Which I’ve always loved. His excitement breeds my own.
Alex takes my other hand, lifting it to place a kiss across my knuckles.
“What are you three up to?”
“Asking you to marry us,” King says.
18
KAGK
KATHERINE
Kingston’s soft green eyes go wide as he realizes what he said. What he admitted. And in the same instant, my breath catches, and bubbles of excitement explode through my veins. I knew it was going to happen, obviously. Marriage has been on my horizon for the last two months, but we kept kicking the can down the road.
There’s been so much else on our minds and on our plates, and here they are, looking like a dream. So serious and so silly all at the same time.
Alex and Gabe turn to look at King, jaws dropped. They vaguely resemble bobblehead dolls.
King’s fingers squeeze mine. “That wasn’t a secret, I hope.”
“Thatyou wanted to put a ring on it?” Gabe quips, slapping King on the shoulder. “Hardly.”
“Remind me not to share any secrets with you,” Alex adds.
They’re both so good-natured. And I know they, like I, see King’s excitement for this new chapter of our lives. But I can’t help teasing Gabe.
“Do you not want to put a ring on it?” I ask.
ALEX
She’s got him there, and he knows it. My best friend’s lips open and close like a fish.
In what I now think of as Classic Katherine Style, she lifts a brow and then steps in front of him. Pulling her hand from King, she presses her fingertips to the brilliant white of Gabe’s shirt.
Those blue-green eyes flash up at him with affection and sass, positively impish. His jaw drops, and he tries to recover. To fill the silence. Answer her question. The third finger on her left hand, a very important finger, tap-tap-taps against the black button over his heart.
He presses her hand tighter against his chest, and they stare at each other, communicating without words, as if they have a language all their own, one that defies time and duty. It’s the softhalf-smile curving her lips and the smirk on his that speaks volumes.
She takes another moment to look around, like reality is setting in, then lifts glistening eyes to mine. Her fingers give my hand the gentlest squeeze, letting me know we’re still connected. She hasn’t forgotten me. My chest tightens the way it always does when she turns the spotlight of affection my way.
And when she steps closer, toe-to-toe, sliding her free hand up the lapel of my jacket, all the jangled pieces of me settle into place.
It brings me immeasurable peace to know that if something should happen to me, she’ll be taken care of. Loved and supported. The breath I’ve been holding in silence releases, and my soul is soothed. The soft scratch of her fingernail along my jaw shouldn’t be a leash that’d make me follow her anywhere, but it is what it is.
A snare.
A siren’s call.
An invisible cord uniting us.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
GABE
Of course, I want to put a ring on it.
In fact, said ring is burning a hole through mypocket, branding my thigh with its presence. How does such a slender bit of gold weigh so much? And I don’t mean metrically. I’m talking woo-woo shit. Metaphysical or whatever.
