A laugh escaped me—broken and full of more hope than I had any right to feel. “I can add items. It doesn’t have to be finished.”
“It better not be.” She was close now, close enough that I could reach out and touch her. I didn’t. Not yet. “If I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you, I expect regular updates.”
The rest of my life.
“Ava.” Her name came out like a prayer.
“I’m still mad at you.” But she was stepping closer, close enough that I could feel the warmth of her breath. “I’m so mad I could kill you.”
“I know.”
“You broke my heart.”
“I know.”
“You made me feel like I wasn’t enough.”
“I know. And I will spend every day of the rest of my life proving that’s not true. If you let me.”
She looked up at me, her eyes still wet, her expression caught somewhere between fury and hope.
“Read me number twelve again.”
My heart pounded.
“Hold your hand and let you scream at me as you bring our future babies into the world.”
She reached up and grabbed the front of my jacket, pulling me down until our foreheads touched.
“You want babies with me?”
“I want everything with you.” My voice was barely a whisper. “Marriage. Kids. The whole thing. I want to spend the rest of my life doing every mundane, boring, beautiful thing on that list with you.”
“That sounds a lot like a proposal.”
“It’s a promise. The proposal comes later. When I’ve earned it.”
“You have a lot of groveling to do first.” But she was almost smiling now. “Years of groveling. Possibly decades.”
“I’ll grovel for as long as it takes.”
“Good.” She pulled me down the rest of the way and kissed me.
It tasted like tears and forgiveness and the beginning of my entire future. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, and she melted against me like she’d been waiting for this moment as desperately as I had.
When we broke apart, I kept my forehead pressed to hers. “I love you,” I said. “I’m so sorry for hurting you. I love you so much.”
She hit my chest with her fist—not hard, but hard enough to make her point.
“You’re an idiot.”
“I know.”
“A complete and total idiot.”
“I know.”
“If you ever pull something like this again, I will actually kill you. And Drew will help me hide the body.”
