Pete laughed and tossed something into my lap, and then he flopped on his back and laughed some more. “You’re fuckingimpossible.”
I looked down at the silver ring he’d thrown at me. It was his father’s. I recognized it from the chain Maggie had worn until it had become too heavy for her frail neck. “You want to getmarried?”
“Yes.” Pete stopped laughing and sat up. “I don’t need a bit of paper to validate what we have, but I want us to be together in every way possible, and I want to celebrate that with everyone we love. Call me corny, but I think it’s way past time we did this shit. Ash, I want tomarryyou.”
He wanted to get married. He wanted to marryme. Sometimes I thought I was done with surprises, but this one topped them all. An emotion I couldn’t describe stole my breath, and crazy joy exploded out of me before I even thought to control it. I threw myself on top of Pete and kissed him like it was that first time holed up in his Lincoln Park apartment all over again. Where the world—our world, at least—and their dogs weren’t watching us from various viewpoints aroundthelake.
But I hardly heard the whistles and catcalls as I pinned Pete to the dusty mud and pressed my forehead so hard against his that my skull creaked. “I want to marryyoutoo.”
“Then quit manhandling me and put the damnringon.”
“Asshole.” I rolled off him and retrieved the ring from the dirt. It was chipped and scuffed and so utterly perfect that I wanted to cry. I gave it to Pete and held out myshakinghand.
Pete slid it onto my finger and swiped at his face. “I don’t know when we’ll get around to making it official, but as far as I’m concerned, this ring has been yours since the day we met. I love you, Ash, and I’ll spend the rest of my life building on everything wealreadyhave.”
What little composure I’d learned over the years abandoned me. My words caught in my throat and I left them there. Pete’s arms were my home, and there was nothing left to say. We’d climbed another mountain and reached the top together. Life was never a perfect circle, but the one we had wasallours.
* * *
Pete
I married Ash three days later. Max’s BFF stopped by one morning, and it turned out she was ordained and Catholic. And the next thing I knew, I was standing at the water’s edge, tying a strip of silk from Maggie’s best dress around Ash’swrists.
We left the party just before sunset and hiked up the trail behind our cabin. We’d yet to reach the top of the mountain, but the outpost we’d carved out halfway up had become our new alfrescosanctuary.
Ash lay down on the grass and stared up at the pink sky. He was wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt some eco-warrior had thrust at him at a tattoo convention in London. Transatlantic flights weren’t my thing, but it had been worth it to see the world through his eyes. And he hadn’t gotten sick. Apparently it really was only appendicitis that made him blow chunks intheair.
I claimed my place beside him on the ground and lay my head on his chest. My hand found its way under his shirt, and I absently traced the tiny scar on his abdomen. He shivered. “It still feels funny when youdothat.”
“Seriously? Mineisnumb.”
“Yeah, butyou’renot.”
I glanced up at him. “I know that,fucker.”
Ash smiled. “Justchecking.”
I tore myself away from his addictive belly and crawled over him so we were face to face. “You don’t have to do that. I’d tell you if shit got realagain.”
“Uh-huh.”
I kissed him, gently at first, but then harder as our bodies melded together, and I poured everything I had into reassuring him that, mentally, I was here to stay. I’d never get over losing Maggie, but life had moved on—I’dmoved on—and the future I couldn’t see for so long was right in frontofus.
Ash wove his fingers into my too-long hair and held me tight against him. His cock was hard between us, but he wouldn’t fuck me here—not yet. I was still working on our alfresco sexrepertoire.
We kissed for what seemed like hours, but he pulled away eventually with a reluctant sigh. “Is it Mondaytomorrow?”
“Yeah.” I buried my face in his neck. Without a full-time job, Monday mornings didn’t hold much horror for me, but the end of a weekend that would forever be etched on my soul was hard to accept. “What are youdoing?”
“I don’tknowyet.”
As if on cue, my phone buzzed in my pocket, brought back to life by a cell provider that actually covered our new corner of the world. I didn’t look at it—didn’t have to. That I’d married Ash today, of all days, was the happiest coincidence we’d ever been dealt, and if my best attempt at planning had worked out, he was about to get the best weddinggiftever.
And sowasI.
Our patchwork family was strong and wide, but it had all started with one person—a tiny, elfin college student with the kindestheart.
I shook Ash out of his daze and pointed down the mountain. “You need to go downthere.”
