Page 133 of No Way Home
“He cherishes you.” Dad sounded a bit choked up. “Just like Mom said he would.”
“He does.” I gave him a sad smile. “I cherish him too.”
But Dad’s smile wasn’t sad at all. “I know you do.”
“Do you think Mom’s here, right now?” I asked.
“Without a doubt,” he said, voice full of confidence.
He escorted me right up to Bowen and then placed my hand in his. Dad gave me another salute, made a perfect right face, and marched over to stand by Silas. Then, finally, he stood at ease.
I looked down at Bowen, eyes welling.
He chuckled and squeezed my hand. “Here come the happy tears.”
And then my eyes welled even more when I realized…
He’d pierced his ear.
The left one, with a small diamond stud. Which was fitting. He’d been talking about it for a while. He would’ve re-pierced his eyebrow, but he worried it would look too unprofessional—and he had a ‘big-boy job now’.
I reached out to touch it. “I can’t believe you did it.”
“For the proposal,” he said, eyes full of love. “For you.”
I smiled as those words brought back one of the most painful memories of my life: The Spartan Race Kiss. Then I smiled even wider. Because that memory didn’t feel like a wound anymore—it felt like a seed. I’d learned over the last year that sometimes things have to crack open before they grow.
The smile leftBowen’s face, and it was replaced by adoration that was so intense, it was overwhelming. He blew out his breath, nervous, and I knew he was about to begin.
“It’s fitting, right?” he asked, glancing around. “To do this here. On these grounds.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he was doing. What he’d been doing since the day we finally got together. He was replacing all the memories from undergrad with new memories so big and so bright, they swallowed up the heartbreak of the past.
“UVA is where you stole my heart,” he said. “It hasn’t been mine since. And now, after the best year of my life, I know there’sno wayI’m ever getting it back.” He shrugged likeOh well,and I giggled. “So it looks like I have to ask you a question, okay?”
“Looks like you’ll have to,” I bounced on my toes, dying for him to hurry up.
“Magnolia Wren Hollis,” he said, grinning. “Will you do me the honor of letting me be your husband and loving you for the rest of forever?”
“Yes!” I blurted the millisecond he finished. “Yes, yes, yes!”
He whooped, shot to his feet, and lifted me off the ground in a kiss. The stadium—whoever was still in the stands anyway—broke into a collective cheer. But our family and friends out-screamed them all.
Too soon, he set me on my feet, reached into his pocket, and pulled out…
My mom’s ring.
My mouth parted. I hadn’t expected that. Dad had kept Mom’s ring on a chain around his neck since the day they took it off her at the funeral home. I glanced over at Dad, making sure. He grinned like he couldn’t be happier.
Bowen slid it over my finger, and I looked up into the eyes I’d fallen for all those years ago.
Together, in unison, we whispered, “Wah-hoo-wah.”
