Chapter 84

KNOX'S POV Her words settled deep inside me, sinking past all the doubts and expectations that had weighed me down my entire life. *To me, you're perfect.* I'd been called a lot of things. A disappointment. A failure. The son who never quite measured up. But perfect? Never. And yet, when Aubrey looked at me like this—with unwavering conviction, with a quiet kind of faith that no one else had ever given me—I believed her. A slow, warm grin spread across my face. I couldn't help it. "Well," I murmured, trailing a finger along the curve of her jaw, "I think I should find a special way to thank you." Her lips parted slightly, heat flickering in her gaze. But then—just as quickly—she narrowed her eyes and gave me a light shove. "Knox," she scolded, "you are ‘shameless'." I chuckled, catching her wrist before she could pull away, pressing a lingering kiss to the inside of her palm. "Only with you, sweetheart." She rolled her eyes, but the laughter in them betrayed her. I tugged her closer, i