“And what where the two things?” she inquired. “I can guess one of them, actually,” she added, bending her head and kissing the edge of my jaw.

I laughed. “Well yeah, we were waiting for the ‘L’ word to be exchanged before I ravaged you to within an inch of your life. Looks like that’s not gonna happen for a while,” I grumbled, frowning at the thought of the injuries that would put a stop to that for a while. They’d already told me that I wouldn’t be back to normal for up to four months. Karma was a bitch if I was going to have to wait for four months to finally do the nasty with my girlfriend.

She giggled against my neck. “Well, you can still lie on your back, can’t you?” she teased, biting on my earlobe gently. I groaned trying not to let her turn me on, but I was fighting a losing battle. I had broken bones, cuts, burns and bruises all over, but she still managed to make me horny. She really had a talent. I bit my lip, trying not to think about it. Rosie pulled back and smiled at me. “You don’t always have to be in control, you know. I could take advantage of you not being able to move. In fact, as soon as you get discharged, I think I might take advantage of it a lot,” she teased.

Oh, hell yeah.

“We could play doctors and nurses,” I suggested excitedly.

“Or we could play helpless guy in hospital bed, and girl that thinks he’s the hottest thing that ever rocked a pair of boxers,” she flirted.

“Kinky, I like it.” I really liked where this conversation was going. But then I remembered the other thing that I had wanted to do when she said those three words. “So about the other thing that I wanted to do once you fell for me.” I could feel the nerves building up inside me; I was actually more scared of this than when I thought I was going to die in that fire.

“What’s that then?”

I took a deep breath, willing myself not to mess it up. “As soon as you said those three words to me, I was going to drop down on one knee and propose to you.” I said it quickly before I wimped out and didn’t do it.

She didn’t react how I thought she would though. She didn’t gasp and look at me shocked. Instead, she burst out laughing, shaking her head.

“That’s a good one,” she replied around her giggles, settling herself back down onto the bed next to me. I remained silent, waiting for her to catch on that I wasn’t joking. Slowly, I saw it sink in. The giggles stopped, and the smile slowly faded from her face as her eyes widened. “Oh God, seriously?” she asked breathlessly.

I nodded in confirmation. “Seriously. But your timing ruined that for me too. I can’t exactly get down on one knee right now because one’s busted and the other leg’s broken, so that plan’s out of the window.” I laughed at my choice of words. Out of the window – yeah, it literally was.

“Nate, what the…” she trailed off, looking at me like I was crazy. “You must have hit your head harder than they thought. They said you had a mild concussion.”

I smiled and took her hand that was on my chest. I knew I needed to man up and do it. I was already half way there, I just needed to spit the words out and pray that she said yes. Or, at the very least, that she said she’d think about it in a few more months if I asked her again at a later date.

“Stripes, I know it’s not been long since we met. It’s only been just over five short months, but I know how I feel about you. I’m crazy in love with you and I have been for a while, I’ve just been waiting for you to fall in love with me too. I know I’m not the most romantic guy in the world, I mean, look at my idea of a proposal, this blows big time. But I promise to take care of you and DJ forever if you’ll let me. I love you, and I want to marry you, but if you need more time then that’s okay, I understand that.” I gulped as I watched her bewildered expression. Disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach. “Christ, I’ve totally blown it. That speech sucked, and Ashton was right, I should have made some grand romantic gesture. Flowers, a restaurant, sky writing, anything would have been better than this. I don’t even have a f**king ring. Damn it, I’m such a c**k with this romance stuff!” I grumbled, shaking my head at myself.

“That was a perfect Nate Peters proposal. Though, you should have maybe thrown in a little slutty remark for good measure,” she teased.

I looked back at her and couldn’t help but laugh. “See, I even forgot the sex references,” I agreed, rolling my eyes playfully.

She smiled at me tenderly, her eyes locked onto mine making me feel like I was the most special man on the planet. “I’d love to marry you,” she whispered.

My body jerked in surprise. Hope built in my chest. “You would?” I asked, needing confirmation that I’d heard her right. Maybe I really had hit my head harder than they thought.

“On one condition,” she bargained.

I smirked at her, already knowing what this was going to be. My girl was developing a serious fetish. “Bring the uniform home?” I asked, raising my hand to cup the side of her face.

She laughed and nodded. “At least once a month. But, also, there’s something else.” I nodded for her to continue with her conditions. I’d give her anything she wanted; she could make a list as long as my arm, I would do anything to marry her. “Don’t ever change,” she whispered, looking at me seriously.

I smiled. I wasn’t expecting that at all. “Okay.”

She bent forward looking at me sternly. “I’m being serious. I love that you can’t say anything romantic without messing it up. I love that you have no idea how sweet you are sometimes. I love that you make me laugh with the smut that overflows from your mouth. I just love everything about you, Nate. So don’t ever change.”

I grinned; happiness built inside to the point where I wanted to jump out of the bed and do an awkward, broken happy dance whilst shouting “Booya!”

“Conditions accepted!” I agreed wholeheartedly. She laughed and bent forward placing her lips on mine. I rejoiced at the feel of it and kissed her back, tangling my one good hand into her hair.

Before the fire I knew I loved her and DJ, but as soon as I’d answered my cell phone tonight and was told that her building was on fire, I knew that love didn’t even cover what I felt for the pair of them. I had never been more terrified of anything in my life than I was during that short, speedy drive that I’d made to her apartment.

She pulled back and smiled, just staring at me contentedly. A happy silence fell over us, neither of us moved. I just couldn’t take my eyes off the girl that had officially agreed to be mine. Part of me wished I’d met her years ago; if I’d just met her five years ago then DJ would be my blood. If I’d just met her four years ago then I would have been the one she left Josh for. If I’d just met her three years ago then I would have been the one to pick up their pieces after what that scumbag did. Then I would have seen DJ’s first step, heard his first word. Maybe DJ would call me daddy instead of Josh.

None of that mattered right now though. You couldn’t change the past; our future was all that mattered.

After a few minutes, I smiled as details of what needed to happen started rushing into my brain. “So, I guess I’d better get out the vacuum and tidy up if you two are going to be moving in with me,” I teased, knowing my place was a complete mess.

“You want us to move in with you?”

“No, I want to marry you but continue to live in two separate apartments,” I replied sarcastically. “Rosie, I don’t want to wait forever to get married. This whole thing just made me see how important things are. We shouldn’t waste time because you never know how long you have left. Tonight proved that. I want to live with you, I want to marry you, I want to have babies with you. Everything. And soon, because I don’t see the point in waiting,” I continued.

My words didn’t seem to shock her in the slightest. She nodded in agreement as if she knew that life was too precious to take for granted too. “Whenever you want. You just name it, and I’m there. But don’t worry about the vacuum, I can run that around until you’re back on your feet,” she teased, nodding down at my broken leg and busted knee.

“Awesome. I’ll even buy you one of those little maid uniforms to wear while you do it.”

She smiled and touched her lips to mine in a gentle kiss. When she pulled back, I frowned as more things started playing out inside my head.

“So, I guess I have some paperwork I’ll have to fill in then or something. You’ll help me with that, won’t you?” I mused, not really sure how it all works.

She frowned. “Paperwork?”

“Yeah, adoption papers.”

Her eyes widened. “You want to adopt DJ?”

I nodded, looking at her like she was crazy. Hadn’t I just said all of that stuff? Didn’t she just agree to marry me? “Well, yeah. I can’t very well make you a Peters and not him, can I?” I teased, wondering why she looked so shocked.

She sighed, closing her eyes. “This is another one of those moments where you have no idea how special you are, Nate.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, I guess I have two people I need to talk to before we make this official,” I said, wincing slightly. One of them I was terrified of speaking to, but I had to.

“And who’s that?”

“Well, I need to ask your dad if I can steal his daughter.” That was the easy one. “And I need to speak to DJ to make sure that it’s okay with him that I marry his mom.” That was the one I was worried about. What if he said no?

She sighed dreamily. “I love you, Nate.”

I smiled happily. I still wasn’t used to hearing those incredible words. “I love you too, Stripes.”

She smiled and pressed her lips to mine for a split second before pulling back and snapping the mask back on my face, smirking at me with her ‘I’m the nurse, and you’ll do as you’re told’ face. I laughed quietly. I liked that face; I could see we would have a lot of fun with that one!

Chapter Thirty-Seven

After a little while, Rosie had to excuse herself to go back up to DJ. My parents and Ashton kept me busy, fussing over me for a few hours, before they left too so I could get some rest.

Once I was alone, I tried my hardest to sleep, but sleep didn’t come easy, and even when it did, I was plagued with dreams of the fire. Memories flooded my brain, images of Rosie shaking and mumbling words that I couldn’t understand while she was standing by the ambulance. I dreamt of DJ and the look he gave me when he understood that we were going to die. Thankfully, the hospital was busy, so I was woken often by talking or doctors banging around. The noises brought me out of my nightmares before they reached the cl**ax.

That afternoon, after I’d finished choking down some hospital garbage that they called ‘food’ the door opened and my beautiful girlfriend stood there with a huge smile stretched across her face.

“Hey, you,” she greeted.

I smiled, happy to see her again. “Hi.”

She closed the door behind her and leant against it, looking at me worriedly. “So, I have someone that wants to see you. I was just wondering if you were up to a little visitor.” She raised one eyebrow curiously.

“DJ?” I couldn’t stop the grin that stretched across my face.

“Yeah, but if you’d rather wait a little while then I can just tell him no. I don’t want him to hurt you or anything if you’re not up to it.”

I shook my head fiercely. “Bring him in, I want to see him too.”

She smiled and chewed on her lip worriedly before turning and opening the door. I couldn’t see him yet, but I could hear Rosie telling him that he needed to be careful and that he wasn’t to fool around in my room. When she drew back, he stepped into the room with a nervous smile on his face, as if he was scared of what he was going to see.

He looked adorable. There were little cuts on his cheek and forehead. There were grazes on his arms. He limped as he stepped into the room, probably from his twisted ankle. All in all, he looked great, and he was seriously lucky that all that came out of it was some smoke inhalation and a few scrapes. He was wearing new clothes because, although Rosie had protested, my mom had been out and bought a load of clothes for them both this morning. He also had a brand new Woody doll hanging from one hand.

Feelings bubbled up inside me, making my stomach flutter. The last time I’d seen him properly was in that room, when I’d told him I loved him. Seeing him now, I knew I would run into a burning building for him any day of the week, the same as I would for his mom.

“Hey, Kid.”

His eyes scanned my body and his eyes filled with tears. “You got hurted.”

“I’m okay.” He didn’t need to get upset over me, it probably looked a lot worse than it was.

He pointed to my cast on my arm and a smile appeared on his face. “Momma said that you’d broked your arm and leg like I did. Are you gonna get Anna to draw on yours too?” he asked. “I could help you find a good picture if you want,” he offered. I could already see his brain ticking over with the images that I would have drawn on my cast.

I laughed and nodded. “I’d like that. Though, I don’t think I’ll get Buzz or Woody on mine.”

“Kung-fu Panda?” he offered helpfully.

Rosie giggled next to him, squeezing his shoulder. “I think Nate would rather have The Little Mermaid,” she countered, winking at me. I laughed, and DJ frowned, looking at her like she was crazy.

“But that’s a girls’ movie!” he protested.