Page 819 of End Game

“You told me you weren't changing your name. You weren't moving into my room. You weren't wearing a ring.”

Her mouth trembles.

“I told you all of that was optional.”

“You did.”

“And it still is.”

I reach into my pocket.

Her eyes widen.

The look on her face almost completely derails every word I've practiced.

I manage to get the box open without dropping it down the side of the mountain.

Inside is the ring I have spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at over the last few weeks—a deep blue-green sapphire in a simple setting, dark enough to shift color when the light changes, with small diamonds on either side.

Not traditional.

Not particularly delicate.

Very Cami.

She covers her mouth. “Oh my God.”

“The first time, the marriage solved a problem.” My throat tightens. “Then somewhere along the way, it became the best thing I've ever done.”

A tear slips down her cheek.

I swipe it away with my thumb.

“I don't need to fix anything for you now. You don't need my insurance to survive. You don't need my house. You have your own career, your own money, three other men who would probably help you dispose of my body if I pissed you off badly enough—”

She laughs through the tears. “Probably?”

“Dex is a definite yes. Ronan would ask about evidence disposal first.”

“Fair.”

I take her left hand.

It's bare.

It always has been.

That's the part that nearly gets me.

She told me she didn't want a ring before I had any right to want her to wear one.

I meant it when I told her she didn't owe me that.

I mean it now too.

“This time I want to ask because I love you. Because I want to stand up in front of the people who love us and say it when we're not solving an emergency. I want the party and the pictures and whatever weird shit Dex tries to sneak into the reception.”

Her laugh breaks again.