Something softens in his expression. He nods once. “Good.” Then he pulls Levi into a quick, firm hug that makes the entire firehouse erupt again. “Took you long enough after you asked me for her hand–what’s it been–four years now?”
“Wait–” I turn to Levi, “you asked for my hand in marriagefour yearsago?”
Levi nods.
“He asked right before you skipped town.” My father claps him on the shoulder. “He’s a good man, Sadie, don’t break his heart again.”
I push tears out of my eyes and wrap my arms around my dad. “I won’t daddy, I promise.”
“So guess that means we’re keeping you,” Sawyer calls across the bay.
Levi smirks. “You were never getting rid of me.”
The music shifts to something louder. Someone cracks open a cooler. The church ladies materialize inside the bay like they’ve been waiting behind the engines for their cue.
There are more balloons. There’s a cake.
There’s even a handwritten sign taped to the ladder truck that saysNO MORE ALMOSTS.
I stare at it.
“You didn’t tell them that,” I say quietly.
Levi glances at the sign and then back at me. “I didn’t have to.”
Mrs. Dottie claps her hands dramatically. “Speech!”
“No,” Levi and I say in unison.
“Speech!” the crew chants anyway.
Levi sighs and steps forward slightly, still keeping one hand anchored at my waist like he’s afraid I’ll float off.
“I spent five thousand dollars,” he says dryly. “You’re all getting your money’s worth.”
Laughter erupts. He looks at me for half a second before addressing the room again.
“I should’ve done this years ago,” he adds simply.
He pulls me forward gently.
“Sadie deserves someone who shows up,” he says.
The words settle over the crowd. My throat tightens.
“And I’m not leaving,” he finishes.
The applause is louder this time and I lean into him without thinking.
Mrs. Dottie fans herself dramatically. “Oh, I love a second chance romance, you two are a fairytale.”
The church ladies begin passing out cupcakes like communion. Tyler sidles up to me with frosting already on his chin.
“So,” he says conspiratorially, “you’re really going through with it?”
I lift my hand again, admiring the way the diamond catches the firehouse lights. “Looks that way.”
He whistles. “Lieutenant went nuclear.”
