My belly churned, but I nodded. “Okay. Then we’ll deal with it no matter what they decide.”

He startled. “What changed? Two months ago, that would have put you on the floor.”

“And it still might,” I confessed. “But my love for you is bigger than the fear, and I’ll handle the months you’re gone if it means I get a lifetime of loving you.”

He kissed me hard and quick. “I get it now, and I don’t blame you for telling me to get out months ago. That half hour on the phone with you was fucking terrifying. You were in so much danger, and I couldn’t do shit but sit there and pray.”

I cringed slightly. “I put the rescue above my life, and I’m sorry, but I’m not. I also recognize the irony that I couldn’t keep the very promise you made for me.”

He huffed a laugh. “I knew you were doing it for Finley. You risked your life to save my daughter. I was so furious with you, and yet I’d never loved you more.”

I smiled. “So you do still love me.”

“I love you more than my own life, Morgan. You’re all I want. You, and me, and Finley. For the rest of my life, you’re it. I will spend every day making you impossibly happy, and incredibly aggravated, but I hope the first more than the last, if you’ll have me.”

My heart leaped. “That sounds like a proposal.”

“If I thought I had the barest shot of getting you to agree to marry me, it would be, but I know you’re cautious—”

“Yes,” I blurted.

His eyebrows rose, and his eyes lit up.

“Yes,” I repeated. “I’m done waiting to be happy or looking for the other shoe to drop. I’m done being careful and keeping my heart in a box when it already belongs to you. If anything, the last few days have shown me how quickly it can all vanish, so I’m grabbing onto this.” I slid my hands down to his chest and gripped his flight suit. “Grabbing onto you with both hands and a full heart.”

“Kitty,” he whispered.

“And if you were just joking, that’s okay, too. But if you really meant it, then feel free to ask whenever you want, because my answer is yes.”

He laughed. “I should plan it all out, but I’m not going to.”

“Wait. Do you want kids? More kids, I mean. That’s probably something I should know.” Because I did. Lots of them.

He blinked, then smiled with his whole face. “I do. Do you want the one I already have?”

“More than anything,” I answered. “It would be a shame to toss her out after all the work I just went through to save her.”