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I don’t even know where the damned thing is, and here I am dragging her down into the freezing cold.
“Sorry, Ethan. I didn’t mean to sound mean,” she murmurs, hugging closer to me as I open and close some drawers.
“I thought it was— Ah! Here it is,” I exclaim, and I feel Krissy perking up, suddenly sharing my enthusiasm, even though it’s not quite how I planned this to go so far.
“What is it?” she asks, and I feel my own body shiver, nerves, not from the cold.
“It’s a…It’s something that’s been in the family for a lot longer than this place has been here,” I tell her.
“It’s also something, not a lot of my relatives, being bachelor’s for life, ever got to put to use,” I add, feeling pretty proud of myself for being the first in generations to do what I’m about to do.
“What is it?” Krissy squeaks, her eyes wide and alert again once she sees how carefully I’m holding the faded leather box.
“Ethan?” she asks, clasping her hands over mine as I hold the little box, tiny in my fingers, but I just know it’s a perfect fit for her.
“I want you to open this, Krissy. But only after you hear what I have to say,”
Her brow furrows, but her expression shifts to something else once she senses what I’m really saying.
Once she realizes I’m not fooling around this time.
“It’s only been a day, Krissy. And I feel like I’ve known you forever,” I tell her truthfully.
“And if every day’s like this past one has been, then I’m the luckiest man alive, living each day with you…So from now on, if you’ll have me?” I ask her.
I watch her mouth fall open, and her eyes blink slowly.
“Krissy, I know it’s a little soon, but think about it? Meeting you, hell even claiming you is one thing, but I want more and more of you, forever…I want you to be mine forever, properly. Like man and wife forever,” I finally manage to get out.
Falling over my words, but hoping she gets my meaning.
Hoping she catches just how important this is to me from the tone of my voice.
But her sudden silence bothers me, and I almost convince myself I’m moving way too fast for her.
She takes one of my hands and lays it flat on her belly, quiet for a while longer until she looks up at me.
My heart’s thumping against my ribs, and my mouth is suddenly so dry I don’t even think I could say something even if I had the words.
Waiting for her to tell me something, anything. It feels like forever.
But only because she’s really thinking things through.
“I never had family,” she finally says softly, looking into my eyes.
“And the baby I know you put in me isn’t gonna be without a proper mom and dad,” she says. “That’s if you’re asking me what I think you’re asking me?”
“Open it,” I whisper, pressing the box into her hands and watching her lift the lid.
But she doesn’t even look at the ring. Not at first. She doesn’t have to.
And my answer is in her eyes long before it reaches my ears.
“I love you, Ethan… And yes, yes, I’ll spend every day with you, forever. As your friend, as your lover,” she blushes. “And as your wife. If that’s what you’re asking me?” she says again, knitting her brow.
I get on one knee for her, knowing I’d crawl across hot coal to ask her the same thing.
“Krissy? Will you marry me? Will you be my wife?” I ask her, slipping the diamond and emerald ring over her finger.
It fits perfectly.
“Yes,” she whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear, but only because she’s choking back tears.
Tears I kiss away before I scoop her up.
I carry her upstairs as she tells me repeatedly, “Yes. Yes, yes!”
My Lucky Charm, my reason for everything now. The first Mrs. Silverthorne in a brand new family starts with us.
“I love you, Krissy,” I tell her again.
“And you’ll see every day just how much I love you, Ethan,” she replies.
Holding her ringed finger to her heart, I take us both back to bed.
With the family line assured, a reason to finish the estate and plenty of money and time to do it with. I figure we can spend the day in bed.
Thinking about the future, as well as a few other things.
EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER
Krissy
Ethan wasn’t putting any pressure on me to marry him quickly, but finishing the little chapel on the estate was his first project once I said yes.
And by a chapel, I mean like a church.
We’re not overly religious or anything, but restoring the whole place to its new and former glory is important to Ethan. And to the next generation of Silverthorne’s.
With no family to be there for either of us, Ethan only made a face when I suggested some of his friends or business associates be invited. It turns out to be just us, the priest, and a few of the long-term staff that are the closest to a family that either Ethan or myself has ever come close to who will witness us tying the knot.
