“Yes, but that’s because I came here with you.”
“You also said you pictured being proposed to here. I think you clasped your little hands together and got this dreamy look in your eyes. You might have even batted your eyelashes.”
Her eyes widened, and a pretty blush painted her cheekbones. “And you said that was stupid.”
He wagged his head. “Yeah, I guess I did. Then you got kinda pissy and told me it was ‘romantic.’”
She rolled her eyes. “And you repeated it was stupid. No wonder I got pissy.”
“I had a limited vocabulary back then.” He sucked in a breath. “We have a lot of history, Neve. Our town, our families …” He gestured around the clearing, and familiar faces, their bodies swathed in winter gear, began materializing from the trees. His parents, his brothers, his sisters-in-law, Shane, Dixie and her husband Dewey, Luanne, Cade, Micky, and Amy.
The look of utter shock he’d been going for was evident in Neve’s hockey-puck eyes and her slack-jawed mouth. He beamed proudly. “Oh, and my design team. Would you ladies please take a bow?” Practically everywoman there bent at the waist. Dixie stumbled on a tree root, recovered, and plastered on a glowing smile.
Neve gasped and drew a circle in the air with her pointer. “You guys were all in on this?” They bobbed their heads, each in an uncoordinated tempo, like someone had flicked a row of bobbleheads at random intervals. She turned to Reece. “W-why?”
“Besides needing the help of a design team to get this right—in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little clueless about this stuff—I wanted backup.”
“Backup for …?”
To hold me up if you give me the wrong answer.
He sank to one knee and reached into his pocket, fumbling with the small box, nearly dropping it in the dirt. He snapped it open with a little too much force and broke the lid. Jesuuuus! He was completely muffing this!
His voice trembled as he spoke. “Neve Embry, I have loved you my entire life, and I intend to continue loving you for the rest of it. I said we got this backward, but really, we didn’t. You’re my best friend, and now you’re my wife. But I flubbed it the night we got married. I bypassed a really important step and failed to let you know you mean everything to me.” He cleared his sticky throat. “Here’s what I should have said to you that night: I’m so in love with you I don’t think I’ll ever come up for air. I don’t have the words to express how deep it goes or how powerful it is. What I feel can’t be contained by the entire San Juan Mountain Range, or even the Rockies, for that matter. I’ve wasted a lot of time, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I’d like the chance to do that for the rest of our lives. Would you do me the honor of being my wife, inallthe ways that word implies?”
Sniffles came from their audience, and from the corner of his eye, he spied his mother and Dixie hugging. “My last prince has finally found his princess,” came a hoarse blubber—but the words were uttered byDixie, not his mom.
Despite it all, he remained focused on the most precious woman in his life. He lifted the box higher.
Tears ran down Neve’s cheeks. “How did you get those?” Her voice was a quavering whisper.
“You gave me the combination to your safe, remember?” A grin found its way to his face. “They’re already engraved, so they’re ready to go. What do you say?” His panic rose when she didn’t reply, so he rushed to add, “But if you don’t like these, we can get something else. And if me being in your house makes it too cramped, I’ll get us another one. Anywhere you want.”
She doubled over, and he sprang up, thinking she might be sick. “Neve! Are you okay?”
“Can’t breathe,” she wheezed.
Someone—he had no idea who—took the box from him, and he put both hands on Neve and brought her upright. “Talk to me, sweetheart. Tell me what’s going on.”
She thumped her chest, and her eyes were wild, but her lips curled up.
“Looks like another rescue,” someone muttered behind him.
“Is she okay?” a different voice said.
“At least the right guy for the job is already here.”
Reece held her head. “We’re gonna box breathe together, okay, sweetheart?”
She nodded, and he began counting in twos. Her color was good. She didn’t appear to be going into any kind of distress, though her eyes were glossy with tears. Relief waved through him.
“I might need mouth-to-mouth,” she finally gasped. She took a moment to swipe at her wet cheeks.
He stood back. “What the hell? Are you okay or not?”
“More than okay,” she choked. “Just … I didn’t expect any of this. Youliterallytook my breath away.” Her eyes locked on to his as the tears let loose, rimming and spilling down her pretty pink cheeks.
Okay. Taking her breath away is good. I think.The box found its way back into his palm.
