Sawyer kisses me quickly, then releases me and heads into the kitchen. “I think we should break this in.”
“Sawyer, you have to wash that first.”
“Nah, I’ll just rinse it. It’ll be fine. Hot water kills stuff, right? Well, I just made this coffee, so it’s good and hot.” He rinses the cup in the sink, then pours steaming hot coffee into it. Reaching up, he pulls down a paper cup and adds coffee before offering it to me and lifting his new one to his lips.
“I cannot believe you didn’t wash it first.”
“I’ve drunk out of worse before. I’m pretty sure they don’t wash canteens before issuing them.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I washed it before I put it into the box.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “You know me all too well, Knox.”
“Same, Maddox.”
We stand in silence for a moment, just staring at each other. Nothing is said, but I’ve found that with Sawyer, words aren’t really necessary.
“Are you ready to open on Monday?”
“I am. Excited to get my hands dirty again.”
I laugh. “What a crime it is for a mechanic to have clean hands.”
He grins. “I never said they were clean.”
My stomach flips, and my pulse hammers when he sets his mug aside and crosses over toward me. Sawyer places each hand on either side of me, caging me in. Still, I’ve never felt so free as I do right now, safe in his arms.
He leans down and rests his forehead against mine. “Marry me, Knox.”
His words hit me hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. “What?”
Sawyer pulls away and takes the coffee from me, then sets it aside before taking both of my hands in his and kneeling on the floor in front of me. “Marry me. I have a ring. It’s not with me right now. It’s up in my apartment. But I got your mom and Zane’s blessing last week. I was going to?—”
I drop down and throw my arms around his neck to press my lips to his.
“Is that a yes?” he asks when I pull away.
“Yes, Sawyer! Yes, I will marry you.”
He laughs and stands, lifting me into his arms as he does. His mouth on mine, he sets me on the counter and steps up between my legs to kiss me again. “Baby, I will do everything I can to deserve you.”
“You already do,” I reply as I take his handsome face into my hands. “I love you so much, Sawyer.”
“I love you, too.” He kisses me again, and I lose myself in it, the future right here in my arms.
It doesn’t escape me that, once upon a time, we were only friends.
Two friends who bet everything on each other…and won.
Epilogue: Sawyer
Sunday morning has quickly become my favorite time of the week. Walking into a church no longer feels like a weight, and I don’t see the people in the pews as monsters hidden in plain sight anymore.
I’ve come a long way from being a man who struggled to see past my own pain. But now, everywhere I look, I can see God’s goodness. His light shining through even the darkest of circumstances.
Anastasia’s fingers are threaded through mine, her head on my shoulder as we sit side-by-side in a pew a few rows back from the front. Zane and Tessa are on my other side, while Momma Knox and Marlene are beside Anastasia.
Garrison and Katelyn are watching from home, their brand-new baby in their arms.
