“Then before I kiss you senseless…”
He drops to one knee.
“Seraphina Clark, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
The tears are pouring down my cheeks. I smile through them, nod my head as I try to choke out a “yes.”
“Do you still have the ring?”
I step away and wipe at my cheeks with the backs of my hands as I pulled my skirt to one side and reach into my pocket. I slide the ring off the chain and place it in his palm, much like I did just a few nights ago. But tonight, instead of grief and heartache, there’s love. Love and a happiness so incredible I feel like I might burst.
“I asked your father for your hand tonight.”
My mouth drops open. “What?”
“I asked Jessica to introduce us. Your mother likes me. Your father threatened to drop me off on some obscure Midwestern highway if I ever hurt you again. And then he gave me his blessing.” He nods toward the ring in his hand. “May I?”
He slides the ring onto my finger, his eyes reverent as he looks up at me. “Even before I could admit to myself that I was in love with you, I chose the emerald for you.”
I gaze down at the ring, glittering up at me as if celebrating that it’s back where it belongs. And then I look at Aiden as he rises and cups my face once more in his hands. The man who did one of the most incredible acts of love and vulnerability I’ve ever seen just to show me he wanted to try.
“I love you, Aiden.”
“And I love you, Seraphina.” He leans down, kisses my brow. “Now, I believe I promised I was going to kiss you senseless.”
His kiss is everything, full of desire and love and a promise so sweet I can hardly believe the turn my life has taken. I performed my dance tonight thinking it was a goodbye.
But now, as Aiden whispers his love against my lips, I know our future is just beginning.
Epilogue
Aiden
Five years later
WAVES RUSH UPthe golden beach of Bibione before retreating back into the Adriatic Sea. The shushing of the water kindles distant memories of running up and down the sand, giggling as my parents chased me on one of our only vacations to the Jersey Shore.
The memory is bittersweet, one of the few happy ones that includes my father. But instead of shoving it away, I embrace it, latch on to the tiny details I suppressed for so long. The warmth of the sand beneath my feet. The sweet scent of Mom’s perfume.
“Daddy!”
I turn, a big smile spreading across my face as Shaun runs across the beach as fast as his three-year-old legs will carry him. I crouch down and open my arms, a laugh escaping as my son throws himself against my chest.
“Are you enjoying the beach?” I ask as I stand up with him clinging to me like a spider monkey.
“Yup!” he replies with a big grin. “I love sand.”
I run my hand through his thick brown curls, grimacing at the granules of sand that shower down over his shoulders.
“I noticed.”
I smile when I see my wife slowly walking toward us. More like waddling, although I’ll never tell her that. Seraphina’s pregnancy with Shaun had been textbook-perfect. But this one has challenged her. Small wonder given that she’s carrying two babies this time instead of one.
“I think he’s gotten faster,” she says, her voice slightly breathless as she reaches us.
Her stomach is round even though she still has four months to go The wind catches her hair and pulls loose strands of gold across her face. Dark half-moons are etched in the fragile skin beneath her eyes.
She’s stunning. Gorgeous. Possessiveness grips me as her hand slides down to her stomach.
