Petal ate too much, and her shits were like land mines.
I liked the idea of a small, cute dog who’d snuggle up with me at night, resting his doggy head on the pillow beside mine.
“What are you grinning at?” Declan asked with raised eyebrows when he glanced sideways at me.
“Thinking about my future dog, the one that’ll sleep with me.”
“There will be no fucking dog in my bed, princess,” he grumbled crossly.
“Then we won’t be sharing a bed.” I stuck my tongue out at him, the tension leaving my bones as we left the ruined house behind.
He growled, frightening the birds roosting in a nearby tree. They flew up, squawking in alarm.
“How about a cat, then?” I liked cats too. I liked all creatures, except spiders. Spiders were my pet hate.
“I don’t mind cats,” he admitted. “They’re independent creatures.”
“I love pussies,” Ronan piped up from behind us.
“Do you have to lower the tone?” Conal groaned. “This is supposed to be fucking romantic!”
I wondered what he meant, but the path ended to reveal the ruined chapel, diverting my attention.
“Why are we here?”
Declan didn’t reply. Instead, he pushed open the heavy door, and we stepped inside.
I stared around the small space in disbelief. Flowers and candles covered every available surface. Someone had placed bunches of heavy, fragrant blooms in luscious colors in vases and pots. Small tea lights flickered in glass jars and thick altar candles burned on the altar, creating puddles of melted wax.
Where had they all come from?
Ash and Connor stood at the far end of the chapel, grinning. Declan nodded at them and they circled past us before leaving. When I turned around, Ronan and Conal were watching my reaction.
They both shuffled on the spot, clearly nervous.
“Why are we here?” Nothing made sense. I understood why Declan had brought me back to the estate. His plan to rebuild the house made sense, even if going behind my back and buying the place without telling me had come as a surprise.
“Because we wanted to do this in a place that had meaning.”
“This was Thea’s meeting place with Dario,” I pointed out. I’d only come here once, one afternoon, when Thea rescued me from the attic for a few hours while our father was away on business. We’d sat playing in the cool shade, drawing pictures in the dirt until the guards came with their dogs.
I’d been around five. Too young to fully understand why Papa didn’t let me play outside.
One of his guards must have told our father about Thea’s act of rebellion because she didn’t visit me for weeks after they took me back to the house. My memories of that day had mostly faded, but the excitement I’d felt walking through the trees while eating stolen pastries from the kitchen lingered.
“Thea brought me here when I was small,” I reminisced, reaching out to touch a tightly furled pink rose.
“We didn’t want to do this somewhere generic, like the Eiffel Tower,” Conal told me as he slid his arm around my waist.
“I didn’t much like it there,” I admitted. It had been on my list of places to visit when I first traveled back to Europe. Paris had seemed romantic, but the crowds and constant hassle from creepy men ruined it for me.
“No, Saoirse said as much. So we asked Thea. She said this place might work.”
“Work for what?”
I let Conal spin me round, only to see Declan on one knee, a jewelry box in his hand. Ronan took my left hand and squeezed.
“You’re ours, Verity,” Declan declared. “Ours to love. Ours to cherish and protect. Will you marry us?”
