“What do you remember about that day?”
She was still looking at him suspiciously, but she seemed to consider the question.“Well, I came upon your creepy serial killer cabin and was struck by the fact that I’d eitherfinallytracked you down, or I was about to get murdered myself.”
He laughed and shook his head, putting his key into the lock of the front door and then letting her go in first before he followed.“What else?”
She shrugged out of her coat, tossed it over the armchair next to the door that had become a catchall more than anything they ever sat on.“There was a storm rolling in.I knew I had to get you moving so we could fly out before it hit.Go figure.You were stubborn.”
“I didn’t want anything to do with going home, with facing the past.”
She studied him.“So, what really changed your mind?I know it wasn’t anything I said.”
“No.Nothing you said.It was just that… gut feeling, that change was coming no matter what I did.I could either let it happen, or I could choose it.So I chose it.”
“Boy, did you,” she said with a little laugh.
She turned a little, like she was going to head deeper into the house, but he reached out and stopped her progress, turning her to face him.
Good bookends.Good, period.
It was time.
“And I was in my cabin deciding what to do with that choice.I looked out and saw this ray of light peek through the clouds and land on your face.Like a sign.”
She wrinkled her nose, leaning a little away from him even as she kept her arm in his grasp.“You don’t believe in signs.”
“Oh, I absolutely do,” he said sincerely.“I believe in a lot of things.”
“Well, whenyoustepped out of that cabin, thunder shook everything.What was that a sign for?”
He grinned in spite of himself, pointed toward their bedroom, and she snorted out a laugh.“Oh, get out of here.”She tried to pull away, but he didn’t let her go.
“Thepointis, I felt like everything changed in that moment.Everything did.You’re the one who allowed me to escape here all those years ago, and you’re the one who brought me home.But it’s only home now because you’re here.”
“Okay, you’re freaking me out, Nate,” she muttered.
She fidgeted, so he knew he didn’t have much more time before she demanded answers or tried to distract him.
So he lowered to his knee.Kinda hurt, but he made it.He was more than gratified by the shock on her face.It wasn’t often he could surprise her.The shock doubled when he reached over to the end table, opened the drawer, and pulled out the little jewelry box he’d stashed there a few days ago.
He opened it, so she could see what was inside.
“Sam, I love you.There is nothing in this world I want more than to come home to this house and share it with you.No matter what comes or doesn’t.You’re the one I want by my side.I like to think you believe I’m the kind of guy who’ll stick, but I don’t want there to be any questions of what I want.You.Always.So, will you marry me?”
*
Sam was frozen.Speechless.
He had a ring.She heard the words echo in her head, but the thing she couldn’t seem to fully absorb was the fact he was holding aring.
It was a perfect ring.She didn’t care about jewelry or diamonds or anything, so the simple band felt like… her.It felt like the promises Nate always gave her.Solid and perfect.
“If you’re not ready for this step, that’s okay.You don’t have to—”
“Shut up.Just… shut up for a minute.”Her head was reeling.Everything was… reeling.
He had a ring.He wanted tomarryher.He’d talked about that moment in Tennessee, and she’d been telling herself all this time that signs weren’t real.It had just been a moment she’d romanticized in her mind.
But if she had, so had he.
