She sits.
I slide the eggs onto her plate next to the bacon and the biscuit, fill her coffee a second time, and sit down across from her with my own plate.
She eats.
Her fork moves and her hand goes to her coffee and I'm finding it hard to look anywhere else.
She catches me on the next pass of her fork to her mouth. "You're staring."
I take a slow drink from my coffee. "I'm lookin'."
She huffs a small laugh into her coffee. "Same thing."
"It isn't." I set the cup down.
She bites the biscuit. "What is it this morning, then?"
I rest my forearms on the table and look at her across it. "I'm tryin' to figure out the right moment."
Her fork stops halfway to her mouth.
She sets it down on the edge of the plate. Slowly.
She doesn't ask what I mean.
Her chin lifts. Her hand goes flat against the table next to her plate and stays there.
Her eyes don't leave mine.
She's the steadiest woman I've ever known.
I stand up from the table.
I don't kneel yet. Not yet.
I walk around to her side and reach down to take her hand and pull her up out of the chair so she's standing in front of me at the kitchen window, with the morning light coming through behind her.
I take off my hat and set it on the table.
A man doesn't propose to a woman with his hat on.
Her eyes follow the hat down and then come back to my face and the gold flecks in them are catching the light.
I put my hands on her hips and pull her closer. My forehead comes down against hers and stays there. "Hadley."
"Silas."
I take a breath. Her hands come up to my forearms and her fingers close around them.
"I escaped my old life to build something new. A new life, I suppose. I even built this cabin with my own hands. I figured I'd die in it alone."
She doesn't move.
"Then you walked across the gravel."
Her hand comes up to my chest and stays there flat against the place where my heart is going harder than it has any business going.
"I'm goin' into a fight tomorrow that I might not come back from. You know that. I know that."
