AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Not yet, and I don't know where you would have heard such a thing," I said, my cheeks heating up at the idea.
"Oh you young things are better than my soap operas," Mrs. Henderson said with a wink.
As the day wore on, the sun arced across the sky, casting its golden hue over the town. I wrapped up my last appointment, tidying up my desk, already looking forward to heading home to Sawyer, to us. Moon Harbor wasn't just a place; it was where my heart lived, beat for beat, tide for tide.
By the time I pulled up to our cozy cottage, the clinic's hectic hum had been replaced by the soothing whisper of waves. I found a note from Sawyer, scrawled in his careless but endearing handwriting, stuck to the fridge. "Meet me on the porch." My heart did its familiar dance—a mix of two-step and jitterbug—at the thought of him waiting for me.
"Okay, what are you up to this time?" I murmured to myself as I kicked off my shoes.
The wooden floorboards creaked beneath my feet, each step taking me closer to whatever surprise Sawyer had cooked up. Pushing open the screen door, I stepped out onto the back porch to find him leaning casually against the railing, gazing out over the ocean. The sun had dipped low behind us, painting the horizon with strokes of amber and rose, the kind of sunset that made you believe in miracles.
"Hey," I said softly, not wanting to break the spell of the evening.
"Hey yourself," he replied without turning around, his voice lazy and content.
I joined him at the railing, breathing in the ocean. This was it, this moment of peace, the fulfillment of dreams I hadn't even let myself dream. Moon Harbor had given me roots and wings all at once, and Sawyer...well, he was my anchor and my sail.
"Nothing could be better than this," I thought, the breeze tangling my hair.
Then Sawyer turned to face me, and everything tilted.
"Oh my god, Sawyer..." I gasped, my words catching on a surge of emotion as my eyes landed on the small velvet box in his hand. The ring, a glinting promise, seemed to echo the sparkle of the water behind him.
His honey brown gaze held mine, steady and sure. "Hannah," he started, his normally cocky grin softened into something more vulnerable, more real. "There are about a million things I want to say right now..."
"Start with one," I managed, feeling the warmth of tears that threatened to spill over.
Sawyer's hand was a mixture of warmth and certainty as it slipped into mine, grounding me to the moment. His knee met the weathered wood of the porch with a soft thud that echoed my frantic heartbeat.
"Everything I am, everything good in me, it's because of you, Hannah," he said, his voice steady despite the emotion brimming in his honey brown eyes. "You've turned my life upside down in the best damn way possible."
I swallowed hard, trying to find my own voice, but words were like butterflies in my chest, beautiful and impossible to catch.
"Let's make forever official, huh?" His smile grew, and the laugh lines around his eyes crinkled in anticipation. "Will you marry me?" he asked, and the words hung between us, sacred and bright as the first star of the evening.
"Are you serious?" My heart thundered in my chest, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Dead serious," he chuckled, the sound mingling with the rhythmic lapping of the waves.
"Oh my god," I said again, overwhelmed, my hands reaching for his face. He was the last piece to my puzzle, the final chapter to a story I never wanted to end.
"Is that a yes?" he teased, knowing full well that my frantic nodding and teary smile said it all. He stood up, slipping the ring out of the box and onto my finger.
"Of course, it's a yes!" I laughed through my tears, throwing my arms around him as the sun slipped away, leaving us in the soft embrace of twilight.
"Good," he breathed into my hair, "because I'm not letting you go. Not now, not ever."
Maybe it had been fate after all. This man had made me a believer, coming into my life at the right time, being there whenever I needed him. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
The ocean continued its eternal dance, a witness to our own little infinity beginning right there, on that porch, in the town that had become our world.
