“You thinking about today?” he asks.
I exhale slowly, watching my breath curl into the cool air.
“I’m thinking about how lucky I am,” I murmur. “I don’t know if I ever imagined a life like this.”
He shifts, pressing a slow kiss to the side of my neck, his lips warm against my skin. “You deserve all of it.”
I close my eyes, leaning into him. “So do you.”
He lets out a breath that’s more laughter than anything, his arms tightening around me.
Then, softly, like he’s known the answer all along, he whispers?—
“Marry me.”
My whole body stills.
Slowly, I turn in his arms, looking up at him.
And what I see takes my breath away.
His blue eyes burn with something deep, something sure, something that’s always been there but now—now it’s brighter than ever.
His hands settle on my hips, grounding me. “I was going to wait until I had some big, perfect plan. Something fancy, something . . .” He shakes his head. “But that’s not us, is it?”
I laugh softly, shaking my head.
His lips curve into that half-smirk, the one that’s always wrecked me, but his voice is soft when he says, “I want you. Forever. Under this sky, on this land, with Maddie, with our life . . . I want it all, Nysa. I want you to be my wife.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until he wipes a tear from my cheek with his thumb.
I grab his wrist, holding him there, grounding myself in this.
“You sure?” I whisper, just to hear him say it again.
He huffs out a quiet laugh, his forehead pressing to mine.
“Nysa, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.”
He pulls something from his pocket—a small velvet box—but he doesn’t open it right away.
Instead, he just holds it between us, his gaze locked on mine.
“This isn’t just for me,” he murmurs. “It’s for Maddie. It’s for us. It’s for the life we’re building.”
His voice catches on those last words, and that’s what undoes me.
Not the ring.
Not the perfect, swoony words.
But him.
The way he loves me.
Instead of answering, I pull him down into a kiss that says everything.
Yes.
