“You don’t have to give up your work,” Jason said. “This can be my home base whenever I’m not working. My home. With you. And our children. I’ll choose projects carefully, so that I can be with you as much as possible.”
“Are you sure?”
“This is my home. Anywhere you are is my home,” Jason said. “But being here with you has made everything clear. I love my work, but not as much as I love you.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand to silence her. “Before you say anything, I have a question.”
He dropped to one knee and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small box. When he lifted the lid, a sparkling diamond twinkled at her under the winter light. “Mauve Callahan, will youmarry me? Make a home and family with me? Please say you will.”
“I will.”
He took hold of her hand, and they both laughed when they realized she had gloves on. She hastily got rid of her left glove, tossing it on the snow and holding out her now ungloved left hand, beaming at him.
“I’m ready,” Mauve said.
He slid the ring on her finger and then stood to pull her into his arms, kissing her.
“Can we make this work?” Mauve asked.
“Are you willing to make a few sacrifices?”
“Yes. You know I am.”
“Then we can make it work. We’ve been ridiculous, letting our old demons hack away at our logic. And our love. I don’t want to lose you. Not now. Not ever.”
“I’m here. With you,” Mauve said. “Where I’m supposed to be.”
He launched into his prepared speech about how long the Prague shoot would be and that maybe she could come out for a week or so in the middle if she had vacation time.
“I do,” she said.
“After that, I have a month before I have to get back to filming the show. We usually film for two weeks and then have a week off. I’ll come home every chance I get. In the meantime, Roan will help you supervise the house build. He’s already offered to be there for whatever you need.”
“Oh, Jason, this means I can be here for Reese’s baby.”
“And hopefully one of our own.” He took her hand and walked over to a spot by the creek. “I’m imagining the kitchen will be here so we can have a view of the mountains while we’re making dinner or whatever.” He walked her another ten feet. “And this would be the great room, if you want that style. We canhave a bank of windows here to catch the morning light. At the back of the house, we can put in a patio to watch the sun set.”
“What about my little house? I’ll miss it.”
“I had an idea about that too. If you wanted, and they were open to it, we could give it to your mom and David. It would be a great second home for them.”
“And that way I wouldn’t have to give up something I’m so proud of.” She smiled up at him. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“Do you like the ring? We can have it set however you’d like, but I wanted you to have the diamond to get started.”
She held up her hand, the diamond casting droplets of light in every direction. “This one is just fine. I love it. Even if it’s a little big.”
“Go big or go home, right? Also, in case I haven’t mentioned it, I love you.” He pulled her close again and kissed her.
They remained that way, wrapped in each other’s arms as the sun settled lower on the horizon, creating bars of gold through the trees. She knew with certainty. This was the man to build a life and family with. Grow old sitting on their front porch holding hands.
“Can we have rocking chairs on the front porch?” Mauve asked. “Actually, can we have a front porch? I’ve always wanted a front porch.”
“Of course we can. We’ll have rocking chairs and a porch swing, in case the kids want to sit with us,” Jason said.
He kissed her again before they settled down on the log to eat sandwiches and toast each other with cold champagne. Never in her life had she imagined a love like this one or the utter joy it would bring to her ordinary life. She hadn’t seen it coming that day last year when she’d met him for the first time, sharing laughs over a pizza. In fact, she would never have believed it if someone had told her that a year later they’d be engaged.
The sun was setting behind the mountains when they finally packed up their picnic and headed back toward town. When they arrived at her house, all the lights were on and she could see people moving about behind the windows.
