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“My badass lioness, how could I forget? For my badass fiancé.”
“Jet,” she breathed, one hand flying to her lips. “Are the eyes made of diamonds?”
I nodded. “And you’ll have diamonds on your ring, too. When you pick out the style you want.”
I held up a loop of string. Ari’s brow creased.
“This is to measure your ring finger for your engagement ring.” I held up my hand, letting the light reflect off my signetring. “What about a pearl with diamonds? To match mine? I’ll get you a pearl from Broome if you want.”
“You really want to marry me?” Tears streamed down Ari’s face.
“Yes,” I croaked. “Forever.” I pulled her into my body, needing to touch her, to remind myself this was real, that this was happening. “I want to share mortgage stress with you.” Ari huffed a wet laugh. “I want to open a bank account with you. A Mr and Mrs account. I want to file tax returns together. Organise throw cushions on our bed for as long as you’ll have them. I promise you forever.”
Ari let out a big sob, and I crushed her to my chest. “You waited so long for me,” she spluttered.
“But you beat me to pop the question.”
Ari laughed against my collarbone and then leant back to look me in the eye. “I had to. To show you I believed in us,” she whispered. “Believed in our future.”
Over her head, something flapped in a slight breeze. Since quitting the bar at the beginning of the year, the postcards she’d sent me from her road trip were now on a corkboard on the opposite wall of the kitchen.
In the lounge room next to us, the shell she’d given me was still in the centre of the mantlepiece.
I loved these things. But when it came down to it, none of these things mattered.
Rings didn’t matter. Jewellery didn’t matter. Not fruit bowls, tablecloths, or this house, or next door if we weren’t successful with an offer.
None of it.
Everything I needed was in my arms.
I grinned, the happiest man in the world.
“Like I said, babe, all those years ago, longest speed date ever. And all of it was worth it to have forever with you.”
THE END
Keep reading for a bonus chapter of Ignite, book one of the Fiery Hearts of Ballydoon.
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READ MORE BY LOUISA:
Keep reading Louisa’s stories set in Ballydoon in Kindle Unlimited. The Fiery Hearts of Ballydoon features a family of rural firefighters trying to save their historic sheep station from the bank while hunting an arsonist before it’s too late.
To download your copy, head to the series page here.
Here’s a sneak peak of Ignite, the first book in the Fiery Hearts of Ballydoon series:
IGNITE
1
STACEY
