Neither does.
Instead, Ransom smiles, slides a hand around my neck, and meets my gaze. “Oh, sunshine, I’m definitely already in love with you.”
21
Ransom
Christmas Eve
* * *
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t having flashbacks.
As I pick up the velvet box, weigh it in my hand, then slide it into my pocket, I remember the last time I did this.
There are moments when I think I must be insane to try it again.
But as soon as those thoughts land in my head, I brush them away. I’m not interested in the old mottos anymore. I don’t cling to them for safety.
And I don’t want them to trip me up.
If I’m insane, it’s a good kind of crazy.
When I go to Teagan’s home that night to spend Christmas Eve together, I stay in the moment.
And the moment includes kissing her, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to cheesy holiday music as snow falls outside her picturesque reading nook window.
Then it’s time for stockings, and I tell her to grab the one I hung for her.
When she dips her hand inside and pulls out the box, she shoots me a curious look—a rather intrigued one.
My heart pounds against my ribs, thumping out a potent rhythm of hope.
Of second chances.
And most of all, of yeses.
“Ransom,” she says, her voice choked with emotion.
And in a flash, I move in front of her and get down on one knee.
Hope floods me.
Nerves fill me.
And love guides me.
“Teagan King, the last six months with you have been wildly fun, incredibly sexy, intensely romantic, and filled with so much love that each day I wonder how it’s possible to feel so much. But it must be, because it’s happening.” I stop to take a breath—there’s so much more to say. “I want to spend all my days with you. I’m in love with you, and I love you, and I want to sing ‘Summer Nights’ with you and down chocolate milkshakes together and go out with our friends and play laser tag and stay in bed and curl up with each other. With you, only you, always you.”
She brings her hand to her mouth, gasping as she nods vigorously and keeps nodding like she can’t stop.
Like she’s as thrilled, delighted, and absolutely happy as I am.
“I would love to marry you,” she says, and I take the box and open it, then slide a diamond solitaire onto her ring finger, gazing at it and loving the way it looks on my fiancée.
This time, this love will last.
All the walls have come down. I’ve pushed past all my fears. And I’m stepping into a new future with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
Two months later, we’re in Cancun, happy as clams, ready for Logan to marry Bryn, knowing we’ll be the next in our group to say our I dos. Yeah, all my single soldiers have fallen.
Fallen happily into their forevers.
22
Logan
February
* * *
Some things in life are easy, some are damn easy, and some are so easy you barely even have to think.
Choosing baseball over basketball? Simple.
Lining up for hours to source the perfect piece of kitty couture for Amelia to dress Queen LaTofu in? No question.
But this, right here, right now? Standing in front of the mirror and adjusting my bow tie before I speak the most important words I’ll ever say in my life?
It’s the simplest thing of all.
Because loving Bryn is easy.
It’s never been hard. It’s always been the most natural thing in the world. We fit together so damn well, and marrying the love of my life is the most honest thing I could do.
Because that’s how we are together—we’re honest with each other, all the damn time.
My heart was aligned with hers the moment we locked eyes over that Snoopy lunch box.
And I can’t wait to make it official.
I give my bow tie one last tweak. Official indeed.
“Dad, did you know elephants are pregnant for nearly two years?”
I blink and turn to my daughter sitting on the hotel bed, her legs swinging back and forth against the white bedspread. “I did not know that.”
“They are. And when they give birth, their entire herd gathers around to protect the mom and new baby from . . .” She pauses, taking her time with the next word. “Preda . . . pred-a-tors.” She nods with the authority of an expert, which she just so happens to be. It takes a lot to beat Amelia at animal trivia.
“That’s pretty smart of the pack to look out for the baby like that.” I crouch down beside her and take her small hands in mine, meeting her eyes, trying to understand my little girl. Despite her mother remarrying, and despite Bryn and I having been together for almost two years, I need to make sure that this elephant diversion isn’t due to any last-minute nerves on Amelia’s part. “Sweetie pie, are you ready for today?”
