Page 152 of Free to Fall

Fiancée. Laura proposed. Right then in front of her family and the employees of Amaryllis Events and Company. As I carry Bailey to her room, each step has me recalling Laura’s words as I clutched her to my chest in the foyer of Amaryllis Events. “Liam Payne, I want my heart to come back home. That’s here.” She laid her hand on my chest. “I don’t want you to let me go. I don’t want to be let go. There’s no safer place for me to heal than right at your side.”

My breath came out fast.

Then she laid her lips against mine and the loneliness caused by my carelessness evaporated. “Marry me. We’ll take our time to make certain Bailey’s comfortable after everything, if you’re concerned about that but—‍”

I interrupted to give her my response. “We can be engaged until tomorrow or for as long as you want. I just want to know one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“How can you still love me after everything I put you through?”

Laura’s smile broke across her face. “I never stopped, Liam.”

After I press a kiss against Bailey’s cheek, I receive an incoming text.

Laura:

Open the boxes in the kitchen. There’s something special in them you need tonight.

Huh. Assuming the items may have to be refrigerated, I decide not to wait for Bailey. After I see the half a dozen Amaryllis pastry boxes on the counter, I start unwrapping them. “I hope something the bakery decorated didn’t fall over. Bailey will be heartbroken.”

In the final box, I find what Laura intends for me. There are three wrapped presents. Opening the first, I’m gobsmacked when I find an engraved silver frame with a black and white photo of me and Bailey. I’m holding Bailey as I swirl her around the room to the first strains of Paul Simon. Her eyes are sparkling as much as the crown nestled on top of her hair. And me? I’ve got half of my world in my arms.

Lifting the frame, I read what’s engraved on the bottom.

Liam and Bailey—2024

Beneath it is a flat package that reveals a photographer-grade acid-free paper. I immediately flip it open. In Laura’s perfect penmanship are moments cataloguing the entire day with Bailey—from the moment Laura began curling her hair to the time both of “my girls” got dressed. A wink and thumbs up they each gave the photographer once they were inside the car to drive to Amaryllis Events. There’s one of Laura, crouched next to Bailey and her cousin, giving them last minute instructions seconds before my car pulled into the empty lot. I relive each and every moment of the event from the time Laura made an appearance to our final goodbyes and it makes me realize something.

I could apologize for the next hundred years, and I’d never be able to humble myself enough to be worthy of this woman.

“I can’t believe how much planning you put into this,” I murmur.

“Well, I had a little help from a few people, to be sure.” I whirl around and almost drop the second package when I get a load of my bride-to-be barely clad in see-through lingerie she must have been wearing beneath her white dress earlier. Her eyes dart to the second package. “You should open that.”

“Instead of taking you?” I ask incredulously.

She runs her hand from her chest to her hip. “This will still be here.”

Darkly, I inform her, “Not for long.”

Her throaty laugh makes my heart sing. “Open the package, Liam.”

The second package contains a journal. I frown at it until I flip it open and what’s inside causes my shoulders to immediately shake. I flip through the pages to make certain I’m not wrong.

Then I reach the flyleaf and see in her curiously perfect penmanship.

The Journal of Dr. Laura Lockwood

I clutch the binding tightly, wondering what emotions I’m certain to find inside. Dr. Laura Lockwood was meticulous at her studies and she certainly would be in cataloguing every thought leading us to this moment.

“Flip to the tabbed page, Liam,” Laura orders me, approaching me in stocking feet.

I do. When I start reading, I’m grateful for the counter, as my legs almost give out.

It’s the reason she forgave me.

Laura takes the book from me. She runs her finger back to the beginning. Then she reads her own words aloud. “They say love is unconquerable. But it takes more than that. Like all other things that require life, love requires passion, air, feeding. But people don’t give the same thoughts about love requiring that same love and care.

---