Page 115 of Snake
He smiled. “Got you a couple birthday presents. This is the first one.”
Momentarily confused, she asked, “The party?”
Her guess made him laugh. “Okay, I guess I got you three presents. The party is the first one, and this is the second.” As he finished that last sentence, he gestured, tossing his thumb over his shoulder.
She looked past him and tried to see if there was something on the porch—and then she saw the big, bright blue bow on the front windows.
Afraid to actually guess the thing that was beginning to occur to her, Autumn looked Cox in the eyes and asked, “What did you do, Daniel?”
His smile faded, and his expression became vulnerable. “Hear me out.”
“Did you buy me a house for my birthday?”
He stared for a second, looked over his shoulder, returned to her and said, “Yes?”
“Are you telling me that you bought me the It’s a Wonderful Life House like you’re Donna Reed and I’m Jimmy Stewart?”
“I’m not roasting a duck in the fireplace. I didn’t hire anybody to serenade you. The house in the movie was probably in better shape than this one is. I can back out of the deal if I fucked this up. But yeah, I put an offer on this house and got accepted right away. Bart helped me track down the owner. Did I fuck up?”
Autumn was too stunned to speak.
Cox rushed to fill in her silence—a testament to how worried he actually was. “I know how much you love this house, and I wanted you to have it. I thought we could fix it up together and make it what it should be, like you always say. But I didn’t do this to say you should give up your place in the city. I know how important your work is, I’m not askin’ you to give it up or do it less or anything like that. It’s just ... I love you, Autumn. I feel like I took my first breath in twenty years when I had you. You make the whole world look different to me. More color and light. Fuck, it even smells different. I can actually make myself smell your smell even when you’re not around, it’s so rich in my head. Loving you gave me more life than I ever had before—and showed me how much life I didn’t even know I already had. Friends and family, and shit ... I don’t know. I love you.”
Then Cox dropped to one knee before her and pulled a box from his kutte, and she just about swallowed her tongue. When this man decided to try out a surprise, he went all out.
Behind him, from within the house, a cheer rose up, so loud it seemed to shake the shingles on the porch roof.
Her heart throwing itself against her ribs, Autumn stared down at the man before her. The box in his hand was clearly not new. He hinged open the lid to show a double-solitaire engagement ring in a twist setting in gold. The stones weren’t large, but the ring was beautiful. Clearly vintage, clearly well cared for, and perfect.
She knew the ring; she’d never seen the real thing before, but she’d seen it in photos. It had been his mother’s.
“This was my mom’s,” he said, confirming her thought. “And my gram’s before that. Tally gave it back to me. It was in a box I told her I didn’t care about. She knew better, and she asked me if I wanted it back when ... I guess when she saw how I felt about you. If you don’t like it, we can pick you out anything you want. I know this ring is probably tainted, seein’ how my mom was, but she loved my dad so hard it was like she needed him to breathe, and I finally understand that because I love you the same way. So I thought even if it’s not the right ring for you to wear, it’s the right ring for me to ask.”
Through the wavering lens of her tears, Autumn studied that remarkable ring. Cox gazed up at her adoringly, expectantly. But he said nothing more.
Finally, unable to keep a smile from her lips, Autumn brushed his hair from his face and said, “Ask what, Daniel?”
He laughed sheepishly. “Right, right.” He cleared his throat. “You gave me my name back. I guess I’m askin’ if you’ll let me give you my name, too. Will you marry me, Autumn?”
Two years ago, Autumn’s life was absorbed with work, and the only allure Signal Bend held was that. She’d detested this town and its people, most especially the members and family of the Night Horde MC. And they had felt the same about her. They’d called her a snake, a carpetbagger, a ballbuster, done everything they could think of to make her feel unwelcome and push her and her plans away, and she’d done everything she could think of to bulldoze right over them.
Two years ago, Autumn had only three people anywhere in her life who mattered—and she’d given them what slivers of time she had left after work.
Two years ago, Autumn had given up on ever having a life partner or any of the things that, in her mind, came in that package.
Now, Signal Bend felt more like home than anywhere else in the world. She loved every corner of this storybook town and most of its people. She cheered its successes and mourned its losses.
Now, the Night Horde MC was her family, too. Dozens of people whom she loved and who loved her. Dear friends and great company. So many people they filled a ramshackle old house to the rafters.
And the essential core of her family, the three people who’d always been there, were happier than they’d ever been. Her dads had remarried and her best friend was engaged—and she saw them all more than before because they all spent whole weeks together throughout the year, in Indianapolis or in St. Louis, and sometimes on a destination vacation together. She’d actually gotten Cox to Costa Rica last year. He’d even gone snorkeling.
Now, the man she loved more deeply than she’d known love could root was kneeling before her on the lawn of a house he’d bought her and offering her a ring, his love, his name, and the rest of his life.
What would their future together look like? She didn’t bother to try to imagine it, didn’t even feel an impulse to plan. They would make the life they wanted together, and they would decide together what it was. They would celebrate the joys and contend with the sorrows together, as they came upon them.
The only way any life was ever lived: step by step.
She brushed his beard with her fingertips and gave him her answer. “Yes.”
