Page 212 of Just One More Thing

The one who loved me when I couldn’t tell him I loved him back.

This man has been choosing me longer than I’ve ever been brave enough to admit I wanted to be chosen.

I want to run.

Straight toward him.

“Yes!”

His whole body exhales. Not just a breath. A release.

“Yes?”

“YES,” I say, already crying harder. “Yes, Jake Wheeler, I will marry you for real this time.”

His hands shake as he slides the ring onto my finger.

Then he’s up and sweeping me into his arms and kissing me deeply. I laugh against his mouth because I’m crying and kissing and half falling into him all at once, and he laughs too as he swings me around.

When he sets me down, I keep both hands on his shoulders.

“I have questions,” I say.

“It’s only fair you get to ask a question since I did.”

He keeps one arm around my waist and leans back enough to look at me. “What do you want to know?”

“Hold on.” I look at the ring again. “Let me admire this for another minute.”

He waits while I tilt my hand and stare like it belongs to someone else.

Then I point over my shoulder with my thumb. “What is happening here? On our island? What is this?”

“That’s three questions.”

“It was one breath, so it counts as one.”

He chuckles. “That sounds like a wife thing to say.”

“I’m practicing.”

He laughs with so much happiness, if I wasn’t already engaged to him, that might’ve done it.

He turns with me so we’re both facing the foundation, his arms wrapped around me from behind.

“I bought our island when I came back to Blue Crab Bay,” he says. “Having it made me remember who I was when I was with you. I’d come out here when I was missing you. Which was a lot.”

He rests his chin on my shoulder as I squeeze his hands.

“When you came back,” he continues, “I had plans drawn up for a house. The builder started before you left.”

I close my eyes for a second.

He was already building something while I was still deciding whether I was allowed to want it. He had the kind of faith in us I didn’t have in myself yet.

I lean back into him harder.

He whispers in my ear, “I love you, Mo. I’ll spend my life making you laugh. Making sure you know you’re loved and safe.”