Page 36
I kneel in front of Star’s mat, heart hammering so hard it’s gotta be visible through my shirt. Every neuron in my body is firing at once, and for a split second, I forget how to breathe.
Star blinks, slow, then faster, like she’s rebooting her whole operating system. “Tanner?” she says, and the sound of her voice is the only thing keeping me from passing out cold on this rubber flooring.
I take her hand, careful and reverent, and press it between both of mine. Then I look up into her wild, beautiful eyes and my mouth just… opens. The words spill out, more honest than anything I’ve ever said in my life.
“Star Wilder, you’ve twisted me up like a pretzel since the second I met you. You walked into my life and flipped everything upside-down, and I love you for it. I love your laugh, I love your little weirdo dog, I love the way you pretend you’re not stubborn as hell when everyone knows you are. You brought balance to my crazy, Star. You made me see the point of slowing down and breathing and—” my voice cracks, just for a second “—and I can’t imagine a single day without you in it.”
I reach into my hoodie pocket and find the box. I somehow manage to pop it open with my sweaty palms. Inside, nestled in black velvet, is the ring I picked out after three weeks of agonizing and two hundred texts with Maggie. Emerald cut, deep green, with diamonds on the sides—so it looks exactly like her eyes when she’s about to call me an idiot.
She stares at it, lips parted, tears streaking down her cheeks now.
“I want to spend every morning and every night with you for the rest of my life. I love you more than anything in this world,” I say, because it’s the only thing that matters. “Will you marry me?”
For a second, she just… stands there with her mouth opening and closing silently. Then she launches herself at me, knocking me flat onto my back, arms locked around my neck so tight I almost lose consciousness. The ring box goes flying, but I don’t even care.
“Yes, you idiot,” she sobs, laughing and crying and kissing my face all at once. “Yes, yes, yes.”
The entire studio erupts. Cole lets out a whoop loud enough to shake the windows. Todd actually punches the air and yells, “Touchdown!” Maggie’s got her phone up and is already live-streaming the proposal to her entire contacts list. Flint claps so hard it echoes, and Saoirse is crying, too.
Hudson stands up, dusts imaginary lint from his sleeve, and gives me the tiniest nod, like, “You did good, little brother.” It means more than any actual speech could.
With hands only slightly less shaky, I slide the ring onto her finger. It fits perfectly. The green stone catches the light and flashes, almost radioactive.
I lean in and whisper, “Told you I was serious about waking up with you every morning.”
She grins, all sunshine and messy hair and way too many emotions for one face. “I love you, Tanner Carrington,” she says, and kisses me hard, right in front of everybody.
The entire studio blurs out. All I see is her. All I feel is the rightness of this moment.
When we finally break apart, she’s breathless and beaming and already showing the ring off to Maggie, who is narrating the whole thing like an Olympic sport. “Ten out of ten proposal,” Maggie tells me. “Extra points for not passing out.”
Star’s still clinging to my hand, and I don’t ever want her to let go. My heart finally settles, not because I’m calm, but because it’s found exactly where it belongs.
