"I still wish there was a way to get him here without lying."
"Me too, but I feel like something big needs to happen to end the war. My dad doesn't know Trigg's story—who his mother is and how everything went down. It's a conversation that needs to happen in person."
Her eyes look distant as she stares at the fire I started in the fireplace, and I hate it. I understand why she hates lies. I hate them too. "Hey, I can think of something else if this is going to upset you that much."
"No." She shakes her head. "It's not that. I was just thinking."
"About?" I question as I pull her closer.
"Us, this property, the future, all of it…" she draws off nervously, and I am reminded of why I brought her here at all. The words I fumbled giving her earlier—and then not at all after she seduced me to this floor. "I have something I need to tell you," she says softly.
"And I have something I need to ask you."
"You go first," she says, pulling in a shaky breath.
That has to be it. The reason for her anxiety. I told her I wanted to build a life with her here on my family's land, but I never asked her the big question. The one that ties her to me for eternity. The one where she takes my last name.
"You knew from the start, from the very first day when I begged and pleaded for my father not to take you fishing, that I'd love you. You knew I'd fall for your beautiful soul. I loved you as my best friend, as my fishing partner…until I loved you as more." I watch as her eyes well with tears. The direction of my words is clear. "I loved you when I didn't know what love was, and I loved you when I was scared to feel it. This may not be the spot where our story began, but I'd love for it to be the spot where it ends. Laney Hart, would you make a man out of this lost boy and be my wife?"
Tears flow freely down her cheeks as silence hangs between us. Her eyes search my face as the question waits patiently to be answered. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
She closes her eyes, and my anxiety spikes. She wouldn't say no, would she?
Her eyes pop open, and her face transforms with joy. "London Hale, I've wanted to marry you since the first time I saw you. I want nothing more than to take your last name and make it mine."
I close the distance between our mouths, and a new hunger forms. Every day with her is better than the last, but hearing her confirm she wants forever is a new level. Her fingers tangle in my hair as she seeks to deepen our kiss, two people discovering a new fire. The world melts away the way it always does when I'm with her, and for long moments, I get to experience a slice of heaven on earth where all is right in the world because the only girl I've ever wanted said yes.
When our lips finally part, she lays her forehead against mine, breathless, her heart racing. I ask for one more thing. "What would you say if I asked you to go down to the courthouse and marry me right now?"
"It's the middle of the night. They're closed."
"You know what I mean. If we wake up first thing tomorrow morning, would you get on the back of my bike and let me take you downtown to get married?"
"Easy cowboy, I haven't finished judging all of your questionable life choices," she jests, swatting my chest, and it feels like a stall.
"Is that a no?"
"It's a maybe," she says, rolling her lips, and I deflate. "Not because I don't want to marry you, but because when I pictured getting married, I saw myself having a wedding with our closest friends and family. Sydney, Fisher, Asha, Trigg, and our parents…they're all part of our story. I wouldn't want to hastily make a decision that didn't include the people I love most and hurt them." Her fingers find my chin, and she tips my face toward hers until she has my full attention. "You know I'd marry you in a heartbeat. I love you, but they love us too, and I don't want to have any regrets."
The word 'yes' had barely finished forming on her lips when my world tilted sideways. For one perfect, crystalline moment, I had everything I wanted. The future spread out before us the way we'd always planned.
I had thought the truth I finally gave her would be enough. The carefully curated version of events that let me keep her while salving my conscience. I thought it was complete, thought it was sufficient, thought it would hold the weight of forever.
But lying here, watching her eyes light up as she describes the wedding she's dreamed of, I understand with devastating clarity how wrong I was. The truth wasn't enough. It never could have been.
Because it wasn't really the truth at all.
Chapter 31
LANEY
Ifelt it as we lay there watching the embers of the fire die out. I felt a shift.
I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought it was the high, the excitement of the night, the property, the plans, the proposal. I dismissed it for jitters and fell asleep in his arms. We woke up the same way we always do, tangled up, holding on to each other, as if one of us might disappear in the middle of the night, and this would all be a dream. But after he dropped me off at Fairfield, the shift was still there. His words were the same, but the feeling behind them, the love and excitement, the electric current, was dimmed. I went through my morning workout with a new horse in a haze, and now, as I sit in town at the local coffee shop, sipping a white chocolate mocha, I'm still there.
My eyes have been pinned on the busy street outside the window since I sat down. My head is in the clouds with unanswered questions. Is he upset I want a wedding? Did he really want to go to the courthouse this morning? There wasn't a ring. If he was truly set on getting married today, he would have had a ring, right? I just don't get it. We went from top of the world to a funk, and I feel like it's my fault. I texted him hours ago, and hehasn't responded. He always responds, so this is yet another sign something is off, and this isn't all just a figment of my imagination.
"That's it." I scoot my chair out with fierce determination. "Screw this." I'm going to ask him straight up—or I thought I was. "Shit." I grab the table to stabilize myself. I stood up way too fast.
