Page 84 of Wedge

“You’re shaking,” Adrian says, voice barely above a whisper.

“I am. Let me finish.” I get down on one knee in the sand, and I hear him make a small, broken sound above me. “You’ve fought for every single thing you have. I’ve watched you do it, and some days I’m so proud of you I can barely stand it. But I don’t want to just watch you fight anymore. I want to be the place you get to stop. Where somebody’s got you. Always. No conditions.”

I open the box. Nothing flashy, no blazing diamonds, just a simple band, brushed metal, understated the way I know he’d actually want, nothing that would feel strange on a hand that spends half its life gripping a golf club. A matching one waits for me, whenever he’s ready to put it on me.

“Adrian Carter. Let me take care of you for the rest of our lives.” My voice cracks. “Marry me?”

For a moment he doesn’t say anything at all, just stares at the ring, then at me, tears already spilling down his face, and my heart drops somewhere down into the sand until he finally, finally nods, frantically, both hands coming up to cover his mouth.

“Yes.” It comes out cracked, disbelieving. “Yes, obviously, yes.”

I slide the ring onto his finger with hands that won’t quite stop shaking, and he pulls me up and into him before I’ve even fully processed that he said yes, kissing me hard enough that I stumble back a step in the sand, both of us laughing and crying at the same time.

“You had a ring,” he says, pulling back just enough to look at it on his hand, wonder all over his face. “You’ve had a ring this whole trip.”

“Nearly chickened out twice.”

“I would’ve said yes on day one.” He presses his face into my neck, breath shaky, tears smearing on my skin. “Nobody’s ever wanted to take care of me. Not really. Not like that.”

“I know, baby.” I wrap both arms around him, tight, the way he likes it when it matters. “I’ve got you now. That’s the whole deal. Forever.”

“Forever,” he repeats, like he’s testing the weight of the word, and then, quieter, almost shy, “Daddy.”

My heart cracks wide open, right here on the beach, and I press a kiss to the top of his head, holding him even tighter.

“Every single day,” I murmur. “For the rest of our lives.”

EPILOGUE

ADRIAN

Denver in late January is doing its usual. It’s gray and cold, with the mountains barely visible through the haze. But the apartment feels warm coming home to it after two weeks away. The radiator ticks under the window, the whole place smells like Stephen’s coffee, and the little ships on the shelf look exactly the way I left them.

Hawaii nets me a tie for twenty-third, nothing that makes headlines, but enough of a check to cover the whole trip and leave a little sitting in the account besides. My first paycheck as an actual professional golfer. I frame the stub, which Stephen thinks is ridiculous and endearing in equal measure.

“You’re framing a pay stub,” he says, watching me slide it into a cheap frame from the drugstore.

“First one. I’m allowed to be sentimental about it.”

“You’re allowed to be a nerd about it, is what you’re allowed to be.”

“Says the man who framed a dollar bill.”

“That was rent. Said I would. Completely different.” But he hangs it on the wall himself, right by the door, next to the shelf with my spacecraft models and the framed dollar, where I’ll see it every time I leave for the range.

JEREMY

Dad hated the hair. So I came out to him. Figured I’d do all the hard stuff in one day haha :,(

OMG what’d he do?

Said to put it away, marry Ali, six years together, I owe her

u owe her the truth. Not the rest of ur life

that’s a very Stephen thing to say

he’s rubbing off on me ;) Does she know?