The same ring my mother treasured, though she only wore it a few times, always saying one of us would wear it someday.
“How did you—”
“April gave it to me,” he says gently. “Before she left. She thought you should have it… and that I should be the one to give it to you.”
My thoughts are still spinning when he suddenly lowers himself onto one knee in front of me.
Shock freezes me in place, and the world seems to go very quiet around us.
“May Moreira, I love you with all my heart,” he says, looking up at me with a softness in his eyes that makes my chest ache. “Would you do me the honor of spending the rest of your life with me?”
Fresh tears fill my eyes instantly.
“Yes!” I say, nodding so fast it almost makes me dizzy. “Yes, Aiden. A million times, yes!”
He stands and slips the ring onto my finger before pulling me into his arms and lifting me off the ground.
We both start laughing as he spins us in a slow circle, the ocean stretching endlessly behind him.
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him with everything in my heart while Neptune and Skye run excited circles around us, barking and racing through the grass as if they somehow understand what just happened.
And standing there with the wind coming off the ocean, the ring on my finger, and Aiden’s arms around me, I know with absolute certainty that this is only the beginning of the greatest adventure of my life.
Our life.
Together.
“Do you think this has something to do with her birthday… or something else?” June asks, her eyes wide through the video call.
I shrug slightly, adjusting the phone in front of me.
“I don’t know,” I tell her.
We both received a message from Max yesterday asking if we had time to talk on the phone today, and specifically asking us not to mention anything to April.
Which, of course, made both of us immediately suspicious.
I sit in the backyard watching Aiden work on the garden, shirtless under the late afternoon sun, moving slowly between the rows of flowers he’s been planting over the last few weeks.
Even from here, I can see the concentration on his face.
“It could be her birthday,” I say after a moment. “Or maybe it’s time.”
June’s eyes grow even wider.
“Oh,” she says, leaning closer to the screen. “That’s going to be such a fun wedding.”
Then she squints at me.
“How about you guys?” she asks. “When are you tying the knot?”
Aiden overhears the question, straightens up in the garden, and turns toward me.
“Yeah,” he calls from across the yard, wiping his hands on his jeans. “When is that happening?”
I laugh, shaking my head as I look back at June.
“We don’t have a date yet.”
