AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hold her right hand with my left, and slide my right into the dip of her back. She rests her left hand on my shoulder. And slowly, we begin to move to the music.
“What’s this about?” she asks softly.
I clear my throat. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot. Almost non-stop, actually.”
“Me too.” She brushes my shoulder with her thumb. “How’s Joanna?”
“She’s fine.”
“No ill effects from Guy’s visit?”
“No, not at all. We had a lovely day on Sunday, actually. If anything, I think it’s brought us closer together.”
“I’m glad.”
I pull her toward me a bit more as John sings that nobody has ever loved me like she does. I’m tempted to cross my fingers.
“Here goes,” I say. “Let me get through it before you say anything, okay?”
“Okay.”
I take a deep breath. “I’ve been in love with you since the day we first met. Now you know the truth about what happened, and hopefully you understand how hard it was to make the decisions that I did. Like I said, if I had my time again, maybe I’d choose differently, be more selfish, I don’t know. I love my daughter with all my heart, but in gaining her, I lost you, and that has been hard to bear.”
Her eyes glisten. “I want to—”
“Elizabeth, please. Over the years, I tried to move on as it became clear that we weren’t going to work out, but I just couldn’t. I’m still in love with you—ten times, maybe a hundred times—more than I was when we were young. I thought that if I could just get you into bed, you’d realize how right we were for each other. I was so arrogant, I realize that now. I know how important your career is to you, and I’m so proud of you for what you’ve achieved. I know you’re going to go on and do amazing things, and stopping you achieving those goals is the last thing I want. But I do want you.”
She presses her lips together, her brown eyes wide as they look up at me.
As Lennon tells her that I’m in love for the first time, and that it’s going to last, I slide a hand into the pocket of my trousers and take out the small velvet box I bought this morning. Cracking it open, I release her, then sink onto one knee.
“Elizabeth Tremblay,” I say, “I’m asking you to marry me, but that’s not all. I want us to be engaged when you go to England. That way, I hope you can trust me when I tell you that I want to wait for you. I want you to go and be amazing over there, and achieve all the things you want to achieve. I’ll come over and see you as often as I can. And then when you’re done, and you come back to New Zealand, we’ll get married.”
She stares at me for a long, long time. The warm autumn wind brushes across us, and Nymph sneezes.
“You’d wait two years for me?” Elizabeth asks eventually.
“It’s not so long. I’ve waited ten years already, haven’t I?” I waggle the box at her.
She looks at the ring properly for the first time. Her eyes widen even more. “Holy fuck.”
I glance at it. It’s six-point-eight excellent cut round diamond. Over half a million dollars fitted into a tiny band.
“Hux,” she says in an awed voice. “That must have cost you a fortune.” She meets my eyes. “You crazy fucker.”
“Not quite the romantic endearment I was hoping for.”
“Get up, for God’s sake.”
“You haven’t answered me yet,” I tell her. I try to sound firm, but I think it might come across as slightly pathetic. I want this girl so much. She’s spent so long running away from me, and I’m still crazy about her. Even Lennon knows it’s a love that’s going to last forever. Surely, she’s not going to turn me down?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Elizabeth
I haven’t replied, because I’m completely in shock.
Huxley’s asking me to marry him?
