The crew’s laughter swells behind us.
He stops near the ladder truck.
“You’re intense,” I murmur.
“I’ve been quiet for too long.”
“That’s not my fault.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re about to do something reckless.”
He huffs a quiet laugh. “You think asking for what I want is reckless?”
“It depends what you want.”
He holds my gaze steadily. “You.”
The simplicity of it knocks the air from my lungs.
“You already have me,” I whisper.
“Not like this.”
The teasing tone is gone. My heart thunders.
“Sawyer…”
He drops to one knee. Everything around us fades. For a half-second, I don’t process it. Then the world tilts.
“What are you doing?” I hiss.
He looks up at me, eyes steady and fierce.
Someone behind us gasps.
“Oh my God,” I hear Axel mutter loudly.
Sawyer ignores them.
“Tessa,” he says, voice carrying but still somehow just for me. “You walked into my life when I wasn’t looking for anything. You didn’t try to fix me. You didn’t compete with my past. You stood there. Steady. And you loved my daughter like she was your own.”
My throat tightens instantly.
“You brought laughter back into my house,” he continues. “You made it warm again.”
The crew has gone quiet now. Lacee is standing near the front, hands clasped under her chin. Sawyer reaches into his pocket.
“I don’t want you as a season,” he says. “I don’t want you as a chapter. I want you as my partner. As my wife. As the woman I wake up next to when the world gets hard.”
He opens the small box. The ring catches the light.
“I’m not asking because I need you to save me,” he says steadily. “I’m asking because I choose you. Fully. Without hiding.”
