“Because you feel like home. And because I love you.” I opened my arms in subtle invitation. “Becausewhen the sun comes up tomorrow, I will still love you. No matter what the day brings. Even if I forgot you, Ireland, even if my mind went dark and my life felt like nothing but an empty room, I would still want to dance in it with you.”
She fell to her knees in front of me and I reached for her in a panic, worried she hurt herself. My button up flew off her shoulders and caught on the railing as she threw herself into my open arms.
I wrapped them around her and hugged her to me with a deep sigh of relief and contentment. “I love you, Ireland.”
She shook harder, and I settled us against the railing, one hand closed around the ring box and the other cradling her head. Her tears wet my undershirt, replacing the dried raindrops, and I felt my own carving a path down my cheeks.
Then, there were lips at my throat, and I was back in the Cadillac, my mind still unable to process that this woman was kissing me. Wouldwantto kiss me.
My entire body came alight with her touch, and then I heard the word.
“Yes.”
I pulled back and searched her eyes.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you, Adair. And I want to live my life with you.”
I was floating somewhere above us, watching it all. But then I tried to move my foot, and my ankle twinged, the sharp pain bringing me back into my body.
But that was how it’d always been with us.
What was pleasure without pain?
Her warm hand pushed my hair back, and I focused on that, shuddering when she ran her knuckles over my cheekbone. “Can I see?”
My heart that only beats for you?Go ahead and cut it out. It’s right here.
“The ring,” she said, smiling at what had to be a dumbfounded expression, given I’d just realized my mouth was hanging open.
I opened my palm, and her fingertips grazed the sensitive skin of my wrist as she took the box from my hands.
Ireland slowly took the ring out of the box. Instead of looking at it more closely, she cocked her head and pulled out a folded piece of paper from inside the box.
One that I’d forgotten about until this moment.
She kept a tight hold on the ring as she unfolded the paper.
I was tachycardic again, my heart beating faster than a war drum and louder than the crashing shore as Ireland swept her finger across the wet wooden board beside us and then pressed it to the sticky note. With a glimmer in her eyes, she passed it to me.
Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides
Will you marry me?
Yes
No
She’d filled in the “yes” box with a raindrop.
“My backup plan,” I whispered, voice choked with emotion. “One of many.”
I held my breath, not sure if I should cry some more or laugh in joy as she offered the ring to me, the sapphire gemstone shining as bright as her eyes.
My hands didn’t tremble this time as I cradled her hand in mine and slid the ring on.
It was the beginning. Of me giving her my everything, and her giving me the same.
Together, to whatever distant shore.
