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Everly (1 month later)
“Hurry up. We have to be ready for their call.” I tugged on Wyatt’s arm.
He shut his laptop and turned to me with a lopsided grin. “Sorry, I lost track of time. I was just in the middle of writing this epic scene where Baylor beheads the Zovian queen and reveals that he was secretly helping Serena and William all along.”
“You’re so hot when you talk StarFire to me.” I leaned over and gave him a lingering kiss. “But only you would be distracted by work when we’re in the middle of paradise.” I gestured to the surrounding beach and ocean. This past Christmas, Wyatt surprised me with tickets to Queensland, Australia, to visit the Great Barrier Reef. And that’s how we’d ended up celebrating New Year’s in a cottage by the sea on the opposite side of the world.
Wyatt pulled me into his lap and kissed my shoulder. “Perhaps. But I’m not the one who brought her knitting to the beach.”
It was true. When they sent me home to rest after the accident, I’d got so bored that I finally asked Indie to teach me how to knit. I wasn’t great at it yet, but I had just mastered how to knit and purl. At the moment, I was making a scarf for myself, which, judging by the rate I was knitting, would be ready by next Christmas.
My phone rang, and I leapt out of Wyatt’s lap and answered it.
“She’s here!” Indie called out.
The image jiggled, and Joy’s face came on the screen. “You look good. Nice and tan.”
“Thanks.”
Quinn’s face replaced Joy’s. “Have you seen any sea turtles?”
I nodded. “Wyatt and I went out on a glass-bottom boat yesterday, and a sea turtle swam right beside us.” It was a dream come true; I could still picture it gliding through the water.
“Forget the wildlife.” Indie’s face reappeared on the screen. “How about you and Wyatt? Are you having a wild time?”
“Is she asking about us?” Wyatt wrapped his arms around my waist. “Everly and I are having a wonderful time, aren’t we?”
I giggled when my friends unanimously sighed over the phone.
“I knew this dating pact was a good idea when I came up with it.” Indie leaned back on the couch and grinned.
She was kind of right. I’d ended up with Wyatt, but the other guys they’d selected for me had been completely off the mark.
“Can we get a tour?” Joy asked. “I want to see the beach.”
I pulled away from Wyatt. “Sure. The sand here is lighter colored and finer.” I held out the phone and panned across the pristine beach and turquoise-blue waters.
“Hey! Is that a shell on the ground?” Joy asked.
I peered ahead and squinted. “It is. Wow. You have amazing eyesight.”
“Let’s see it!” Indie yelled. “I want to see what an Australian shell looks like.”
I’d known Indie for years but had never seen her that excited over a shell. “Probably not that different from the shells in California.” With a chuckle, I walked over to pick up the shell and noticed a small golden hinge on its side.
How strange. “This isn’t a shell. It’s a box…”
“Open it.” Wyatt appeared at my side. “Here, give me the phone. Looks like you’ll need two hands.”
“Sure.” I slid the phone into his hand. “This is fun. I feel like I’m on a treasure hunt.” I wrapped my fingers around the top and bottom of the shell and tugged it open to reveal a rose gold ring with a pink stone nestled inside.
Wait. Was this…?
Wyatt placed the phone on the ground and dropped to one knee. “Everly, you are the love of my life. You’re my best-friend love, my uncomplicated love, my we-walked-through-fire-and-made-it-out-together love. You’re the love that I want to fall asleep next to and the love that makes me glad to be awake. The love that pushes me to dream, to create, and to become a better man. You are my yesterday love, my today love, and hopefully, my forever love. Everly Juniper Knight, will you make me the happiest man in the world by agreeing to be my wife?”
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I gazed down at the man I trusted with all my heart and I’d never felt so sure of anything in my life. “Yes, Wyatt Thomas Alexander, of course I’ll marry you.”
Screams and shrieks of delight emerged from my phone.
Wyatt’s arms were instantly around me, and his lips met mine.
“You planned all of this?” I asked.
He rested his forehead against mine and kissed me again. “When you agreed to come to Australia with me, I knew this was where I wanted to promise you forever. And because I know how much you love your friends, I figured out a way for them to be a part of it too.” He looked down at my phone. “Although I think they’ve hung up already. Sorry about that; I know you were looking forward to talking to them.”
I nipped his bottom lip and grinned. “Oh, don’t worry about them. I can think of a few things we can do, just the two of us.”
