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“I was more of a GI Joe dude, but I’ll take your word for it.” I smirk. “I’ve got one more surprise for you if you sit here and behave. Eyes closed.”
“I’m on my best behavior.” She salutes.
This time, I nervously walk behind the large oak tree. Taking deep breaths, I bend down, lift the surprise, and walk back toward the swing. Placing it on the ground before her, I position it carefully and then ask her to open her eyes.
The look on her face is priceless.
Shocked, she falls to her knees.
“How on earth did you get this here?”
“I have my ways.” I grin.
Barely able to speak, she places her hand inside and touches all the small furniture. “This was my dream house. I played with this every day when I was a kid,” she tells me. “I spent hours in my room pretending that when I grew up, I’d live happily ever after in this house. With my Ken.”
I’m beginning to sweat. I don’t fucking look like Ken? Who the hell is Ken anyway? Shit, it’ll only take a few seconds until—
“What’s this?” She leans into the bedroom of the house and pulls out a tiny black box. Even in the dark, I can see her hands shaking. Her eyes move toward mine, and all I can see is the woman I love, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
“I love you, Presley Malone. I know I’m not perfect, and I know I can be a jerk sometimes… okay, a lot of the time. I may not be able to give you a dream house exactly like this, but I can give you all of this.” I wave my hand around to show our house. “It’s not pink, nor is it grand like your perfect home. But it’s ours. And it will forever be the house where all our memories with our son began.”
My beautiful Presley has tears streaming down her face. I choke back my emotions, never expecting this moment to be so intense.
“I’ve never imagined it would be you that I wanted this life with. But I do. I want this rundown bungalow with the crazy ghost lingering in the spare room. I want to work alongside you, building our business and following our dreams. I want our family to be complete. I want everything I never knew I wanted. I can’t promise you any more than to love you and Masen for the rest of my life.”
I take the box from her hand and get down on one knee. She is at my level now, and with my heart thumping loud and my voice cracking under the pressure, I open the box and say the words I’ve been aching to say since the moment I realized I was in love with her.
“You said you wanted more…” I say, barely above a whisper. “I want our crazy life, and I want it with you by my side as my wife. Presley Malone, would you do me the honor of giving me more and marrying me?”
Her panda eyes are clouded with tears, and choking back her sobs, she nods her head as her face beams with happiness. “Yes,” she says with exuberance. “I want everything you just offered me. But most importantly, I want you, Haden.”
Now I’m shaking. This is the moment I’ve waited for, that I’ve doubted for so long and for no absolute fucking reason. She loves me. Me! End of fucking story.
I slide the ring onto her finger. It’s perfect. After all, it belonged to my mom. My dad had this made for her. I barely made any changes. I want the ring on her finger to be something that represents eternal love.
“Haden… this ring is… I have no words.” She continues to stare at it in awe.
“My dad gave it to my mom,” I say quietly.
She looks back up at me and wraps her arms around me, playing with my hair as she plants a soft kiss on my lips.
“You’ve made me so happy, Mr. Cooper.” She grins, then continues, “But ‘more’ doesn’t mean skydiving naked, does it?”
I shake my head and laugh at her. This is why I fucking
love her.
“And when you said crazy ghost in the spare room, you were joking, right?”
“Will you just shut up for a moment so I can kiss my soon-to-be wife?”
I kiss her deeply, not wanting to stop until the sun rises in the morning. But we’re talking about Miss—soon to be Mrs.—Chatterbox. “You’re still a jerk. You know that, right?”
I take her in my arms and lift her into the air, both of us laughing hysterically. She promised to be mine, sealed it with a fucking kiss. And it’s right at this moment that it finally hits me. I never had anything to worry about. She was always going to be mine.
It has been a long journey, but fate just had a fucked-up way of getting us to our destination.
