Page 126 of Under the Ink

At least that was what she thought that calm, still sensation was. After rejoining the tour in the new year—having spent that time getting her driver’s licenseandpassport—she and Sage hadn’t been apart once. And rather than trying to figure out a place to land permanently, Sage had bought tickets to Cabo where they were going to spend a week “doingnothing, baby.”

But they had barely sat still, instead doing every touristy thing Sage could find.

Naomi wasn’t complaining, though, because over the past year, life had become the adventure she’d never expected it to be.

“Holy shit. Would you look at that?”

“What?” Naomi shifted her gaze to a few yards down the beach where Sage had been looking—but he grabbed her hand and started running, pulling her along with him.

When he stopped, he pointed at the water. “See that?”

She sawsomethingbig and dark moving deeper into the sea but she had no idea what it was. “Yeah, kind of.”

“It was a huge-ass turtle. Or, uh,tortuga.”

“Sí. Tortuga.” They’d been learning all the Spanish nouns they could on this trip, but Naomi still had a way to go. Having been homeschooled until the seventh grade by a mother who didn’t know any foreign languages, she hadn’t had much exposure toespañolor any other tongues, for that matter.

So that had simply added to the fun of this adventure with the man who had become not just her best friend and lover, but her partner. Over this last year, he had helped her learn to let go of the past and live.

Of course, she’d also taken his advice and found a therapist to help her navigate some of the harder parts.

“Super fucking cool. Too bad I was too slow to take a picture.”

“That’s okay,” she said, turning to face him, touching his temple with her index finger. “It’ll always be up here.”

“I don’t know…you take up an awful lot of space in there.”

Naomi rolled her eyes but when he kissed her, she let them close. Was this all a dream? Because so often it felt too good to be true. But, no…it had really happened and her life had become far more than she’d ever imagined it could be.

When the kiss ended, Sage rested his forehead on hers. “So have you decided?”

“No.” Over the past few months, Naomi had been toying with the idea of going to school, probably online, to get the credentials she’d need to help kids who’d been damaged in their youth much like she’d been. But she didn’t know, even though her heart was in it, if it was a job she could actually do without retraumatizing herself. That was something she had to figure out before committing. “But there’s no hurry, is there?”

“Hell, no. I’d be happy to have you as my drum tech my whole life. But with your drumming skills—”

“I thought this was supposed to be avacation, baby. I remember a certain guy saying, ‘We won’t think aboutshit. We’ll sleep late, eat good food, go snorkeling—and no work talk.”

“Ididsay that, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“Well…there’s one other thing I wanted to ask. And it has nothing to do with work or anything like that.”

Naomi grinned. “Then get it out of your system.”

With a slight nod, Sage stuck his hand in the pocket of his shorts, but she couldn’t tell what he pulled out. Then he got down on one knee and Naomi brought her hands to her face.

“No way.”

With a nod, Sage took her left hand in his, producing a sparkly silver ring with a huge diamond surrounded by tiny ones in what looked to be a floral pattern. Although it seemed far too girly for Naomi, something in her heart told her it would be pretty to look at anyway. Sage kissed the top of her hand and then poised the band at the tip of her ring finger. “Naomi Baxter, would you marry me?”

Despite all the crazy swirling emotions and old voices in her head trying to discourage her, she listened to her heart—because every single time, her heart had turned out to be right about this man. “Yes.”

“Not just in sickness and in health or for richer or poorer or any of that shit. Would you be mine on tour—in America and abroad, through insipid videos and long recording sessions, from one album to the next, till death do us part?”

“Baby, if you want me, you’ve got me even beyond death.”

“I love the sound of that,” he said, sliding the ring on her finger. “But whoever goes first has to promise to haunt the other.”

Naomi laughed. “You’re theonlyperson I ever want haunting me. But let’s plan on putting that shit off as long as we can.”

Standing, Sage pulled her in his arms even as they heard other tourists behind them clapping and cheering, having witnessed Naomi’s acceptance of Sage’s proposal. But it was obvious to her that she was the only person in Sage’s vision right now as the rest of the world melted away. “I’m yours forever, baby…however that works out.”

As he sealed his promise with another kiss, Naomi felt another part of her heart heal as it filled with his love.

THE END

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