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Derek bends and presses a silencing kiss to my lips. “It’s not a mistake. You know how I know?”
I eye his beautiful face. His sharp cheekbones, the scar above his eyebrow. My heart aches with love for him. “How?”
“Because on the way home, I felt a knot in my chest loosen for the first time in years. It’s true, I didn’t plan for this—but I’m grateful it happened the way it did. I’ve had such a great career in football, and now I’m ready for a change, Nora. I want it. A new adventure. I just needed the push in the right direction. And I know you could have fixed this yourself another way. I know it likely would have blown over just fine in a few weeks. But I didn’t want you to weather a storm for any length of time when I had a perfectly good solution right at my fingertips.”
I want to weep. In fact, I am. “You can’t do it for me, Derek. It’s too much. You’ll resent me.”
“I could never resent you, Nora. And if it helps you sleep better at night—remember that I’m an arrogant asshole and I’d much rather end my football career on the heels of playing the best game of my life than when I’m washed up.” He smooshes my cheeks together. “I’m happy, Ginger Snap. I’m so damn happy. I want this for me. I’m so ready for this change. Ready to see what else I have to offer in this world.”
“But if you’re not…if you’re regretting it—Iwill…I will go to the Sharks right now and tell them you made a mistake.”
He kisses my forehead. “No mistake, Nora. None. This is what Iwant. Even if you break up with me here and now, I’ll stay retired. I’m so tired of striving at max effort every damn day. I’ve loved my football career, but I need to see what else is out there for me. It’s just time.”
I sigh, wanting to protest more. Feeling like I should do everything I can to make him change his mind. But I have to admit, his eyes are convincing. He seems like he genuinely wants this.
“Okay, but just know you’re allowed to still change your mind tonight. Or tomorrow. Or even next week.”
“Noted. But right now, all I want to do is go inside with my girl and lie on the couch and watch something chill on TV.”
He takes my hand, ready to pull me with him into the house.
But I can’t move. I can’t do anything other than what I’ve wanted to do since the night on our honeymoon when he told me hazel was his favorite color.
Derek pauses when he feels the tug of my hand and turns around—finding me down on one knee. The cement is sharp and hot under it, but I don’t care. I love the bite of it in this moment.
His brows pull together and then immediately soften when he realizes what I’m doing. “Derek Pender…I know we’re already married but—”
His hand juts out and covers my mouth. “Wait.Is this happening because you feel guilty about my retirement?” I shake my head. “Did you want to do this yesterday? Before any of this drama today? Or did the idea only just occur to you?”
I nod, and then frown and shake my head. He releases my mouth so I can answer. “Yes, to wanting to do it yesterday—no to it being a recent development. Can I finish proposing to you now?”
“No,” he says simply, and bends to scoop me up in his arms and carry me inside.Confusing.He marches me all the way to the livingroom and then deposits me on the couch and tells me to stay here. But then he turns back, brackets my body with his hands, and kisses me tenderly.“Please.”
And then he’s jogging up toward his room and I’m left here on the couch to twiddle my thumbs, thinking this must be the weirdest proposal ever. He doesn’t leave me here long, though. And when he emerges from the top of the stairs, the look in his eyes has my heart shifting into fourth gear.
“I had to get something from my bedside table,” he says meaningfully while moving to stand in front of me.
I know my eyes are lit up like stars right now. Who cares if he interrupted my proposal…I finally get to see what—
Oh.
Derek drops to one knee. And then he pulls a little black velvet box from behind his back. “You don’t mind if I pick up where you left off, do you?” He smiles, and every drop of blood in my veins rushes to accommodate my bursting heart. “I know we’re already married, Nora. But it would mean the entire world to me if you would stay married to me. For real. For always. For eternity. Stay with me. Let me love you fully and desperately forever and ever.”
He pops the top of the black box, and a shiny diamond ring sparkles up at me.
My lips tremble as I look between the engagement ring and Derek’s sharp blue eyes. “This was what the guys found in your bedside table? This is the embarrassing thing?”
“I never said it was embarrassing. I said when I gave it to you, it would change everything. Because this…this ring belongs to you—and it always has. I bought it for you in college.”
“What?” I breathe out. “You…you were going to propose?”
He nods. “The day you broke up with me actually.” He grins at the horrified look on my face. “There was a proposal waiting for you onthe other side of my apartment door with way too many flowers. It’s part of why I didn’t ask you to come in and talk it all out after you said you wanted to end it. This ring”—he raises it—“was in my back pocket.”
“No.”The word comes out as a breath. “Derek. That’s heartbreaking.”
Sensing my guilt, he tips forward, clutching the ring box in one hand and my face in the other so he can kiss me back into the present. “No shame—no guilt, Nora. Everything happened exactly as it was supposed to, I’m confident of that now. If I had proposed to you back then, everything would have been a mess. We weren’t right for each other then, but I plan on working every day to be the right person for you now.”
I loosen a breath lodged in my throat. “You’ve held on to this ring all this time?”
