Lucas:wish you were here <3
I sent the text, making my peace with not hearing back for a while.My mom was suspiciously quiet, so I peeked over my shoulder to see that she had guided Jupiter to a stop, her birdwatching binoculars pressed to her eyes.
“Still looking for that bald eagle that you definitely didn’t imagine?”
“Hush, you, I know what I saw.”She scanned the horizon, then aimed down the hill back toward the ranch.“Huh.”
“Huh what?”
“Just huh.”She handed me the binoculars, a mischievous sparkle in her eye.“Take a look.”
She was being weird.I adjusted the focus and pointed my gaze where Mom directed.
No way.
There was absolutely.No.Way.
Armand was standing on the back porch.A backpack slung over one shoulder.Staring up at us.
I turned to see Mom giving me a cheeky grin.“It’s a Christmas miracle.”
I shoved the binoculars into her hands, barely hearing her laugh—“Go unwrap your present!”—as I picked up Dakota’s reins and raced down the hill, heart slamming in my throat.
I’d barely coasted Dakota to a stop when I hopped off; Armand dropped his bag and barely caught me as I leaped into his arms.
“Oh my god, what are you doing here?”I asked into his neck, warm and fluttery at how easily we slotted together.“You should’ve told me you were flying in!”I pulled back enough to take in his gorgeous yet clearly sleep-deprived face.“When did you land?”
He squeezed me tight, breath tickling my ear.“Not an hour ago.Sorry for the surprise, but I, er, wanted it to be a surprise.A good one, hopefully.”
“Of course it’s a good one!What the hell—” I let out a disbelieving laugh.“I literally just sent you a text that said ‘wish you were here.’I’m magic.”I pressed a hand to his chest to check he was real.His heartbeat pounded against my palm.“I can’t believe you’re really here.”Then something crept into my bubble of excitement.“Wait, is everything okay?”
Armand cast a wary glance to Dakota waiting patiently behind me.“This isn’t working,” he said, then instantly paled, horrified.“No!No, er, not this relationship—the long-distance bit.I was happy to do it because you asked and you needed it, but I need us to be on the same continent.The same time zone, the same bloody postcode.And we don’t have to live together if you’re happier here”—his nose wrinkled cutely, as if he, respectfully, couldn’t picture a world in which someone would feel at home with horses—“and I know I’m doing it again, the moving too fast, but I’m at my limit, love.”
There was buzzing in my ears.“What ...what are you saying?”
Armand’s wide shoulders rose and fell in a giant breath.“I got a job—visiting artist position at Norsemen.”He shook his head and chuckled softly.“They’re gonna let me teach art again, for some reason.”
“Visiting—” I struggled to put the pieces together, hoping against hope that I wasn’t wrong.“You want to live here?In California?”
“I want to live,” Armand stated, clearly, taking hold of both my hands, “wherever you are, love.”
My head threatened to float away.“What about Lakshmi?The comic?”
“I can work on the comic anywhere.And Lakshmi all but shoved me out the door.”
I was going so tingly I was in danger of exploding.“But you hate California.”
Armand pulled me in closer.“But I loveyou.”
He was prepared to leave his country, his friends, his community—forme.A rush of something unexpected came over me, a sense of rightness.Of home.He was choosing me, in an undeniably long-term way.And I wanted nothing more than to choose him right back.
I was filled with fluttery energy, yet was suddenly calmer than ever.“We should get married.”
Armand appeared to choke on his own saliva.“What?”
“Shit, sorry, I did that all wrong.How about this—” I kept a tight hold on Armand’s hands even as I took a small step backward and lowered myself onto one knee.
Armand stopped breathing.
