A breeze lifts the hem of my dress and my hopes with it. Stay. Stay forever? Is that too much for me to want?
What happens when it all comes crashing down?
“Go on,” he encourages me. “Write your initials.”
Stone pulls a marker from his pocket and holds it out, waiting for me to take it.
I stare at it, trying to decide what to do.
“Hold up!” Natalie yells. “Hang on a second. If you’re going to put your initials on that lock, we’re doing it right. I saw a glitter marker in that tourist shop. Be back in five!”
She races off.
A knot punches up into my throat and sticks there, heavy and certain, like it never plans to leave. I try not to process the weight of this moment—try to skate past it like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.
But it sinks. And so do I.
I look up at Stone, studying him, checking for cracks that suggest this isn’t real, and find nothing but him watching me openly, studying me as if he’s trying to determine whether I’ll admit we’re not really engaged.
Put on the brakes, Coco!
But I’ve come too far. I’m in too deep. I’m drowning in Stone Maddox.
He’s the only one who can rescue me, and by rescuing me, he pulls me deeper—not to save me but tojoinme. No lifeline. No escape hatch. Just this quiet, terrifying truth that maybe drowning in him is the only way I finally learn to breathe.
I want to stay under, remain submerged and never come up for air, because this is the most real thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
And I can’t bear for it to end.
“Stone,” I whisper, his name barely grazing over my teeth.
His eyes narrow. “What’s wrong?”
Words clog my throat, and I want to tell him—I really do—but what comes out is, “Nothing. This moment is perfect.”
He leans down to kiss me. I lift up on my toes, eager to accept his offer.
“Quit it, lovebirds!” Natalie jumps between us. “I didn’t come here to vomit because you two are making out. You can do plenty of that after you’re married. But for now”—she shoves a glitter marker in her brother’s hand—“mark your territory and throw away the key.”
Stone hands me the marker and says suggestively, “Would you like to mark your territory?”
“I never thought you’d ask.”
I may sound brave, but inside I’m quivering. My hand shakes as I writeCH. Stone’s hand does not tremble as he pens his initials. He hands the lock back to me, and I secure it to the fence.
He gives the key to Natalie. “Would you do the honors?”
“Heck yeah, I will!”
She winds up like a pro baseball pitcher and flings the key over the fence, where it sails into the river without even the tiniest of splashes.
Natalie’s shoulders slump. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
Stone and I just look at each other, and all I can think is,She’s wrong. She’s absolutely wrong.
Chapter 36
Stone
