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She gasped while throwing her axe, sending it way off the mark. “Well, I…”
“You don’t have to know. I’m just curious.”
“No, I do know, Eric.” She turned to me with her hands folded in front of her. “I think I’ve known for a while, since it was announced.”
I smiled weakly as I touched her cheek. “I think I’ve known too.”
“We all talked. It’s fine. Everything is fine.” She breathed deeply for a second, just breathed. She was collecting herself. “That’s the problem. Everything is fine.”
“I see. It’s one of those days.”
Out of my pocket came that black tourmaline. I held it out to her, loving how her eyes lit up with recognition at our little inside joke. She sweetly caressed the smooth stone, turning it over and over like I did.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I think I’m just afraid to give all of myself to you.”
“Darling, I’ve been inside you.”
She shushed me while her face burst with crimson clouds. “Eric, we’re in public.”
“We were the first time too.”
“A meadow isn’t technically in public. It’s—”
I took her chin lightly. “It’s out in the open. I’ll give you that much, baby girl.”
She shivered. “I love hearing that.”
“Any more worries? Concerns?”
“What if I get sick? What if I can’t make a living on magic?”
I grinned. “You don’t have to work. I can do plenty of that for the both of us.”
“What if I do want to work?”
“Then do your thing, darling. If it makes you happy, then I want you to have it.”
She bit her lower lip, leaned into my hand, and closed her eyes. “What if what I want is you?”
“For the rest of your life?”
“Yeah, I like the sound of that.”
Here went everything right from my heart. It was now or never. It was going to be here or nowhere. Because those were my two modes of existence: all or nothing.
And all was what I wanted to give to Regina.
I kissed her nose and took a knee, holding her hand while the bar hushed itself quiet. She covered her mouth with her free hand. Her eyes welled with tears. She knew what was happening just like everybody else around here.
To them, it was just some guy proposing to his girl in the bar. But to us, it was the world coming to a standstill. It was a culmination of feelings compacted into a whirlwind of a weekend.
It was the beginning of a new path together.
“GG, I don’t have a ring,” I admitted with a chuckle, “but I do have a heart.” I rested my free hand over my chest. “It’s been beaten up, tossed into a blender, and practically obliterated. It’s been used.”
She sniffled while nodding.
“It’s also been held,” I added, “and soothed. By your hands.” I squeezed her hand for effect. “And by your lips. You’ve given me a reason to get out of bed. And so much more than just giving me instructions from your late father.”
