AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She felt his hands fumble at the scarf he’d wrapped around her eyes before leaving the house. When it dropped away, she had to blink against the sun to take in the structure in front ofher.
It was a mess — a Spanish Revival house, probably original to the area, with peeling stucco and a crumbling red tile roof. A plethora of greenery climbed up its walls, making it look like a forbidding Spanish castle from some kind of twistedstorybook.
But beyond the mess, she could already see its beauty: the giant windows that must stretch floor to ceiling inside, the turret that probably let in glorious light in the afternoon, the kind of mature landscape that people paid thousands to replicate and still never got quiteright.
She looked up at Max. “What isthis?”
He drew in a breath. “It’s a house. Foryou.”
“What do you mean forme?”
He shook his head and turned away from her, running a hand through his hair and muttering something before turning back toher.
“I’m doing this all wrong.” He reached into his pocket and knelt on oneknee.
She clasped her hand to her mouth, tears springing to hereyes.
“Abby Sterling, I loved you when you were a little girl, full of fire. I loved you when you were a teenager, even though you were a pain in my ass. I loved you when you took the world by storm, shrugging off all your pain to conquer it. I’ve loved you my whole fucking life, Abby, and my only regret is waiting so long to tell you. What can I say? I’ve always been a fool foryou.”
“Max — ”
“Just… let me finish.Please.”
He looked like he was in pain. Shenodded.
“You’ve proven you can do it alone. No one who knows you could ever doubt it. But now… well, now, I’m hoping you’ll let me help. I’m hoping you’ll let me keep holding your hand and kissing your lips and laughing and holding you when you cry and being by your side no matter what else this life decides to throw our way. And I’m hoping we can do it in this mess of a house, because turning messes around, that’s your specialty, Abby. There’s no bigger proof thanme."
He opened the box in his hand to reveal a ruby on a bed of midnight velvet, crystalline diamonds winking on eachside.
“Will you put me out of my misery once and for all and marry me? Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me? Will you tell me how the hell we’re going to fix up this mess of a house?” She laughed, choking back a sob. “Will you marry me,Abby?”
He shimmered through her tears as she gave him her answer. “Finally!”
He let out a whoop and stood, lifting her into the air and swinging heraround.
The world spun, the house and the desert landscape a happy blur of color as Max’s arms folded aroundher.
He set her down and held her face in his hands, his smile lighting up her world in the moment before he lowered his mouth tohers.
They had come so far together. Their paths had sometimes diverged along the way, but in the end, they’d returned to the beginning, to the place they were meant to be allalong.
And now, finally, they werehome.
TheEnd
