‘I know, Richard. I know.’
He knew then that she had heard him, heard every word of love he had spoken over the last months, and his heart soared with the knowledge.
Cathy had a long road ahead of her, but with his help, and Kitty’s, and Desrae’s and Susan’s, she would come through it all.
She’d had a life that most people would have given up on long ago. Her start had been rough, she’d made some wrong choices along the way, but she had always done what she had felt to be right.
She had loved too well and almost been destroyed.
Now, though, he would see to it that she led a life of complete happiness. He would take care of her as a man should take care of a woman: protect her, love her, cherish her.
Most of all he would cherish her.
They smiled at one another then, as if Cathy had heard his thoughts and was silently answering them.
He hoped in his heart that that was the case. It was what he wanted more than anything in the world.