Page 114 of Ransom
"Hold on a second."
I stepped back. Galahad watched me. I reached into my coat pocket, unzipped it one-handed, and pulled the leather square out. I held it flat against my chest for a second because I didn't know what else to do with it. Then I turned around.
Winston was still on the mare. He'd turned her a quarter so he could watch me without craning his neck.
"Winston."
"Yeah."
"Come on down off that horse."
He slid his boot out of the stirrup and swung down in one clean motion, which he hadn't been able to do in July. Six months on Pae Saco had put him back in his own body.
He walked over and stopped about three feet off, close enough to see his eyes. His breath was steady. Mine wasn't.
"Ransom?"
"Yeah."
"Is this what I think this is?"
"Depends on what you think it is."
I opened my hand and flipped the leather back.
It was a silver band, brushed so it wouldn't catch on tack. The kind of ring a man could wear working a horse and not lose a finger over. I'd spent two hours in Truth or Consequences picking it. The jeweler had tried to sell me three different things with stones in them. I'd told him the man I was marrying didn't wear jewelry and wouldn't know what to do with a stone. "Keep those," I'd said. "Give me the plainest band you've got."
Winston looked at the ring for a long second without moving. His jaw went tight, and he reached out and took the ring out of the leather. He held it up between his thumb and his finger.
"Jesus, Ransom."
"Yeah."
"This a proposal?"
"You want me to get down on one knee and ask you properly?"
His lips slowly turned up in a smirk. "Darlin', we ain't done nothing proper. Why start now?"
"So you'll do it? You'll marry me?"
"That's what I said." He took the ring and slid it on before holding up his hand to admire the ring. "Your claim looks good on me, darlin'."
The words made something low in my belly flutter. "Always has."
I put my hat back on and pushed it up my head a little more than usual.
"You're still gonna kill for him." Winston lowered his hand and looked at me.
"That all right with you?"
He took my hand and squeezed it once. "Long as you're mine."
He kissed me, lips tasting like coffee, cold air, and salt. I pulled him against me and slid my hand into his hair, holding himthere. When we pulled apart, he pressed his forehead against mine and stayed there, eyes closed.
We stood like that for a minute. I don't know how long. Galahad snorted and shifted a hoof on the rocks behind us.
"We should head back."
