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What will she say? Is this the beginning, or the end?
“Come on,” I whisper, climbing from the canoe and then reaching down for her.
She gives me a daring look as she takes my hand as if she’s ready for anything. Maybe she thinks I’ve brought her all the way out here just to claim that curvy body again… and I will, once I’ve asked the most important question of my life.
Squeezing her hand tightly around mine, she follows me as I walk toward the forest, between the pine trees. The underbrush crunches and squelches as we walk, and Rayla giggles as I spin around and lift her into my arms.
She clutches onto my chest, smiling down at me, and then her smile shifts. Her eyes widen as we round the corner and the scene comes into view.
She just felt it – the ring, in my pocket. She just felt it.
Fuck.
I guess it’s now or never.
I put her down and gesture to the clearing.
I’ve placed an oak table and chairs here, with a silver platter and a bottle of champagne on ice to cool. She’s twenty but this is a special occasion – one that will never be repeated.
“I wanted to wine and dine you first,” I tell her, smoothing the wild hair from her face as she stares up at me. “But I think fate’s just made the choice for me, angel, just like it always does with us.”
Her eyes sparkle as she tries to hold back her tears.
She turns to the table and then back to me.
“This is beautiful. Like a little world all to ourselves.”
“Of course,” I whisper passionately. “That’s what we had in the cabin, a universe all our own, and that’s what I want with you for the rest of our lives. I love you, Rayla. I love you more than anything.”
She gasps and stares up at me, her mouth hanging open. “What?”
I chuckle, moving forward. “You didn’t hear me? I said I love you, angel.”
My hands make deep impressions on her hips as I pull us closer together, so intimately connected now I can feel her heartbeat hammering against my midriff.
“I love you too,” she whispers. “So much.”
A weight drops away from me, all the pressure of her answer releasing in a torrent. “Thank God.”
“You’re surprised?” She gasps. “Of course I love you, Roman. I’ve loved you for freaking years, it feels like. I know that’s impossible. But it feels like forever. I was waiting – hoping, praying – for you to say it so I could say it back. I love you so, so much.”
“I love you,” I growl, and then take a step back.
She lets out a whimpering noise when I fall to one knee, reach into my pocket and curl my hand around the ring box.
“Before I met you, I had this emptiness inside of me, Rayla. I can’t explain what it was. It was like a hole, a black hole, sucking away the goodness of so much of my life. Maybe it’s always been there, but I was able to beat it back. But then the writing stopped, the words stopped, and I knew only a miracle would bring it back.
“That’s what you are, my perfect woman. You’re my miracle. You’ve changed me for the better in a hundred different ways. You’re kind and funny and sassy and shy, talented, beautiful, and mine. Forever.”
“Forever,” she whispers.
“Which is why I had to talk to your mom privately and ask her for something very important. I had to ask her for her blessing.”
A sob cracks in the back of her throat as I reveal the ring box, opening it to display the elegant diamond set within the glistening band. It cost a whole year’s worth of royalties, this elegant and full ring, and it was worth it.
She’s worth the world.
“Rayla Davis, make me the happiest man alive and become my wife. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she cries, throwing herself at me. “Yes, yes, yes.”
I chuckle and catch her as we both roll around in the grass, wrapping my arms around her and somehow finding her lips in the mayhem. She giggles and sits up on top of me, staring down with that just-Rayla mixture of hope and love, warmth, and perfection.
Her eyes are alight as she stares down, and then she looks off to the side.
“Where is it? Oh, no, I haven’t lost it, have it?”
I smirk. “You knocked the ring box out of my hand, angel, but I managed to save this.”
I produce the ring with a flourish and reach up for her hand, laughing when I realize I’ve got the wrong one. She giggles and offers me her left hand, and then I slide the ring on, my soul singing as it glistens down at me.
Then I sit up, wrapping my arms around her so she’s straddling me, so we’re as close as it’s physically possible for two people to get.
