Page 141 of The Lair

“Yes?”

“I’ve been thinking about something.”

It’s the way he says it that makes me lift my head to look at him. His voice doesn’t give away any nerves, but it also doesn’t sound… normal. There’s a weird edge to it I can’t read like I usually do.

“What is it?” I ask.

A tiny part of me is scared of what he’ll say. In the year we’ve been together, we’ve had rough days—during the trial against my parents, when his nightmares struck, when my anxiety took over. Despite it all, there’s nothing we haven’t been able to get through together. So I tell myself this time will be no different.

“I’ve been thinking about something you said in Los Angeles.”

Even a year later, the fact that Travis traveled all the way to California for me still feels like a dream.

“I asked you how you’d felt about changing your last name. Remember?”

I nod. He starts caressing the skin on my hand with his calloused thumb as I ask him, “Why have you been thinking about that?”

“Because I know last names mean nothing to you, but I still wanted to ask you if you’d take mine.”

Everything in me stops.

My heartbeat. My breathing. My train of thought.

Travis reaches into the pocket of his jacket and takes out a tiny black box.

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He opens it, revealing the most stunning diamond ring I’ve ever seen. “Iknow we agreed to take things slow, and we still can do that, but I can’t imagine my future without you. I don’t want to. I love you so damn much, Allie. If I ask to be yours forever, will you say yes?”

My hand starts trembling between his. I blink, my vision clearing as the tears fall. When my lips curve into a smile, his shoulders visibly relax.

“Oh, Travis. Do you even have to ask?”

He slips the ring on my finger easily, as if it was always meant to be there.

“Come here, sweetheart.”

And when my lips meet his under the moonlight, I realize that luck has always been on my side after all.

Epilogue

Three years later…

The past weekhas been incredibly busy at the bar, so it’s no surprise that I get home past dinnertime. Travis warned me I’d be stuck in the finance booth, as he likes to call it—because I always use the same one—for longer than usual today, and he wasn’t wrong.

By the time I pull into our driveway, I’m positively exhausted. The back of my neck is throbbing, and my butt hurts from sitting for hours on end. Glancing at the time in my car, my soreness gets put on the back burner as I realize how late it truly is.

Even if I still love accounting with all my heart, at times like this, I can’t help but feel guilty about getting home this late. But Travis insists that he has everything under control, that he’s the other half of this team, and that he will “damn sure act like it.” He proves it every day.

There’s light coming from the living room window. Cooper and Buddy are probably inside the barn since I don’t see them outside. Just as I’m about to get out of the car, my phone pings with a notification. A text from Johnny, confirming they will be able to make it. I can’t help but smile as I text him back.

If someone had told me ten years ago that my brother and sister would be celebrating my thirtieth birthday with me, I would’ve asked them if they had hit their head. But Johnny has kept his promise to stay in touch all these years, and Cindy has slowly opened up to me, and now I can say we are… okay.

We aren’t super close—and that’s fine—but we have visited one another a handful of times in the past three years, and we get along. They even gave George Eden their input for his law proposal and celebrated with me when it passed through with Congress last year.

To me, that’s enough for now.

The chilly night air hits my cheeks as I start for the front door. There’s not a single cloud in the sky, and I crane my neck up to watch the stars twinkle above my head. It’s magical, but the beauty of the infinite universe doesn’t hold a candle to what I’ll find inside our home.

Travis is finishing up two burgers in the kitchen when I walk in. His hair is all over the place, his beard needs a little trimming, and he has a vomit stain on his shoulder. He’s never looked hotter.

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