Graden pulled back but held her tightly. “Tell him. Tell him how much you mean to me. Tell him I don’t know how or when, but I fell in love with you.”
Ella’s heart pounded, beating with joy and excitement. “I will go with you. I will search for your rose with you. Because I don’t want to spend a day without you.”
Graden shook his head. “No, Ella… I can’t ask that of you.”
She lifted her lips to his, whispering, “I love you, Graden.” When he didn’t kiss her, she opened her eyes.
His mouth hung open in surprise and awe, his eyes gazing in shock at Edwin’s tombstone. She followed his gaze. For a moment, she saw nothing, only one bloom of a white rose. She straightened to Graden’s height, ready to admit she saw nothing. But then, hidden behind the tombstone, she saw it. In the darkness behind the stone, she saw a rose unlike any she had ever seen. It was deep blue, deeper than any sea she could have imagined. She gasped.
Graden was already crawling toward it. He reached for it, carefully pulling the stem into the moonlight.
Until it emerged into the light, Ella didn’t really believe. She had already been tricked once. But she wanted to believe. She wanted to believe the blue rose existed. That her mother had been right. And that it’s magic and radiance and wonder could reach her.
Graden turned his hand over, the rose shimmering in the rays of the moon.
It was blue. Deep, glorious blue!
“The blue rose,” Graden gasped. He stared for a moment and then laughed out loud, shocked, amazed, victorious.
Ella looked down at Edwin’s tombstone. “He approves,” she whispered. Her gaze swiveled to Graden with realization. “Edwin approves!”
He grabbed Ella into his arms, squeezing her. “All this time! All the searching! And it was right here, with you! My search is over, and my life can finally begin! With you!”
