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Farrow Ballantine stood before me in all her glory.
Beautiful, and breathtaking, and glowing, andmine.
She wore flushed cheeks, a sheepish smile, and a coaching uniform draped over with an ID lanyard.
For the first time in a month, I felt alive again.
“Octi.”
The fencer I’d mistaken for Farrow tore off his mask, revealing a skinny preteen with his face painted in a grimace.
“Sorry, bro. One second, I was laughing. And the next, you stormed over here.” He shrugged, backing away. “You just grabbed my hand, dude. I didn’t know what to do.”
In the distance, Oliver’s distinct laughter pierced the moment. The crowd remained silent, eager to catch our conversation, now that I had ditched the mic.
Farrow collected my hand, intertwining our fingers. “Did you say love?”
Despite the near frostbite, all I could feel was warmth.
I cupped her cheeks, bringing our foreheads together, breathing her in.
“I’m madly in love with you, Farrow. You have completely consumed me. Heart, body, and soul. There’s no one else. Never has been. Never will be.”
“Zach…” She glanced down at the piste, then peered up at me beneath a curtain of impossibly long lashes. “What is this?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “A declaration of love. A groveling scheme. And… a marriage proposal?”
For the first time since the accident, I relinquished control.
I was soaring into the unknown without a plan, completely at the whims of Fate, and scared shitless. With only Dad’s dying words and the woman of my dreams to accompany me.
I’d never felt so damn alive.
“You do realize this is so unlike you.”
“I do.”
“And that everyone in the state will know about this by the end of the hour.”
“I don’t care.”
“Including your mother.”
“She approves of our relationship.”
Farrow’s lips parted. “She does?”
“I swear it.”
At my words, she nodded, processing the news.
Finally, she squeezed my hand, staring down at where we joined. “Tell me something about the octopus.”
I answered without missing a beat. “The octopus ranks highest in the animal kingdom at camouflage. It can change colors in an instant, contort its own body, and rearrange its arms. That’s what you did. You slipped into my life pretending to be a problem and turned out to be my solution. My salvation.”
On cue, the dog sprinted over to our heels, dropping Fae’s shoe on the piste with a bark. I’d kill the little shit’s owner if I weren’t so eager to propose to Octi right this second.
Dropping to my knee, I collect her ankle, slid her sneaker off, and replaced it with her old shoe she’d left behind. A tiny gasp rushed past her lips.
