stare at each other for a minute and he caresses my cheek. "Marry me." he says. "What?" I ask, shocked. "Marry me. Today." he says. I kiss him softly and say "Today." He smiles and we get up and head for the shower for another round before heading out to the main room.