His brow lifts a little, cautious, like he thinks I might fall apart any second.
So I show him I won't.
I grab the front of his shirt and kiss him—hard, hungry, like every part of me has been pulled toward him since the night he first walked into my chaos. He inhales fast against my mouth but kisses me right back, steady hands sliding to my waist, grounding me as much as he pulls me in.
Something in me cracks open. Maybe it's relief. Maybe it's joy. Maybe it's because, for the first time in a long time, I'm not choosing safety or silence. I'm choosing him.
I break the kiss only when I need air, my forehead pressed to his. "You're the only thing that feels right," I whisper.
His eyes close, like those words land somewhere deep.
When he opens them again, there's a look there I've never seen on his face—not even when he held Jace's hand walking into the park, not even when he carried me into his room like I was something he didn't want to put down.
This is deeper.
He cups my jaw. His thumb traces a line under my lip, gentle in a way that makes my chest ache. "Lena," he says, voice thick, "I don't want to wait anymore."
"For what?" I ask, breath shaking.
He exhales through his nose, slow and certain. "For a life with you."
My stomach drops. Not fear—something bigger. Warmth that rises so fast, my eyes blur.
He shifts his hand from my jaw to my cheek, brushing a tear I didn't realize had escaped. "I know how it sounds," he says."Fast. Messy. Complicated. But nothing in my life has ever felt as sure as you do."
More tears slip. I don't stop them. He wipes them anyway, tender, patient.
"I want to build something," he continues. "With you. With Jace. I want to be the one he runs to when he needs a light fixed or a bully handled or a science project partner who actually knows what he's doing. I want to wake up in this house with you every morning and fall asleep here every night."
My breath catches. My knees go weak enough that he steadies my hips without even thinking.
"You two are the only place I want to be," he murmurs. "And I don't want it unofficial anymore. I don't want it fragile. I don't want you ever wondering if I'll stay."
He pauses, searching my face like he needs permission to say the next words.
And then, quiet but fierce, "Marry me."
The air leaves my lungs. A sound breaks out of me—half laugh, half sob. My hand covers my mouth. I'm shaking. Not because I didn't see this man falling for me. I saw that long before I let myself believe it.
I just never imagined he'd want… this.
He pulls my hand down from my lips and brings it to his chest, right over his heartbeat. It thumps against my palm like it's trying to answer for him.
"I'm not trying to fix your life," he says. "I'm asking to be part of it. All of it. The hard parts. The good parts. The parts that scare you. I want all of it if you'll let me."
Tears spill faster.
He leans in until our foreheads touch, his breath warm against my cheek. "Say something."
I laugh through the tears. "Gabe… I don't even… I never thought anyone would choose me like this."
"I'm choosing you," he says. "Every version of you. The one who bakes at midnight. The one who works herself tired. The one who cries in the shower sometimes. The one who fights for her kid like a lion. The one who still thinks she has to earn love when all she ever deserved was real love."
I break. Full-on break. My hand goes to his face, and he leans into it like he's been waiting for that touch his whole life.
"Yes," I whisper, voice shaking. "Yes. Yes, I'll marry you."
He laughs under his breath—a stunned, full-body sound—and pulls me into his arms. I melt into him, tears soaking into his shirt, his arms wrapping around me like he'll never let me go again.
