Page 49 of Wildly Yours

We walk up to his cabin and he opens the door into the cool, dark space to usher me in. He follows me inside and walks me over to the kitchen counter where there is a plain cardboard box.

"What's this?"

"Open it."

I lift the lid off the box and it reveals some papers.

"What are these?"

"Building plans."

"For what?"

"The house I want to build on the other side of my parent's house from where Cole's place is. But only if you agree."

"Agree to what? You building a house?"

Cody holds my hands in his, eyes full of reverence.

"Serena Davis, I've loved you since before I knew what love really was. You have always beenitfor me, and I'm sorry I took so long to realize that there is no life, nothing, without you in it. Open up the building plans."

I unfold the papers to find a small bundle of wild flowers. Attached to the flowers by raffia is a ring. A delicate diamond ring.

He grasps the flowers in one hand, reaches for my left hand in the other, and as I fight back the tears brimming my eyes, I see him drop to one knee.

"Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

My 'yes' explodes from my body. He unties the flowers to release the ring and pushes it onto my finger before handing me the bouquet.

"Now I'm ready to celebrate."

I don't want to go down to the visitor center just yet, but I know that this is a big day for him. He saved the park. He saved our town's tourism economy. And together, we saved our future.

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