Page 70 of Trash the Dress

“I’m not interested, Vivian. We’ve been over for a long time. I’ve moved on and I have a son. I’m happy,” I tell her.

“Oh really? Because it looks like she has your son at your house without you.”

“You really are spying on us, aren’t you?” I grit out and walk past her to the hallway leading to the bar area.

“I had to see for myself whether you were happy or not. And you’re clearly not. You’re only with her for the baby. You’ll see that as time goes on. And I’ll wait for you…as long as it takes. You’re it for me, just like you said I was it for you,” she says as she wraps her perfectly manicured hand around my arm.

I turn and face her. “Where’s Sam?”

“We weren’t a good fit. I made a mistake,” she says cryptically like she did during our first encounter.

“He left you, didn’t he? Or you caught him cheating on you the way y’all went behind my back. That’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s been years, so why now?”

I struck a nerve because her cheeks redden and her eyes narrow. “He didn’t appreciate me. I figured it out way too late.”

“And you expect me to just take you back with open arms, like the last few years didn’t happen? Like you didn’t leave me for my best friend moments before our wedding?”

She rises on her toes and kisses my cheek, and I stiffen. “I’m so sorry. But if you give us another chance, I’ll make it up to you every day for the rest of our lives. It should be us that just had a baby, not you and some girl you had a one-night stand with.”

I’m about to tell her to leave when I get the feeling someone is watching me. I glance up and find Scarlett’s blue gaze on us.She looks tired and beautiful. But she also looks like I’ve struck her. Vivian notices too and tightens her grip on my bicep.

I walk toward Scarlett as she stands there with her pain-filled gaze stuck on me. When I reach her, Vivian isn’t far behind and the entire crowd in this bar turns their attention to us. That’s another thing small towns are known for…there are no secrets. Everyone knows what’s going on, but they know nothing all at the same time.

Scarlett’s chest rises and falls and her beautiful blue eyes shimmer with unshed tears as she speaks. “Will you please come home? I choose you,” she blurts out.

“What?” I ask. I heard her, but I need to hear her say it one more time.

“I choose you, Zander. Yesterday, today, and every day after this. I choose you. I love you and I trust you to keep my heart safe. I trust you completely. This is me standing here, telling you the truth from the bottom of my heart and asking you to choose me too. I know we’ll have storms, but I don’t want to weather any more of them without you,” she says as her chin wobbles.

I stand in awe of her courage and her beauty. This woman…I’ve known for a while that she’s it for me. I’d walk through fire for her. I’d do anything just to show her how much I love her.

“Will you choose me, Zander?” she asks as she blinks away tears, her eyes wide and full of hope.

“I—”

Vivian cuts me off. “I told you he’d always love me. I tried to warn you. We were just talking about getting back together before you came here and started embarrassing yourself and begging,” she says with a sneer on her face.

“This is between Scarlett and me. Back off,” I say to Vivian. I haven’t told her to leave yet, because I want her, this small-town crowd, and the whole world to know Scarlett is mine.

Scarlett looks from Vivian to me as the tears start to drop off her chin. She’s waiting for my answer even though she’s scared it won’t be the one she wants.

I walk up to her and take her face in my hands so I know she’s listening and will hear me this time. “I choose you, Scarlett. You are the only one for me. Thank you for trusting me with your heart and our son’s too.”

I hear a gasp from Vivian behind us, but the entire bar is so quiet you could hear a pin drop aside from the radio playing through the speakers mounted on the walls in this bar.

“I have a question for you too, sunshine,” I say as I fish the ring box from my pocket. Ironically the proposal I’m about to make isn’t the first proposal to happen in this bar. Hawk proposed to Brittney here too, so maybe this bar is lucky.

I drop to one knee and Scarlett covers her mouth and her eyes widen in surprise.

“Scarlett Shepard, you barreled into my life without warning. I was enamored by you, but I never could’ve dreamed we’d be standing here today. I know we’ve been through a lot in a short amount of time, but, Scarlett, you shared your sunshine with me. You pulled me out of the dark hole I’d found myself in…you brought me back to life. So, I’m kneeling before you now asking you to share your sunshine with me from this day forward. You’ve given me a son, and I want to give you the world, because you and Atlas are mine. And if you’ll let me, I’ll start by giving you my last name. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to say you’re my wife and share the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

She laughs with tears in her eyes as her gaze finds the diamond ring in my hand. These are happy tears. She kneels with me. “Yes. I’ll marry you.” She throws her arms around my neck and kisses me like no one else is in this bar with us.

Clapping and cheers erupt around us as we break our kiss. I slide the engagement ring on her finger and help her to her feet. “It’s beautiful. How long have you been carrying this?”

“Long enough. Your dad gave me his blessing a couple days ago,” I say close to her ear as I hold her in my arms.

Scarlett taps me on the shoulder, and I turn in time to see Vivian storm out of the bar and hopefully out of our lives for good.

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