Kate turned to face him fully as he dropped to one knee right there on the widow's walk, the harbor spread out behind him, the inn full of wedding joy below them.
“Katie Perkins,” he said, his voice steady despite his hands shaking slightly. “Northern girl, innkeeper, future Doctor of Marine Biology, Sunday morning ice fisherwoman even when there's no ice. I've loved you since the moment I first saw you. I've waited for you to believe you deserve happiness. I'll be by your side while you complete your master's degree, and your doctorate if you choose it. I want to be by your side through whatever comes next. But I don't want to wait to start our life together.”
He opened the box. The ring was perfect, a sapphire the color of winter ocean, surrounded by small diamonds like ice crystals.
“Marry me,” Ben said. “This summer, before you go back to school. Let's not wait for perfect timing. Let's just jump.”
Kate looked at him, this man who'd rebuilt her family's inn and waited for her to see him, really see him. She thought about her mother, choosing love at twenty-one. About herself at thirty-six, trying to choose everything. About timing and windows and the myth of perfect moments.
“What about children?” she asked. “If I do the doctorate…”
“Then we have children during the doctorate. Or after. Or we adopt. Or we don't have them. I want you, Katie. Everything else is negotiable.”
“I'll be forty. It might not be possible.”
“I can do math, and everything is possible.”
“I'll be stressed and absent and probably horrible during exams. I might be the biggest pain…”
“You already are. I'm still here.”
Kate laughed, tears streaming now. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes. This summer. August, after the tourist rush.”
Ben stood and slid the ring on her finger, then kissed her as the wedding reception below erupted in applause for something unrelated, but Kate chose to believe it was for them.
“I should tell you,” Ben said against her lips, “I already asked your siblings. Tom's ready to officiate. Dani has seventeen design plans, and James is already outlining a wedding website for us.”
“Of course they did.”
They stood together on the widow's walk as the sun set completely, the harbor lights beginning to twinkle. Below them,the Brennan wedding continued. Above them, the first stars appeared.
“We should go down,” Kate said. “Dani will send a search party.”
“In a minute.” Ben pulled her closer. “I want to remember this. You and me and the harbor and you saying yes.”
“Even if I do the doctorate?”
“Especially if you do the doctorate. Dr. and Mr. Calloway has a nice ring to it.”
Kate laughed. “I might keep Perkins. Professionally.”
“Keep whatever you want. Just keep me too.”
Later, after the wedding guests had gone and the family gathered in the kitchen for the usual debrief, Kate showed off her ring. Dani screamed. Tom looked satisfied, like a plan had come together. James said, “Finally, we can stop pretending we didn't know.”
“August?” Dani confirmed, already planning. “Small? Family only?”
“Maybe a little bigger,” Kate said, thinking of all the people who'd helped them save the inn, who'd become family by choice. “But here. Definitely here.”
“Mom would be so happy,” Tom said quietly.
“Pop too,” James added.
They sat around the kitchen table where so much had happened, planning a wedding that would take place in the gardens their mother had planted, at the inn their parents had saved, surrounded by people who'd watched them fall apart and come back together.
