Page 53 of XOXO, Yours

It's my handwriting.

XOXO, Yours

Jules

Small, clean, and permanent, right above his heart, in my exact looping script.

"Payton." My voice comes out strange. "When did you⁠—"

“Yesterday.” He buttons his shirt back up, unhurried. "I know it's—I'm not trying to pressure you with it. I didn't do it to make a statement or to make you feel like you owe me anything. I did it because I wanted to, and because I figured by now you know I don't do things halfway."

"You tattooed my name on your chest."

"Above my heart, technically. Precision matters."

"Payton—"

"I love you," he says. "I love you and I know exactly what I want and I'm not in any hurry, but I also think you should know where I'm headed, since we're both the kind of people who appreciate being told the truth directly."

He reaches into his pocket.

“So. Jules Long.” He opens his hand. There's a ring in it—the single most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly an antique, judging by the filigree carved into the gold. Then a center stone in a bezel setting. "I'm not asking you to decide tonight. I'm not asking you to have an answer right now. I'm just asking you to know that this exists, and that it's yours whenever you want it, and that I'll be here holding it for as long as it takes."

I look at the ring.

I look at him.

I think about a drawer full of notes and my porch steps where I finally stopped running. I think about a front yard and the letter I wrote, and the way he pressed it against his chest when he read it, right over the place where my handwriting now lives inked permanently into his skin.

I think about what home feels like when you find it by accident and decide to stay on purpose.

"I don't need until later," I say.

Something shifts in his face. "Jules⁠—"

"I said I wasn't going to run." I reach out and take the ring from his open hand. "I meant it. I mean it every day. I'm not—Payton, I'm not standing here with my heart completely remodeled by you and this family and this whole enormous inconvenient thing and waiting for a different moment. This is the moment." I look at him steadily, both feet on the ground. “Also, won’t be allowing that gorgeous rock to live in your pocket it when it can live on my hand! So, yes."

“Technically, I didn’t actually ask you anything,” he says, his grin cocky and a little crooked.

“Too late, cowboy. The ring is on my finger. You have to marry me now.”

His face splits in a massaive grin. Then he pulls me into him, my face settled against his chest, his arms around my body.

Behind us, across the yard, there is a moment of quiet.

Then Oliver whoops.

Then cheers and applause.

Later, when the yard has mostly cleared and most of the family has gone back to their respective places. I'm sitting on the porch steps with Payton's arm around me. I find a folded piece of paper tucked into my jacket pocket.

I don't know when he put it there.

I open it.

You stayed. You said yes. I'm keeping you forever, just so you know.

XOXO, Yours