Page 61 of Just a Number

“Are you serious?”

“One hundred percent. Turns out Pauline Cavendish owned it. She agreed to sell it to me for almost nothing after I told her I wanted to restore it for Barbara Bonaventure’s granddaughter. I know you’re attached to our home now, since it’s where you grew up with your nana, but I thought maybe we could fix this place up and have a fresh start, if that’s what you want. Or we can restore it for fun and use it as a wedding venue or something. Either way, it’s special to us, and I want you to have it.”

My mouth drops and tears roll down my cheeks. My imagination runs wild with all the potential lying dormant in these walls. My head is spinning and I have to remind myself to breathe as I stand here dumbfounded.

“This is the most amazing Christmas gift you could’ve given me,” I say. “This will be the adventure of a lifetime! Oh, I have so many ideas.” I clasp my hands together and look around as I talk, but before my thoughts get away from me, Rhodes puts his hands on my face and kisses me.

“I have one more surprise for you,” he says.

Then, like Cary Grant in an Old Hollywood movie, he gets down on one knee and pulls a small box out of his pocket.

I gasp. I can barely see the ring in this light, but I don’t even care what it looks like. This moment is everything.

“Micah, you’ve been the light of my life since we met. I love you, I love our life here together, and I want nothing more than for you to be my wife.”

My heart explodes and my hands shake so much I have to grab him to keep steady. “Yes, yes, yes,” I exclaim through happy tears. “A million times yes!”

He slides the ring on my finger, and he barely has time to stand before I grab him and kiss him as hard and with as much intensity as that night over one year ago in this very spot. And, just like then, I feel my body begin to float, my soul so happy not even gravity can keep my feet on the ground.

THE END