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Maybe it would fade with time, this consuming need to be with her as much as I could, but it wouldn’t be today. I watched her tug on her tennis shoes and wrap a tie around all her dark hair until it was in a sloppy bun on the top of her head.
She wore the same Miss Piggy shirt from one of their first days at the house, and as I stood there staring at her, my heart started racing behind my ribs. I rubbed at my chest, my throat suddenly dry.
If I started counting how many hours and days I’d spent with Harlow, it would make my head spin. It didn’t matter how much our lives we’d been apart, but this woman was embedded so deep inside me. Whatever I was made of, whatever made me me, she was a part of it. The best part.
There was something about realizing you’d found your person, that forever started the moment you met. I wanted all these forever moments, wanted to make them count and live a life that made the most of even the most insignificant day.
“Marry me,” I said in a rough voice.
Her head snapped up. “What?”
I went down onto one knee in front of her, where her hands were still holding the laces of her shoes. Slowly, she dropped them and sat up straighter, her trembling hands reaching for mine when I reached out.
“Marry me,” I said again. “Today.”
Harlow exhaled a short laugh. “Ian, are you being serious right now?”
It felt like I was wearing my heart outside my chest, and the violent way it beat was the loudest thing in the room. “I love you,” I told her. “And I don’t need some big fancy wedding to make this mean more. We’ve already made it pretty clear to our families that we’re never going to follow the expected path. If you want to keep it between us and we’ll have a party for everyone else later, I’ll do whatever you want. Or if it’s too fast and you want the fancy dress in a church, God, I’ll wait but I don’t want to wait long. You’re already my partner, my best friend,” I said fervently, “but I want to call you my wife.”
A tear spilled over her cheek, and she emitted a watery laugh. “I don’t need a big fancy wedding either,” she whispered. With her free hand, she cupped the side of my face. “You mean it?”
I pressed my forehead to hers and sighed when she wrapped her arms around my neck and tugged me closer. My arms banded around her as we held each other there. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
She pulled back with a wide smile on her face. “Let’s do it,” she said.
“Think Sage will be bummed if we head to the courthouse before lunch?”
Harlow stood and tugged me to my feet, throwing herself in my arms. “Are you kidding? She’s going to freak.”
And she was right.
Sage stared at us with wide, unblinking eyes when we pulled up to the courthouse after leaving school. She had hair falling out of her double braids, and the arm of her shirt was coated in grass stains.
“What are we doing here?” she whispered.
Harlow and I glanced at each other, sharing a quick smile. Harlow had swapped the Miss Piggy shirt for a simple white sweater and her dark jeans. I was wearing a black shirt.
“How do you feel about courthouse weddings in the middle of the week?” Harlow asked.
Sage’s eyes moved from us to the building and then back again. Her chin wobbled. “Just us?” she whispered.
I held out my fist. “Just us.”
She burst into tears, dropping her face into her hands. Harlow was out of the front seat in an instant, sliding into the back seat with her daughter, who flung her arms around her mom the moment she could.
“You’re really getting married?” she said between sobs.
“We want to,” Harlow said. “I know it’s fast, honey, and if it feels too fast?—”
“No,” Sage said frantically, “it feels exactly perfect.”
The pressure on my chest eased, and I cupped the side of her head while Harlow brushed at the tears on her cheeks. Once she’d taken a few deep breaths, Harlow gave me another sweet smile.
“Should I fix my braids?” Sage asked.
I shook my head. “No way. You look exactly perfect.”
She smiled, and we got out of the car. Hand in hand with Harlow, and Sage tucked into my side with her arm around my waist, we looked up at the simple building.
