Time to add one more.
"RJ, you're scaring me," she says. "What's going on?"
I take a deep breath.
Then another. Then I reach into my pocket and pull out the ring box.
Dalla's eyes go wide.
"I had this whole speech planned," I say, and my voice is steadier than I expected. "Something about how you changed my life, how I never knew I could feel this way, how you make me want to be a better man. And all of that is true—every word of it. But standing here, looking at you, I realize that none of that really matters."
I open the box.
The diamond catches the afternoon light, scattering rainbows across her stunned face.
"What matters is this: I love you. I love you more than I knew it was possible to love another person. I love your strength and your stubbornness and the way you refuse to back down fromanything. I love that you look at me and see something worth saving, even when I couldn't see it myself."
I sink to one knee, and somewhere behind us I hear someone gasp.
But I don't look away from Dalla.
I can't.
"I love that you're carrying our baby. I love that we're going to build a life together—messy and complicated and probably terrifying, but ours. I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life. I want to argue with you about what to name our kids and where to hang pictures and whose turn it is to do the dishes. I want all of it. Every mundane, beautiful, ordinary moment."
Tears are streaming down her face now, but she's smiling.
That smile—the one that makes everything else disappear.
"Dalla, will you marry me?"
For a heartbeat, she doesn't answer.
Just stares at me with those blue eyes, tears falling, lips trembling.
"Yes."
The word is barely a whisper, but it's the loudest thing I've ever heard.
"Yes," she says again, stronger this time. "Yes, of course, yes?—"
I'm on my feet before she can finish, sliding the ring onto her finger and pulling her into my arms.
She's laughing and crying at the same time, her arms wrapped around my neck, her body pressed against mine.
"I love you," she says against my mouth. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." I kiss her—deep and thorough, not caring that her entire family is probably watching. "Both of you."
A cheer goes up from the yard.
When I finally pull back, I see that we've drawn a crowd.
Fern is crying. Runes is trying very hard not to cry.
Everly is bouncing up and down, clutching Geirolf's arm.
Even some of the club members are clapping and whistling.
