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My heart stopped beating. Turning to face me, he lowered himself to one knee and took my hands into his.
“Marry me, Lark O'Bannion.”
We were too young, we hadn't lived out in the real world yet, we'd only known each other and there were a lot of fish in the sea, it was first love and rarely was first love your forever love. I knew all the arguments, agreed with them, but yet staring into his beautiful face, I knew with absolute certainty that Bastian was it for me. He was my home and no one would ever mean to me what he did, even if I lived countless lifetimes. I dropped to my knees and brushed my lips over his. “Yes.”
Our friends could tell my answer when Bastian lifted me into his arms and kissed me senseless.
***
That night Mr. and Dr. Wright asked if Bastian and I would sit with them for a talk. Earlier, Poppy had had her phone to her ear as soon as I had said yes, calling her parents to share the news. Once we were settled in Mr. Wright’soffice, Dr. Wright appeared with a bottle of champagne and four glasses. She silently poured everyone a glass before she lifted hers.
“Congratulations, Bastian and Lark. We can honestly say we think you are perfect for each other.”
We sipped the champagne in a toast before Mr. Wright cleared his throat, his expression turning very serious.
“With that being said, we would like to ask you to consider waiting a few years before getting married. At this time in your life, the next few years are critical with college and the start of your careers. To lose focus now could change the course of your lives forever. There's no reason you can't put your ring on her finger, Bastian, but when you make it official in front of God and family, you start to think about white picket fences and children. There's time for that, but not when you're just getting started. You're both adults and can obviously do as you will, but we thought we'd be failing you if we didn't at least mention it.”
Bastian looked over at me, his expression tender and determined. “I can wait, I'd wait forever for you.”
All of my life I'd only ever wanted somewhere to belong. Who could have known that what I was searching for wasn't a place but a person. “I've been waiting a long time for you, so waiting a little longer is okay with me, but I would really like to wear your ring.”
He looked fierce in that moment, or maybe it was possessive, before he asked, “Are you sure?”
“I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Laterthat night after I called my uncle to share the news, I was getting ready for bed. A knock sounded at my door. I pulled it open to see Bastian.
“Can I come in for a minute?”
“Like you need to ask.”
He smiled as he stepped into the room, and I noticed he seemed nervous. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he turned to me with a small black box in his hands.
“I bought this right after you moved in with me and I've been carrying it around ever since. I knew, from the very beginning, that you were the one.”
He lifted the lid to reveal the most beautiful emerald ring: an Asscher-cut emerald, my guess three carats, flanked by diamond baguettes in a platinum band.
“I thought about getting you a diamond, but with eyes like yours I couldn't look at anything but emeralds.”
My eyes found his. “It's too much.”
His patience reflected back at me and again he uttered the sentiment he had when he gave me my car,“It's not nearly enough.”
I couldn't imagine how much it had cost him, but I loved it. I lifted my hand and he didn't hesitate to take the ring from its satin nest to slip onto my finger.
Chapter Fourteen
News spread quickly about our engagement and at school girls weren't shy about wanting to see my ring. I found myself looking at it almost as much as they all did. I couldn't believe I was engaged. Yes, we were young and, yes, we agreed with the Wrights about waiting, but to have taken that step with him felt perfectly right.
On an unpleasant note, Brad had been released on his own recognizance. He wasn't allowed to come to school, but he was home and not behind bars. As Mica had predicted, other girls did step forward. I didn't believe it at first. I couldn't believe the same boy who had joked with Bastian and me during my time as Victory was actually a serial rapist. There were six others, and two of them had not been lucky enough to escape Brad’s unwanted full attention. They, like all of us, had been at a party and there had been drinking. When he raped them, they were too afraid and ashamed to say anything. They expressed the same self-doubt I had felt: the worry that they somehow had encouraged him. But with the added element of the alcohol, they feared people would say it hadn't been rape, just guilt after the fact.
There was a positive to the ordeal and that was the knowledge that each of us had people in our lives who were standing behind us and helping us through it. I couldn't imagine going through such a horrific experience and having to deal with it on my own. Or even worse having someone like my aunt, filling my head with bullshit and doubt. How badly would someone spiral out of control if they had no one to turn to, no one to tell them that it wasn't their fault? I couldn't help but think about my mom and what could have likely caused her downward spiral.
The upside of Brad being released was that his trial approached. I overheard the Wrights talking one night and Mr. Wright believed there was someone with a lot of influence pushing for the trial since it was unusual for Brad's case to already be on the docket. Mr. Wright didn't volunteer who he thought this person was, but I knew what it was he wasn't saying, he thought it was my father again. I didn't understand why the man was making himself visible in my life now when he had stayed safe in the shadows for the past eighteen years. His name wasn't even on my birth certificate, which I always assumed was because my mom hadn't known which one of her many gentlemen callers was my father. The whole situation pissed me off.
***
Winter was quickly giving way to spring, which meant I was going to be leaving soon for Maine, but first I needed to take my exams. Studying filled up most of my afternoons and evenings and after one particularly difficult study session, I needed a break. Bastian was outside cutting up a tree that had fallen during one of the ice storms. I never thought watching someone using a chainsaw would be sexy, but with the way Bastian's muscles bunch and corded from his efforts, I was wrong.
