“I told you, you’re my home.” I watched the tide rush toward us and then pull back away. “And it’s true. London feels right for me, even though I haven’t been able to explore too much yet. I know it’s been an adjustment, but ... I like it. I like living there with you.”
“Hmmm. That’s very convenient, because I love having you with me. Coming home to you is my favorite part of the day—with waking up next to you a close second.” He slowed his steps, shading his eyes as he stared a little bit ahead of us, up on the beach. “Look at that.”
I squinted in the direction of Nicky’s pointed finger. “Is that ... oh. It’s a sand castle. Who was here to play in the sand?” This part of the beach, from the edge of Honey and Handsome’s property all the way along the private beach that belonged to Nicky’s mother’s family, was off-limits to the public. No press, no trespassers ... and no intruding sand castle builders.
“Could’ve been anyone, I guess.” He sounded far too unconcerned, and I glanced up at him sharply. “But check out those turrets and the moat. It reminds me a little bit of the one I built all those years ago—the award-winning one—the one whose memory still so aggravates you.”
“It doesn’t exactlyaggravateme.” I sniffed. “I just think that you had an unfair advantage, being a prince and all. But—” I held up one finger. “I’ve gotten over it. I no longer hold anything against you. I am choosing to be the bigger person.”
“How mature of you.” Nicky coughed, and I suspected he was trying not to laugh. “Let’s go take a look anyway.”
I frowned but allowed Nicky to lead me toward the castle. When we stopped to stand alongside it, I noticed something small and blue fluttering in the breeze.
“Is that ...” Leaning down, I plucked the faded blue ribbon from where it had been tucked into one sand tower. “Oh, my God. Nicky—is this—this is your first-prize ribbon for that castle. What’s it doing here?”
“That’s a mystery.” He sounded remarkably unconcerned. “Maybe it’s fate. Maybe ...” He closed my fingers around the old ribbon, holding my hand in both of his. “Maybe this is my way of finally making up the old misunderstanding to you. We should have won this prize together.”
I began to laugh. “Honestly, Nicky, you know I’m not serious—” And then I forgot about what I was going to say, what I was thinking—about how to take my next breath, because Nicky dropped to one knee in front of me in the sand.
“I want everything we do to be together, Kyra. Nothing in my life has any meaning if you’re not part of it. I want you to live with me always. I want to love you forever. Will you, Kyra Margaret Duncan, marry me?”
At that moment, everything changed. The earth shifted on its axis. The sun was suddenly brighter, the air crisper and the sea louder.
Nicky’s hair blew in the wind, but his eyes never left mine. They were steady, steadfast and true. They were everything I wanted. They were all I could see.
“Of course, I will.” The words came out in a whisper. “Of course, I’ll marry you, Nicky.” Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. “I could never love anyone else.”
The smile that spread over Nicky’s face was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. He tugged hard on the hand that held mine, yanking me down until I was kneeling, too. Wrapping both arms around me, he held me close.
“Thank you,” he breathed against my ear. “You’ve made me so very happy just now.”
Being me, I couldn’t let the tender moment go unchallenged. “Justnow?” My voice was muffled against his neck. “Haven’t I made you happy before now?”
“Almost every single day since the first time I met you,” Nicky answered swiftly. “And before you ask, thealmostis because when we were young, there were plenty of days when you annoyed the living shit out of me. And then after we reconnected, there were those six months when we were apart, and I can’t say that I was happy during that time.”
I considered. “I guess that’s reasonable.”
“But every day other than those, you have made me supremely happy. Today is the penultimate because it means we’re going to make each other happy every day for the rest of our lives.”
“That’s a lot of pressure,” I sighed. “Pretty sure we might both end up—how did you put it? Annoying the living shit out of each other now and then, no matter how hard we try.”
“Of course, we will.” Nicky chuckled, his chest moving up and down. “But that’s what makes life fun, isn’t it? You keep me guessing, Ky, all the time. You make me laugh, you make me think in a completely different way than I ever have before ... you’ve opened a new world to me, and yet you’ve come into my world, even though it’s been such a change for you. Don’t ever think that I don’t realize or appreciate that. I do. And I want to make it up to you every day for as long as we both shall live.”
I swallowed over the lump that had risen in my throat. “I think I can work with that.”
“Excellent.” He turned his head, cupping my jaw and guiding my lips to his. “And now, as much as I’d love to scoop you up into my arms and carry you off to a private room where we could celebrate our engagement properly, your entire family is waiting back at your grandparents’ house—and they’re counting on a less, ah, intimate celebration.” Nicky smirked a little. “I heard something about pie and champagne.”
“Wait a minute—they all knew?” My eyes widened. “How in the hell did they keep it a secret?”
“With great difficulty, according to your father.” Nicky stood and helped me to my feet, too. “He said your mother was beside herself. They’ve known—your parents—for some time now. I talked to them on FaceTime one evening when you stayed late at the office, and I asked for their blessing. I think it’s been hard on your mother not to say anything to you.”
“That probably explains why she was so irritable after dinner,” I mused.
“Maybe—oh.” He reached into his jacket and drew out a small black box. “I nearly forgot this.” He balanced it on the center of his upturned palm. “After all, if we go back to the house and you’re not wearing a ring, they’ll think you turned me down.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t a jewelry girl; on any given day, I stuck to small silver hoops in my ears and the cross pendant that Honey and Handsome had given me when I was confirmed. But I found myself unexpectedly eager to see what Nicky had chosen for my engagement ring. This was the ring I’d wear for the rest of my days.
Slowly, he opened the lid, revealing a platinum band set with a gleaming round emerald surrounded by diamonds. It wasn’t ostentatious or huge—it was quintessentially and undeniablyme. With the stone set low into the wide band, there wasn’t a worry about it catching on my gardening gloves or of it becoming caked with soil after I’d spent an afternoon digging in the dirt.
