“Can we stay forever?”
The question lands in the center of my chest like a bell.Lucy laughs softly, brushing Quinn’s hair back from her face.
“I think that might be a little sudden.”
Quinn looks at me.Not Lucy.
Me.
And there’s so much trust in that little face that it nearly drops me to my knees.
“Can we come a lot?”she asks.“I mean I don’t want to sleep on your porch Mellow, but I like the bed inside.”
I crouch in front of her.“I feel pretty good we can make arrangements.”
She grins so hard she almost folds in half, then races back to the slide before either of us can say another word.
Lucy watches her go.Then she looks at me slowly.And I know.
Now.
Before my courage can develop a self-preservation instinct.I reach into my pocket.Her breath catches immediately when she sees the small velvet box.I don’t get down on one knee right away.Not because I don’t want to.
Because first I need her to hear this standing up.Eye to eye.Woman to man.Truth to truth.
She goes very still.“Tucker.”
I open the box.The ring is simple and strong.Gold band, oval diamond, nothing flashy.It felt like her the second I saw it—clear, steady, beautiful without trying too hard.
Her eyes fill again.And this time I’m the one taking a breath before I speak.
“I bought this house because I liked the space,” I begin.“Thought it fit the kind of life I had then.Quiet.Easy to leave.Easy to keep to myself.”
She doesn’t move.Doesn’t blink.I keep going.
“But that life’s not the one I want anymore.”My voice roughens a little.I let it.“I want shoes by my front door that don’t belong to me.I want Quinn’s drawings on my fridge.I want your coffee mug in my sink and your books on my nightstand and your laugh in every room of this place.”
A tear slips free down her cheek.
I step closer, close enough that I can catch it with my thumb.
“I built that playground because I need you to understand something.”My chest feels too tight around the words, but I make them anyway.“This isn’t me asking you to visit.This is me asking you to stay.”
Her lips part.
No sound comes out.
I smile a little because I know exactly what I’m doing to her and because I’m barely keeping it together myself.
“I want this house to be your home,” I state.“Both of yours.She deserves the best I can give her day in and out.I want to give her a playground, a life, and be by your side as she grows up.I want to hold your hand now and forever.”
And then I finally go down on one knee.The grass is cool through my jeans.The ring box sits steady in my hand even though my pulse is trying to kick through my ribs.
Lucy makes this tiny, broken sound like her heart just cracked wide open.
“I love you,” I tell her.“I love Quinn.I love the life we’ve built and the one we haven’t even started yet.”I glance toward the playset where Quinn is currently shouting at a squirrel to respect fort rules, then back to the woman I’m already halfway married to in every way that counts.“So make it official for me, baby.”
Her hand covers her mouth.She is crying now.Actually crying.And smiling through it.I think that sight will live in my chest forever.
