It pulls a laugh from me. I haul her up and head for the stairs. I don’t stop until we’re both lying in bed. The oval of her face beams with happiness as she looks back at me. Again, comes that strange sensation of buoyancy.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real.” I take her hand. “Like maybe I’m in a coma somewhere, dreaming this all up.”
The corners of her eyes crinkle. “You know, I had the same thought a couple of times since we got together. Either that or I’m in an alternate reality.”
We laugh about it for a second, then fall into contented silence. But my mind is moving ahead again. I’ve been holding back for months now with increasing difficulty. After seeing the pieces of my life lovingly saved by her, I can’t do it anymore.
The tip of my thumb catches the edge of the ring on Pen’s slender finger and toys with it. “Looks good on you, Pen.”
Inside, my heart is pounding hard and insistent. While she simply smiles fondly.
“You should have seen the way May and June gaped. They were convinced it was your grandmother’s ring.”
“Because it is.”
Surprise has her gaze shooting to mine. “I wondered but I didn’t think... How did you get it so fast?”
I shrug, pretending I’m calm. But I’m not. “I always had it.”
“What?” It comes out in a squeak.
Ah, but the way she continues to be surprised by my love for her. One day she won’t. I want all the days.
“That day, when you were hurt,” I tell her. “After your mom took you to the doctor, I went to see Nanna Linda in the den. I told her what had happened, said with great authority that I wanted to marry you, but I needed a ring.”
“No...Truly? What did she say?” Her rapt expression has me smiling, my mind sinking back into the memory of Nanna’s indulgent look when I’d told her of my plan.
“She didn’t laugh or tell me I was being foolish. She just nodded and said sometimes that’s the way of it. That Grandpop Charles had pledged his love to her when they were thirteen. And since I appeared serious about the matter, she was going to give me her ring for you.
“Took it off that weekend. Said her knuckles were getting too big for it and she wanted to remove it before she couldn’t. Put it in a safe and, when she died, left it for me in her will.”
With a little noise of pleasure, Pen presses her lips to my neck and hugs me. Her breath is warm on my skin. “You floor me sometimes, Pickle. You really do.”
“It doesn’t freak you out?”
“Why would it, when I loved you just as long? It’s more like... sometimes I wish I’d opened my eyes a little more and really seen you then.”
“I think about that too, wishing I’d realized sooner that you actually liked me instead of the hate thing.” I grin at her sour face. “But we’re here now. That’s all that matters in the end.”
“You’re right.” Gently, she spreads her hand out over my heart and looks at the ring I claimed for her long ago. I never thought I’d be able to give it to her. In truth, I never actually tried until I opened that door one rainy night, and she finally looked at me.
Call it pride, or perhaps it was the fear of rejection. But I held myself back from Penelope for too long. No more. I’m all in. Come what may.
Pen’s voice cracks with emotion when she finally speaks. “My whole life I was content with sitting back and watching others shine. I’d resigned myself to watching you too. Then you came along and pulled me right into the sun, made me feel beautiful and treasured. With your beautiful soul, immense talent, and tender heart. You’re the best person I know.”
Hell. I curl into her, holding her hand to my heart. I can’t wait any longer.
“Penelope?”
“August.”
I meet her eyes. “I don’t want you to take the ring off.”
She pauses, lips parting on a breath. A gleam enters her eyes. “You don’t?”
“No.” I stroke her wrist where her pulse beats as fast as mine. “I never did. But it’s a delicate thing asking the girl you’ve loved forever to marry you when you’ve only been together for a little while.”
Pen swallows thickly. “I can see that being something to consider.”
