Page 135 of In the Shadows

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"I've been thinking," Lila said.

"About?"

"The community center dedication. Patricia wants me to give the speech. Since they're naming it after my father."

"You should."

"I know. I just—" She pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around them. "It still feels strange. Having his name on something. He would have hated it so much."

"That's exactly why it matters."

She looked at him, a question in her eyes.

"He didn't do what he did for recognition," Ronan said. "He did it because it was right. Because the details mattered, even when nobody else was paying attention. Putting his name on that building isn't about him. It's about reminding everyone else what that kind of integrity looks like."

Her eyes went bright. She didn't say anything for a moment.

"When did you get so wise?"

"I'm not wise. I just pay attention."

"To what?"

"To you."

The sunset was fading now, the sky going purple at the edges. The first fireflies were blinking in the grass. Somewhere across the inlet, a fish jumped.

Ronan reached into his pocket.

"I have something for you."

"If it's another house key, I already have three."

"It's not a key."

He opened the small velvet box.

Lila went still.

"I'm not good at speeches," he said. "I spent twelve years learning how to lie, and now that I want to tell the truth, I don't have the words for it."

She was staring at the ring. At him. Back at the ring.

"So I'll just say this. You're the reason I stopped running. You're the reason I built this dock and bought this house and learned what a dahlia is."

He took the ring from the box.

"I want to build a life with you. A real one. The kind with burned dinners and council meetings and arguments about whose turn it is to fix the screen door. I want to wake up next to you when we're old and still not know what I did to deserve it."

She was crying now. Silently, the tears ran down her cheeks in the fading light.

"Lila Bennett." He held up the ring. "Will you marry me?"

She laughed. It came out wet, halfway to a sob.

"You're proposing on a crooked dock."

"I am."

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