Colin’s mouth curved.
Maren pointed at him. “Don’t say it.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“You absolutely were.”
His smile widened. “Every plan is perfect until?—”
“It hits the battlefield,” she finished for him.
“That’s right.”
Maren shook her head, but she was smiling too.
“Ready to go?” Colin asked.
“I am.” She lifted her hand, ostensibly to smooth her hair, but really to admire her brand-new engagement ring for about the seven-hundredth time since he’d put it on her finger.
Colin had proposed the night before.
They’d had dinner in Lyons, just the two of them, which still felt like a miracle. Afterward, they’d walked along the St. Vrain while the last of the day faded from the sky. The sun had set behind the mountains, and the first stars were just beginning to show themselves overhead. The night had been quiet and soft and perfect.
Then Colin suddenly dropped to one knee.
Maren’s heart stopped.
“Are you all right?” she asked, because apparently when the man she loved knelt in front of her on a river path with stars overhead, her brain immediately abandoned ship.
“Yes.” Colin looked up at her, and the love in his eyes nearly undid her before he said another word. “I’ve never been better in my life.”
Maren’s eyes went wide. “Wait a minute. Are you?—”
She covered her mouth as he took a small box from his pocket.
A couple walking a golden retriever slowed down. Another woman on the path stopped outright. Then more people did, because of course they did. One of them even pulled out her phone and started recording.
“Maren Walsh,” Colin said, his voice steady even though the emotion in his eyes was anything but. “I know we met under strange circumstances.”
She laughed helplessly. So did he.
“But I never expected to be as happy as I am right now. I didn’t think that kind of life was still out there for me. Then you came through that gate.” His smile softened. “You and Juni both.”
Maren pressed her hand tighter over her mouth.
“I love you more than I’ve ever loved any woman in my life. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much. I want to be your husband. I want to protect you and support you and stand beside you while we raise Juni into a strong, smart, beautiful woman, just like her mother.”
Her heart damn near pounded out of her chest.
“And I want to be there for both of you,” he said. “If you’ll have me.”
He opened the box.
Maren stared down at the most beautiful rings she had ever seen. They matched the rings worn by Sean’s friends and their wives.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
The stone was an amethyst, the color of lilacs in early spring. The band was white gold, and worked into it in fine relief was a hammock strung between two trees, lilac bushes curling along either side. It was so specific, so entirely hers, that her breath had caught before she could stop it.
