“I don’t want to go back down.” He tried to argue with me.
“You’re not going up the rest of these stairs, Lawson.”
“I’m already halfway up, just help me up.”
“No,” I said more firmly this time, hoping he would understand that I didn’t want him hurting more of himself.
“Anya.”
I looked up at him with what little light there was. Determination was written all over his face.
“Lawson.” I whipped back.
“Don’t use my full name.”
“Oh, really?” I jabbed. “Lawson. Kane.”
I enunciated each word and looked him dead in the eyes, not wavering.
“I am going up these damn stairs.” He fought back.
“And I said you weren’t.”
“Damn it, Anya,” he yelled and I jumped in his arms. A strings of curses flew out of his mouth. “Shit, sugar.”
His voice came back down.
“I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just…” He took a deep breath. We were on the stairs, him halfway up to the next step and me on my way to getting up down. “I need to get up the stairs.”
We stood at a standstill, neither one of us budging. I thought to myself about how horrible the floor had actually been to sleep on. I weighed the odds that once I got him upstairs then he really wouldn’t need to get back down and the bathroom was a lot closer if we used our room.
I let out a huff and cocked my head to the side in defeat.
“Yes!” Law tried to celebrate his victory with a fist thrust in the air, but immediately regretted it. “Shit.”
I wrapped my arm tighter around him to help him up the stairs.
“This is why you weren’t left alone,” I scolded him, but he paid no mind to my talk. “You can’t be trusted not to hurt yourself more than you already are. I mean, seriously, Law, it’s what, past midnight. Why would you need to come all the way up the stairs right now? What couldn’t wait for tomorrow or even when you could get up here yourself?”
I kept questioning him the whole way to the room. I stood in front of him on his side of the bed in between his legs and turned on the bedside lamp. It wasn’t too bright but gave us just enough light to see each other more clearly. Law sat there on the bed and wrapped his arms around my waist and held me close to him.
“You going to ignore me now?” I laid my hands on the top of his head, running my fingers through his hair. I hadn’t even realized how long it had been getting. Where the ends had used to curl at the top of his neck, they were now waves of hair that stopped almost at the bottom of his neck now.
“No.” His word was muffled into my stomach, but he pulled away and then reached into the drawer of his nightstand. He pulled out a small box from the drawer. I looked down at it and then back up at Law.
My head snapped back down.
“What the fuck is that?” I pointed to the box, not sure what was happening.
“Just something I’ve been meaning to give you.” He shrugged and held the box in both of his hand between us. He didn’t open it, though.
“Look at me.”
I jerked my head up from the box and looked at Law through blurred eyes. I felt like we were back at the hospital. I was trying too hard to control my emotions, but hell, unlike there, it wasn’t working here.
Law’s dark blue eyes bore into me and I was transported back to the dance we had in the field. My heart sped up and at first I didn’t think he was going to say anything and then everything came out all at once. And I didn’t stop him. I couldn’t, even if I had wanted to.
“It might not have been an accident the first time I bumped into you, Anya, but I’ll tell you this now. I’ll tell you this first, it was a complete accident that I fell in love with you. But it is an accident I would be happy to replay over and over again. That smile on your face the first time we danced had me enchanted. And I can’t wait to see it on our wedding day when we dance for the first time as husband and wife. Standing there with you barefoot on my shoes. Dancing our pas de deux.” He popped the box open, which held a gorgeous antique ring. It was silver with a little color to it, showing me its age, which made my heart melt even more. The top of it was laid out like a flower, ten petals all holding diamonds, with one large one in the middle. He didn’t reach in to take it out immediately. He let it sit there as a tear dropped down my face and onto the box.
“I found this ring when I first came back to Alabama from New York. I knew the second I found it in the vintage shop that it was yours. I remembered that sunflower tattoo you had and my heart knew in that moment you were it. All it had taken was less than a week with you and you had me, Anya. I have no idea if you know that, but damn it, you did.” He took the ring out of the box and held it between two fingers. I made no reach for him to put it on my hand. I wanted him to do this how he wanted to.
“When you showed up a month ago in my shop, I had no idea what to think. I was speechless when you ran into my arms, but when you said forever, I knew I was the luckiest man alive. Anya, I hope you know you make me the luckiest man alive.” He snapped the box closed with one hand and then laid it on the bed and made a grab for my left hand. I let him take the lead as he hovered the ring over my ring finger.
“I want you to have my last name. I want my mom to be able to call you her daughter. I want for us to have our own children. I want us to be more than we ever thought we could be.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Anya.”
He opened them again and a tear dropped out of his eyes and I lost it. A sob broke free as I waited with bated breath for him to ask the most important question of my life.
“Will you marry me?” He didn’t falter on a single word as more tears streamed down his cheeks. He didn’t even wait for me to answer before he slid the ring onto my finger. It felt so snug against my skin, like it was simply meant for me. I knew I didn’t need to say it, but I also knew for both our sakes, I had to say it. So I did. I said the one word we both needed. The one word that was going to change our entire lives, and I couldn’t fucking wait.
“Yes.”
