AllFreeNovel
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When my brother straightens up, he pulls his keys out of the front pocket of his shorts and tilts his head towards his Jeep.
“Come on, Monkey, we’re headed up the road.”
“To the ice cream place?!” Luna pipes up, pulling the cat carrier out of the back seat.
“Why not?” he smiles down at her enthusiastically.
“What?” I ask confused with my arms out. “You guys, we just got here. Can’t we unload the car first?”
“Yeah go ahead,” Matt says casually as he puts a hand on my daughters back and starts ushering her towards his Jeep. “We’ll run Luna up there while you get settled.” He turns his back and heads to the car while I stand there, dumbfounded, absently accepting the cat carrier that Luna hands me before she rushes to keep up with him.
“Hey!” I protest, “What about me? I want ice cream too!”
“We’ll bring you back a cone!” Matt shouts from the driver’s seat, as Luna straps in the back and Melanie opens the passenger side door, her weird smile still in place like she has to mentally force herself to keep it up. I hope an Oscar’s not on her bucket list.
Matt gives a quick wink while Melanie lets the dog hop in the back with Luna, and they’re off.
Jerks.
I let out a disgruntled breath and carry the cat carrier to the house. I set it down in the living room and open the cage door so that Buster can venture out and scope out the place at his discretion while I go back to retrieve the rest of our bags.
When each bag is in the appropriate room of the cavernous yet homey house that our stepdad passed on to Matt and Mel, I head to the kitchen to see what they have in the way of refreshments. I open the fridge and am delighted to find peach iced tea, and as I snap the cap open, I catch a soft glow out of the corner of my eye. It’s dusk outside, making the soft orange flicker barely visible, but I see it out by the water.
I set my drink down on the counter and head to the slider door that leads to the deck to investigate. When I step outside, I have to squint my eyes and concentrate for a moment to get what I’m looking at to come into focus. I can clearly see little tealight candles lining either side of the dock, and when I look to where it opens up to a deck at the end, there’s more of the cozy, flickering orange glow. I take a few steps, and when I see larger candles assembled around the deck, my heart ceases to beat.
What I see shatters me into a million pieces and glues me back together all in one fell swoop. For as I mechanically urge myself to take more steps in that direction, walking down the romantically lit dock, what I see in the middle of an array of candles and roses in colors ranging from pink, to white, to lavender and yellow, stands Ben.
Ben
I want to run to her, I don’t know if I can wait for her to make the long walk out here. But I discipline myself to stay where I am and let her have this moment; to let it stretch out as long as it can for her. No one has ever given Kasey something like this, which both pisses me off and delights me. I don’t care that I’ve proposed before; she hasn’t ever been proposed to. I don’t care if I’ve been married before; she hasn’t. And if she wants the fancy, all-out fairytale wedding, I’m going to give it to her. She deserves it for being the wonderful woman, mother, and beautiful human she is.
She’s never looked more gorgeous than she does now in her faded jeans and white V-neck t-shirt and matching canvas shoes; brown hair flowing down around her shoulders. And that smile gets brighter and wider the more steps she takes towards me between the tiny candles I put out just for her, trying my best to make this unforgettable for her.
I know what I’m doing is crazy, but I’ll tell you what… after years of being and feeling nothing, it feels good to be crazy. Scratch that, it feels amazing.
Her eyes are shimmering as she gets closer, and I just can’t take it anymore. I run the rest of the way down the dock to her. When she sees what I’m doing, she giggles and starts running too, and the moment she’s in my arms, my heart erupts in my chest and I feel like I can breathe again. The scent of roses and salon quality shampoo swirls around me as I lift her up in an embrace as tight as I can manage without crushing her. I’m gratified to feel her arms squeezing me back around my neck, and I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a heavy breath of relief and contentment.
When I set her down, I only take a second or two to look in her smiling eyes before I get impatient all over again and take her face in my hands. My kiss is mauling and desperate; weeks of stored up passion being released, and she’s giving her own right back to me as we hold on to each other and our lips try to touch in every angle they can.
Finally, we both allow ourselves some air, and our mouths gently release each other.
“Oh my God,” I breathe, looking down at her and pushing a strand of hair out of her face.
“I missed you, babe,” she whispers up at me, and I love how confident she is. She knows this moment is nothing to be afraid of. She’s been doing some growing too. Now it’s time to grow together… if she’ll have me.
“Come here,” I tell her as I take her hands in mine and start to walk backwards, leading her to the candlelit floral display I’ve laid out, and I light up at how her mouth parts and her eyes widen at the sight before her.
“Ben… Oh my God, this is so beautiful,” her voice is a high-pitched whisper.
“First of all,” I tell her as I gently pull the bracelet Luna made off of my hand and place it back on her wrist. “I told you I’d bring that back,” I smirk, as she beams up at me. “Thanks for letting me borrow it.”
“Anytime,” she grins, and I like the sound of that.
“Kasey,” I begin my speech, and I know I’m about to botch it all over the place. “I wanted to be selfish and just ask you to be mine before, without doing any kind of work on myself. But you deserved better than that, and I want you to know that I’ve spent the whole time I’ve been away from you making myself a better man for you; repairing things that needed it. You deserved more than that broken down version of me.”
“I would have taken him anyway,” she whispers up at me, willing me to believe her.
“I know you would have. I just couldn’t live with that; with being so selfish to just take you and keep you, the strong, courageous woman, and not offering you the same in return.”
