“What about your wedding?” are his first words to me.
“Ourwedding, you mean?” I correct with a teasing smirk. He starts toward me. “I want to have it somewhere in Vancouver so everyone can attend. Plus, then we can spend more on the actual venue and decorations rather than flying everyone somewhere. And we both know I’m going to be a Bride-zilla. I’ve got standards, Roman. Very high ones.”
“Mm, you do,” he agrees, only an arm’s length away now.
“What about your future?”
“I’m looking at it.”
I roll my lips together, a rough wave of emotion crashing into me. “That was an incredibly romantic thing to say.”
Silence fills the studio. He wraps his hands around mine and brings them to rest against his sternum. I stare at the size difference of our fingers as they interlock and feel a familiar fluttering sensation erupt in my belly. It’s far from the first time I’ve felt this way around him, but it never gets any less incredible.
“I can give you everything in that plan, Brielle. And the things that I can’t guarantee, I promise you that I’ll try and find a way to give them to you. You deserve a life where you have everything you want. That’s my future, and it’s the only one I see for myself.”
I blink away the tears blurring my vision and nod, squeezing his suddenly chilled fingers to warm them. But then he pulls his right one out of my grasp, and I furrow my brows, my confusion already on the tip of my tongue.
He digs that hand into the back pocket of his jeans before lowering himself to one knee.
“My future used to look like empty, beige walls and long nights spent hunched over my office desk. I refused myself happiness for a long time because I didn’t think I deserved it. My world revolved around Evie and making sure she had everything she needed, but then you came along. You showed me what it’s like to not only love, but to be loved. I want a future with splashes of colour on those empty walls because you’ve already coloured my present, and I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as my days with you. You’re everything I feared to want for myself, and I promise you that I will give you that future, starting right here, in this studio. Soft Body needs a place to grow, baby. And I think this is it.
“It needs a lot of work, but you’ve got the help. You can put those creepy mannequins over by the window and a huge pink desk in the centre of the room with your sewing machine and all of your peach pincushions. I’ll paint the walls for you and lay new floors. And the entire time, Evie will be right upstairs, waiting until you’re ready for her to take the photos for that website you were talking about.”
“Roman—”
He shakes his head, clutching onto my hand like he’s afraid I might bolt any moment, when really, my knees are trembling so badly I might collapse.
“This place is yours, and mine, and Evie’s. It’s ours. And that’s how I want to start this life with you, like a real family. I’m making this promise to you right now while I ask you to marry me, Brielle Hayes. Your brother has already given me hisapproval, because I knew you wouldn’t say yes without it. I made him a few promises, too, along with Beck and Finn. Aubrey made your brother look like a teddy bear by the time she was done with me.”
I choke on a sob, nodding without being asked anything yet.
Roman’s grin is blinding when it appears in front of me.
“Be my wife, Brielle. Make me the happiest fucking man on this planet and let me be your husband.”
I don’t look at the ring. It doesn’t matter. He catches me when I launch myself into his arms and knock us both down to the ground.
“Fuck yes,” I declare.
His low, raspy voice floods my chest with warmth as I take his face into my hands and kiss him with all my strength. He weathers the blow without hesitation and slips the ring onto my finger. I grin against his lips and loop my arms around his neck before he starts reclining to the ground.
“Mrs. Roman Shore has a nice ring to it,” I sing, testing it out for the first time.
“Say that again in about two minutes.”
“Why?”
“Because the next time you speak those words, it’s going to be with your fiancé buried inside of you.”
EPILOGUE
ROMAN
ONE MONTH LATER
“I’ve never seenmy sister happier,” Wesley says reverently.
He’s leaning against the table, close enough to me that I can smell the rum on his breath. I don’t tear my eyes from my fiancée as she pulls Aubrey in for a hug and kisses her fiercely on the top of her head.
