Page 111 of Final Proposal

Not again.

Ford

“I can’t breathe.” I push against my brothers, but their arms stay locked around me in the type of hug I haven’t had from them in years. Since Dad’s funeral.

“Fuck you,” Callahan mutters.

“Double fuck you for scaring us like that,” Ledger adds in.

And when they step back and I meet their gazes, we’re all looking at each other with tears in our eyes. “Relax. It’s too much fun being a pain in your asses to leave you fuckers just yet.”

Their laughs aren’t believable. They hold no amusement, only relief.

I close my eyes and stagger to a seat. I know they want more details than I gave them on the phone. A play-by-play to explain everything, but all I can focus on are the thoughts that ran through my head in those fleeting moments between our pilot telling me there was a technical failure and his words “brace for impact.”

My mom. Her soft smile. Her warm hugs. Her lasting wisdom.

My dad. His unyielding ways. His affection you knew you’d earned when you were on the other end of it. His legacy I feared I wasn’t going to have the chance to carry on.

My brothers. The other pieces of me. The ones who make me whole. My rocks when I can’t be one.

And Ellery. I love her, and I never got the chance to tell her.

I love her.

I won’t make that mistake again.

“I need your phone,” I say to either of them.

Ledger holds his out. “It’s already ringing.”

I take the phone and just as it hits my ear, I hear her voice and it brings me to my knees. “Ledger?”

“Ellery.” My voice breaks saying her name.

“Ford? Ford!”

I don’t know who breaks first. Her or me or both of us, but a tear slips down my cheek at the same time a sob escapes her.

“I’m okay.”

“Ford.”

“I’ll be home soon.”

Ellery

The world still feels like it has stopped. It doesn’t matter that I’ve talked to Ford. It was brief and he was quiet, surrounded by his brothers, but it was the best sound I’ve ever heard in my life.

I’ll be home soon.

Leave it to Ford to act like surviving a helicopter crash is nothing.

Leave it to him to be fearless in hopping back on another one to get to me as fast as he can.

When his car pulls into the lot, I’m running out the front door and jumping into his arms—legs wrapped around his waist, lips planted firmly on his. He staggers backward under the force of my weight, and his chuckle fades with the kiss I give him without thought or care to who can see us. To who knows.

The kiss says so many things. I miss you. I was so scared. Never again. Words I’m still so goddamn fearful of even thinking.