Page 43 of Rescuing Sadie
Chase smiled at Sadie. He felt better after getting that off his chest, but now he had something else he wanted to ask her. He had decided he was going to wait to do this until a more appropriate time, but he couldn’t wait one more second.
“I was mad at you when you refused to tell me you loved me. I knew I was probably dying, and I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t grant me that one last wish.” Chase hated the tears that filled her eyes, but he pressed on. “I haven’t told anyone this, but I had a dream when I was on the operating table. I don’t know that that’s even the right word, but whatever. Anyway, I was in a field of sunflowers. They were all taller than my head and I couldn’t see anything. I kept calling for you, but you weren’t answering. I thought that Jonathan had gotten to you. That I hadn’t protected you.
“Then I heard you. Your voice was faint, but you kept asking me to come back to you. That you wanted to tell me something. I yelled and screamed that I was there. That I was coming, but you couldn’t hear me. I started walking toward your voice, determined to get to you. The sunflowers turned into hands grabbing at me, trying to keep me from you, but I refused to let them hold me back. The only thing going through my head was getting to you so you could tell me whatever it was that you needed to say. The next thing I knew, I was waking up and you were standing over me.
“You were right, Sparky. Right not to tell me. To make me wait. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have fought to get back to you if you’d said it before, I truly believe I would’ve, but it helped. Gave me something else to fight for. I love you. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t understand Ghost’s obsession with my sister, but I get it now. I would do anything for you. Will do anything for you.”
Chase tried to ignore the tears dripping down Sadie’s face as he carefully lowered to one knee in front of her.
She gasped. “Get up, Chase! You’re still healing!”
She apparently hadn’t figured out what he was doing yet. “I love you, Sadie Jennings. With all that I am. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to be by your side when you have our babies. I want to grow old with you and sit on rocking chairs watching our grandchildren together. I’m going to stay in the Army as long as possible. I love it. But I swear to you right now, I’ll do my best to be there when you need me, no matter what. Being an Army wife isn’t the easiest job in the world, but you’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I would be honored and humbled if you’d agree to spend the rest of your life with me. Will you marry me?”
Sadie stood there a moment, staring down at him with her mouth open, but within seconds of the last word leaving his mouth, she was on her knees too, nodding frantically. “Yes, Chase! Of course, yes! I love you. So much, you’ll never know how hard it was not to tell you when you were lying in the dirt.”
She flung her arms around him, and while her actions made a twinge of pain shoot through his body, he didn’t even care. He smiled and leaned back to take her face in his hands. “I don’t have a ring yet; I thought I’d let you help me pick one out that you like. I want nothing more than to take you into our bedroom and have we-just-got-engaged sex, but I’m not up for that quite yet. I didn’t want to wait though. I love you, Sadie. I know what you’re giving up…a job with McKay-Taggart, your life in Dallas. I won’t take that for granted.”
“I can get another job, and Sean and the others aren’t going anywhere. I can still see him and my aunt Grace whenever I want. And sex can wait. Although I do expect you to make it up to me later.”
Chase grinned. “Absolutely. Can I ask something else?”
“Of course,” she said immediately.
“Do you think you can help me up off the floor?”
She giggled and immediately stood. She held out her hand and Chase took it with a smile. He knew without a doubt Sadie Jennings, soon to be Jackson, would always be there to lend a helping hand, just like he’d be there for her.
* * *
* * * *
