He took a breath, the kind that came from somewhere deep, the kind meant to steady a person before a leap.
Then he went down on one knee.
For a moment, the room tilted around her, the warm light and solid furniture and carefully chosen details all spinning slightly before settling back into place.
"Colby," she whispered, his name escaping on a breath.
He looked up at her from the floor, his expression open and steady and so full of something she was almost afraid to name."You said once that the fire didn't take the part of you that knows what home feels like," he said, his voice low and sure."You said you found that again.Here, on this land.With this plan.With me."
She remembered saying it.Standing in the cottage that had become theirs, after the night he'd tackled a man with a gas can, her whole body still shaking with the aftermath of fear and relief.She remembered the way his hand had tightened on hers when she'd spoken those words, like he was holding onto them as much as he was holding onto her.
"I did," she said."I meant every word."
"Well," he said, a slight tremor in his voice that she had never heard before, that made him seem suddenly, achingly human, "I know what home feels like now, too.And it's not a place, exactly.It's not four walls and a roof and a deed with my name on it."
She waited, barely breathing.
"It feels like waking up with your knee in my back because you're hogging the blankets," he said."It feels like tripping over your planner in my kitchen and not minding, because it means you're there.It feels like watching you walk this path every evening and realizing I never get tired of the way you look at something you love, like it might break, but you've decided it won't because you said so."
Her eyes burned, pressure building behind them that she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to.
"It feels like this," he continued, his voice rough now, catching on the edges of words that clearly cost him something to say."Standing in a cabin we built together, knowing there are two more down the path and a whole life behind us in that cottage, and wanting the rest of my days to look exactly like this.Waking up with you.Working beside you.Fighting with you about thermostat settings and whose turn it is to make coffee.Maybe with fewer arguments about grout color, but I'll take those too if they come with you."
A wet laugh escaped her, surprising them both.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.It wasn't velvet, and it wasn't the kind of thing you'd see in a jewelry store window.It looked like something he'd picked up in town, simple and solid, no pretense or flash.Like him.
"I'm not good at speeches," he said."You know that about me by now."
"You're doing fine," she whispered, her voice barely holding together.
"I'm good at showing up," he said."At fixing things I know how to fix, and learning how to fix the things I don't.I'm good at building.I'm good at staying when staying gets hard.And I'm good at loving you, Sabrina.I want to do all of that, every day, for the rest of my life.As your husband, not just your guy who lives in your kitchen and occasionally tackles criminals."
Her vision blurred, the room softening and turning golden through the film of tears she couldn't blink away.
He opened the box.
The ring inside was simple, elegant in its restraint.A band in a warm metal tone she recognized, the color she always gravitated toward in shop windows without quite knowing why.The stone caught the lamplight, a quiet sparkle that didn't shout but didn't need to.
"Marry me," he said."Build this with me.Let's make this official in every way it can possibly be official.You, me, Copper Moon, this land.All in.No exit plan.No backup address scribbled on a napkin somewhere just in case."
Her heart felt too big for her ribs, pressing against bone and breath, demanding more space than her body could give it.
She tried to speak.The first attempt produced nothing, just a small sound that might have been his name or might have been yes or might have been everything at once.
He searched her face, a flicker of something vulnerable passing through his eyes."Sabrina?"
She laughed, helpless, the sound tangled up with tears that spilled hot and fast down her cheeks."You ask like there's a universe where I'd say no.Like there's any version of reality where my answer isn't absolutely, completely, without reservation, yes."
"I like hearing you say the word," he said, his voice thick."Humor me."
"Yes," she said, the word coming out on a breath and then again, stronger, surer."Yes.Of course, yes.A thousand times, yes."
Her vision wobbled.More tears slid down her face, warm and uncontrollable, and she didn't even try to wipe them away.
He let out a shaky exhale that sounded like it came from somewhere deep in his chest, like he'd been holding his breath without realizing it.Then he took her left hand in his, his fingers trembling just slightly as he slid the ring onto her finger.
It settled there as if it had always meant to settle there, like her hand had simply been waiting for it all along.
