Page 116 of Someone to Have

The tears are flowing freely now, and she's nodding before she can even speak.

“Yes,” she whispers, then louder, “Yes! One-thousand times yes.”

I slide the ring onto her finger with shaking hands, and she pulls me up to kiss her. It's salty with tears and absolutely everything I dreamed it would be.

Then, from behind the trees, I hear the whooping and cheering as both our families come running out from their hiding spots. My sister is crying harder than Taylor, and every one of them is beaming as they rush forward to congratulate us.

“You knew!” Taylor laughs, wiping her eyes as she hugs her dad.

“Eric asked me for permission two weeks ago,” Marty says. “Smartest move he ever made other than falling for you, my girl.”

“We’ve been planning this surprise ever since,” Jen says proudly.

“And trying to keep this numb nuts here from spilling the secret.” Toby ruffles Rhett’s hair. My nephew is attempting to look teenage nonchalant, but I don’t miss the moisture beading on the end of his long lashes.

“Bruh,” Rhett fires back. “You’re the one with the big mouth.”

“That’s Coach Bruh to you,” Toby counters.

Taylor finds me in the chaos of congratulations and throws her arms around my neck. “I can't believe you did all this.”

“Believe it, Tink. This is just the beginning of our story.”

She kisses me again, and I've never been happier in my entire life. This is home. She’s my home. And now she's going to be my wife.

“So,” I whisper against her ear, “ready for that breakfast in bed?”

She laughs and pulls back to look at me, the ring sparkling on her finger. “I think I can manage that.”

“There's my confident girl.”

“It's probably the engagement ring,” she says with a grin.

And just like that, we're back to our normal banter, except now everything is perfect, exactly as it should be.