“I’ve always loved you,” she rushed out. “I just thought you didn’t actually want this with me and I was afraid. I thought any arranged marriage would just be what I had with Louis all over again, but you’re not him. You never were and it was so unfair to make you think I didn’t know that. I do know it. So damn well.”
She looked wrecked saying it, vulnerable, with tears gathering in her eyes and her voice shaking. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Zach. I love you and I should’ve told you. I never should’ve said those things to you. I was scared and?—”
“Hey.” I took her face between my hands, still not completely convinced it was her and not a banner I was now caressing, but hell, I’d take it. Whatever it was. “Hey, Adeline. Look at me.”
She blinked a few times but finally stopped muttering apologies and fell silent. I stroked my thumbs across her cheekbones and lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her deeply and desperately. It was way too passionate for broad daylight, in public, and especially with her daughters watching, but the taste of her and the sweet scent enveloping me finally had me convinced that I wasn’t hallucinating.
This was real.
She was here.
She loved me.
“Gross!” Lu yelled.
Amber shushed her. “Let them have their moment.”
The crowd around us started clapping and I should’ve probably been a little embarrassed, but I was too far gone to care. Adeline laughed against my mouth, teary and breathless, and I realized then with startling clarity that this was it.
Thiswas the rest of my life.
Her, the girls, and Bear. Early morning runs with Lu and helping Jennifer with her homework. Watching movies with them when they were sick and carting around more stuff for a weekend than I needed for a whole month. Quiet nights in with Adeline and waking up with her curled into my side. Seeing her smile at me every fucking day and getting to spend every night with her for the rest of my natural life.
Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. Maybe I’d manifested this moment by carrying the ring around like a lunatic for so long. I didn’t know. But I did want that ring on her finger, where it had always belonged.
Although this would probably make me look even more like a lunatic, I broke away from her and painfully lowered myself onto one knee. Every muscle in my body threatened mutiny but I barely felt any pain when I looked at Adeline.
Amber’s eyes flew wide open. “Oh my God, he’s going to tear something.”
“Probably,” I agreed grimly, digging into the zipper pocket of my shorts.
Adeline stared at me. A furrow formed between her brows. “No way. What are you doing?”
“I’ve been carrying this around for weeks,” I admitted as my fingers closed around the ring box, eight years of regret now sitting in the palm of my hand. “Since that probably makes me a crazy person, I’d understand if you say no, but it’s about time I give it to you.”
The crowd noticed what was happening and collectively lost their minds. People started filming and a woman somewhere nearby screamed, “Say yes!”
Jennifer started bouncing again. “Is that a ring in there? Please tell me it’s a ring.”
Lu looked suspicious but intrigued as I opened the box.
But I focused on the woman I loved, blocking out the rest of the world. Adeline covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes huge as she stared down at me.
“I love you. To be honest, I’ve loved you all along. I never stopped,” I said, realizing there was no point being afraid anymore. Plus, I was too tired to dance around my feelings. “I want to marry you, Adeline, and not because anyone told me to, but because you’re it for me. I want you and the girls in my life, as my family, but I’d never force you into anything.”
I dragged in a few deep breaths, wishing my lungs would just start working again already, but that speech had stolen every ounce of oxygen left in me, and I was nowhere near done saying everything I wanted to say.
“I should’ve put my foot down and stopped this from happening to you the first time around. I should’ve fought harder. I know that. I know I didn’t try hard enough, and if you can’t forgive me for that, I’ll leave you alone, but I will never move on. There has never been anyone else for me, Adeline. There never will be. Will you marry me?”
Adeline nodded before I’d even fully finished speaking. A tear slid down her cheek as she laughed. Her answer came out as a whisper first, but it quickly became a squeal. “Yes. Yes! Of course I’ll marry you, Zach. God. Yes.”
The crowd erupted into cheers and Jennifer screamed. Amber burst out laughing and Lu seemed confused, looking skeptically between me and Adeline. “Does this mean we’re moving to Wisconsin?”
“No,” Amber said quietly. “It does mean you’re moving into a bigger house, though. I’m sure. It probably means a bridesmaid dress too.”
I still couldn’t look away from Adeline for long enough to reassure Lu, but I had time to do that now. After. Later. I had the rest of my life to prove that I would always be there for her.Happiness and relief raced through me as I slipped the ring onto Adeline’s finger with trembling hands, finally able to see it,my ringon her finger.
My chest squeezed, my heart galloping. I moved to stand up, wanting to do nothing more than to kiss her again, but I was still on one knee. After a marathon. And my legs had apparently stopped functioning.
