Page 117 of The Life We Left Behind

After changing into some jeans and one of my favorite tops, I threw on my boots, and Cade and I headed down to the pond. It wasn’t a long walk, and it was one I must have done hundreds of times in the past. But it was better to do it with Cade at my side. It was like the beginning of a new era, one where I got to share with him all the stuff I’d loved at his age.

Willowbrook really was the only place I wanted to raise my family. We should have done this a long time ago.

Cade shuffled nervously at my side. Every so often, he’d dash forward a few steps and then seem to catch himself and slow down so I could catch up with him.

“You can run on ahead if you want. I can meet you there.”

“No, no. Dad says you escort a lady.”

“Oh, did he now? And when did he tell you this?”

“This morning, we were talking about…how to woo a lady.”

Okay, something was going on here. Did Cade have his first crush on someone at school? While that was all kinds of adorable, it stung a little that he went to Trace about it and not me.

“Ah, right. And here was me thinking that Trace had just got some of those cupcakes from the bakery that you like.”

“No, we went to the bakery, and it was closed.” Cade was running around in circles at this point, not realizing how what he was saying was basically impossible. Marie only closed the bakery on a Wednesday, and it had taken years for people to convince her to do that much.

“That’s strange.” I couldn’t remember the last time the bakery had been closed on a Friday. “Maybe I should check in with her later. Just to make sure everything is all right.”

Cade hummed in agreement and then grabbed my hand as he looked up at me. “I like it here,” he suddenly said.

“I know you do, monkey. I like it here too.”

“So…we’re going to stay. We’re not going back to the city?”

“It would be kinda hard to considering that I called our landlord yesterday and told him that we were moving out.”

He looked at me with wide eyes full of surprise, and then fist-pumped the air in celebration.

We walked in silence for the next couple of minutes as we climbed the slight hill toward the pond. The evening breeze lifted my hair and blew it around my face. Summer was right around the corner. Soon, the few tourists we got would start to trickle into town, trying to escape the city and enjoy a slice of small-town life instead. The guilt of not selling the land and ruining the hotel deal twinged in my stomach. But Blake was right, Willowbrook didn’t need a fancy hotel and golf course. We needed to show those tourists a small town that they wanted to come back to every year. Maybe if I could build the brand of the cider mill high enough, we could offer a tour and tasting experience.

I pulled out my phone and started adding a few ideas to my Notes app, including a tasting kitchen. We could theme the menu to seasonal produce and display what could be done with our cider in a culinary setting. Maybe go for a farm-to-table type setup. Those were always popular in the city. It would mean setting up a big enough garden to supply the restaurant, but that could be something else to add to a tour as well. All the details were starting to come together into one cohesive business plan in my mind, expanding over the next five years.

I looked up, thinking about the layout of the farm and where the best place would be to set up some gardens, but instead of the green pastures that surrounded us, my eyes fixed on something that hadn’t been there before.

I gasped in surprise and nearly dropped my phone on the ground. Cade giggled beside me and started to tug on my hand to make me walk faster. I followed, too shocked to really think about anything else that was happening.

Trace stood in front of our willow tree, which had been decorated with twinkling lights. They ran down the branches, reaching nearly to the water and making it look like stars hung from the tree. He had a blanket set up with a proper picnic basket and a silver champagne bucket. Flowers completely blanketed the rest of the ground, and candles floated in the pond.

“What is this?” I asked in surprise, tears coming to my eyes as I was overwhelmed with the emotions inside me.

Cade dropped my hand and sprinted forward to stand beside his father, the biggest grin on his face. Even though Trace smiled softly, I could see how nervous he was.

I stopped a few steps away from him, not sure what I was supposed to do.

“You did all this for me?” I asked, one of those tears finally breaking free of my lashes.

“I’d capture the stars and fill the pond with them if you wanted me to,” Trace told me softly.

And then he slowly lowered down to one knee.

My hands came up to cover my mouth, and I could feel them trembling against my lips.

“Delaney, I have loved you since you pulled me out of the mud in the fourth grade and told me that dirt was good for my skin. It took me years to work up the courage to ask you to be my girlfriend, and I never intend to make that same mistake again. We had it all. We were young and stupid and so much in love. It will always be my biggest regret that I didn’t fight for you. That I let them steal you both away from me for so long. But I’m done wasting time. I’m done not saying the things that I want to say.I know things have changed, and we’re both different people, but you’re still the same beautiful, shining girl I remember from school. You’re still filled with a kind heart and so much goodness that all I want to do is prove to you that I can be the man you deserve. I don’t want to lose a single day with you. I want to wake up every morning with you in my arms, and I want to fall asleep every night with you being the last thing I see. I loved you so much in that life we left behind, but it’s nothing compared to how much I love you now. So, will you build a new life with me, one that no one can ever take away from us? Will you be my wife?”

Cade darted forward, holding up a small red velvet box in his hand with the biggest grin on his face. When he opened it, the sob I was holding inside burst out of me. I couldn’t even see the ring through the tears in my eyes as I cried out, “Yes!”

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