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I shake my head, laughing. “If you had asked me, I would have married you four years ago without blinking an eye.”
“What?” She pulls back, those pretty violet eyes widening in surprise at my confession.
“Not sure why you are so shocked, Kitty. Forget the end of high school. I would have married you the day I met you.”
She shoves me away playfully. “Now you’re just messing with me.”
I grab her hand and bring it to my lips, kissing her knuckle just over the golden wedding band sitting on her finger along with her engagement ring. “I’m not messing with you. I called it that first day I met you. I just knew it. I knew you were made for me, and I’d do everything it took to make you mine.”
Kate shakes her head, but her eyes soften as she looks at me. “I love you so freaking much, Emmett Santiago.”
“I love you more, Kate Santiago. Now and forever. You’re my once in a lifetime.”
Those four words have been ours ever since I fell in love with her, so we’ve engraved them into our wedding rings to symbolize our promise to one another.
“Once in a lifetime,” she echoes, her eyes filling with tears.
“Hey now, no crying.” I cup her face, brushing my thumb over her cheekbone. “It’s going to be a good lifetime.”
“That’s not why I’m crying,” Kate sniffs.
“Then why are you crying on our wedding day, Mrs. Santiago? Tears don’t seem like a good beginning to our marriage.”
“These are good tears.”
“Good tears?” I repeat, skeptical about her answer. In my book, there is nothing good about seeing the love of your life crying.
“Yes, good tears. I’m crying because I’m so grateful and happy to have you. So damn happy, Emmett.”
“Happy that the wedding is finally over?”
Kate lets out a soft laugh. “Well, that too, but also because we’re together. You and me? We’re officially a family.” With another sniff, she pulls back. “I actually have a surprise for you.”
My brows shoot up. “I thought we agreed on no presents.”
In fact, she was the one who insisted on it. I learned early on that Kate wasn’t the kind of girl that expected presents. It was the reason why I loved giving them to her. There was something about the way her eyes would light up when she realized it was for her. To her, it didn’t matter if it was some wildflowers I picked from the field or a necklace I got her for her birthday.
“We did,” she agrees. “But this one is different.”
“Okay…” I start to go after her, but she shakes her head. “Stay where you are.”
“You’re making me worry now, Kitty.”
Still, I don’t move a muscle as Kate goes to one of the tables and picks up a neatly packed white box with a ribbon before joining me again and handing me the box.
“What is this?”
With my eyes still on hers, I give the box a little shake, but whatever is inside stays quiet.
“You’ll have to open it to find out,” Kate says, clasping and unclasping her hands nervously as she nibbles at her lower lip.
“That sounds ominous,” I say, only half joking.
I have no idea what could be inside to make her so nervous. But I guess I was about to find out. Still holding her gaze, I tug at one side of the bow, the silky material disentangling easily. Then I pull open the lid and look down.
I blink, unsure if I’m seeing it correctly. Looking up, I meet Kate’s worried eyes before I shift my gaze to the box once again, my mouth falling open.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.
