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He dropped his phone on the couch and wiped his palms on his jeans as he slid to one knee in the centre of the petals. He’d thought about candles but had decided they were overkill, and a fire hazard, especially considering the not-quite-puppy that would have made even trying to light them a horrifying disaster. Lake was also a fire hazardwithoutthe candles, so it had just seemed safer all around to avoid them.
“Grady?” Lake called out hesitantly. “Hades?”
Just hearing his voice calmed Grady. Everything was going to be fine because it wasLake. Even if he said no, it would still be fine because Grady knew that they could weather any storm.
“Ooh, petals! That’s exciting.” Thedistinctthudof Lake taking off his boots sounded on the tiles, and then his heavy footsteps came closer. “Are we celebrating something?”
Grady swallowed down the lump in his throat. He rested an elbow on his one bent knee and opened the small box.
“Did the box of sex toys we ordered arrive? Because I am so rea…” Lake’s voice trailed off as he appeared in the archway leading to the lounge and spotted Grady. “Uh…” His gaze flitted from Grady to the box in his hand. “You know, if this had been a surprise party, we would have had some really mortified guests,” he said absently.
Grady smirked. “We would have,” he agreed. “Good thing it’s just me.” Though Grady didn’t think they’d be surprised if it were a room filled with people who knew Lake. When he’d met Lake’s parents, it hadn’t taken long to work out where Lake had gotten his personality from. His father, Dave, was like sunshine as well, and his mother, Gayle, had been a weird mix of Lake and Avery, equal parts salt and sunshine. They’d been sickeningly in love and had given Grady hope that maybe he and Lake weren’t so doomed after all.
“Where’s Hades?”
“Outside.” Grady patiently waited for Lake to move closer, knowing that his soldier’s brain was trying to process the situation.
Lake visibly swallowed and stopped right in front of Grady. “Are they earrings?” he asked, his voice rising a little.
“You don’t have your ears pierced.” And the box was open. Lake couldseewhat was in it.
Lake’s eyes went watery, and he glanced between the box and Grady again. “Are you–are youproposing?”
“Yes,” Grady said simply. He could have made a joke about it, said something funny to lighten the situation. But he didn’t want to. This was important to him, and he needed Lake to know that he was more than serious about it. “Lake, before you, I thought that I knew what love was, and I was wrong. Because being with you? It’s been unlike anything that I could describe. I love you, my ridiculous, impossible, loud man. More than I thought I could love anyone.”
Lake’s lips parted in shock, a single tear falling from his eye. “You love me?”
Grady hadn’t said it yet. He’d wanted to be sure before he let the last shield fall. He didn’t want to say it lightly and not mean it. Lake deserved better than that. He deserved sincerity, love, and all the things that Grady wanted to give him.
“You gave me back something that I didn’t even realise I’d lost along the way.”
“Sorry to tell you, but that cynicism is still firmly entrenched,” Lake mumbled. He looked down to where Grady’s badge was on his hip, and his nostrils flared.
Grady hooked a finger in one of the many pockets on Lake’s camo pants and tugged him closer, beside his knee.
Lake braced himself with one hand on Grady’s shoulder. He touched one finger to the platinum band. Then snatched his hand away. “Oh. I think you have to ask first.”
“Do I?” Grady asked wryly.
Lake grinned. “Treat me right, Grady,” he teased, running the back of his hand across Grady’s cheek.
“Always,” Grady murmured, turning his head to kiss Lake’s palm. He cupped Lake’s ass, because it was a tragedy whenever he didn’t have his hands on it.
He’d had a speech prepared and having Lake this close, so much of it was lost. He’d even written it down, the paper burning a hole in his pocket. He’d memorised it, but his memory was failing him. He tried to remember the important bits.
“Lake, we brought in the new year together when I didn’t know who you were. You landed a kiss on me that haunted me for weeks. Now that I know you, I want to spend every New Year’s together for the rest of our lives. The start of them, the end of them, and the messy parts in between.” He lifted the box a little higher and looked right into Lake’s hazel-brown eyes. He would never tire of looking at them. He wanted them to be the last thing he saw when he left the earth. “Will you marry me?”
Lake’s eyes misted over again as he looked at the ring. He stared for so long Grady wondered if he’d gone to sleep standing up.
“Lake?”
Lake jolted. “Oh. Right. I should answer now?”
“I would appreciate it, yeah,” Grady said, smiling indulgently at the man that held every part of his heart. Why he’d thought that anything involving Lake would go by the book, he had no idea.
Lake barrelled into him, and they fell backwards onto the carpet. “Yes,” he declared brightly before landing a devastating kiss on Grady.
It was minutes later before they had their bearings enough to get the ring out and slip it on Lake’s finger. Grady had recruited the help of Avery and Gayle to make sure that the size he’d ordered was the right fit. Gayle had cried, and Avery hadfinallygiven him the “if you hurt him” speech. It had given Grady a sense of relief instead of terrifying him like Avery probably thought it should. It was then that he knew this was it. Lake was his person, and he would never want anyone else.
Lake bit his lip as he stared at it on his finger. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You should wear one too.”
Grady kissed him, sliding his hand around the back of his neck. “If you want, we can get one ordered for me.”
“I want that.”
Lake could have anything he wanted.
