Page 149 of American Beauty

It guts me—knowing she’s been walking around with that weight in her chest, wondering if I’d disappear again. Wondering if she was temporary.

It makes me realize I’ve been too quiet. Too careful. Too damn slow.

So I push forward, needing her to hear the truth—all of it.

“I need to make something clear.” My eyes lock with hers. “I will not let you go again, Magnolia. Ever. I don’t care where we are or what happens. We will never part ways again.”

She stares at me, that hopeful wariness flickering in her eyes again—the kind you get when you want to believe something so badly that it hurts.

“What does that mean to you? Never parting from me again?”

It means everything to me. But I have to know where she is before I lay it all out.

I hesitate, just for a breath. “Can I ask you something?”

She nods. “Sure.”

“Have your feelings changed about marriage? About having kids?”

Magnolia draws in a shaky breath. “Being apart from you has changed everything for me.”

I don’t breathe. I don’t blink.

She hesitates for a moment and swallows. “I want it all, and I want it with you.”

I swear, my world tilts.

“Say it again.”

She smiles—full, sure, radiant. “I want to build a life with you—marriage, our little Samoan babies, all of it. Everythingyou told me about when you described what marriage means to you… that’s what I want too.”

Something inside me lets go. A rope pulled tight for too long, finally easing. And in its place, that wild, consuming hope I’ve been trying to keep at bay comes rushing in.

For a second, I can’t even speak. I just sit there, stunned, flooded with something so big it almost knocks me over. Joy. Relief. Love. All of it.

“Okay,” I manage.

She tilts her head, blinking. “Just…okay?”

“I’m absorbing,” I say, trying to rein in the dumb grin taking over my face. “This is a big shift from our last marriage conversation. You’ve surprised me. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of shift.”

Magnolia narrows her eyes at me, playful and confused all at once. “I just told you I want to be your wife and the mother of your children. This isn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting.”

I reach out, tugging on her hand. “Come here, babe.”

She stands, her eyes avoiding mine as she rounds the table. When she reaches me, she climbs onto my lap, straddling me, her legs sliding around my waist the way she’s done it hundreds of times before.

Her hands settle around my shoulders, but her brow is tight, confused, a little hurt. I hate that look on her face. I hate I put it there.

My hands grip her waist. She leans in, forehead pressed to mine, like she’s searching for the truth in my silence.

“It makes me so damn happy that you want to be my wife.”

“Does it?”

“Hell yes. Of course.”

Her body relaxes. “Then why not ask me?”

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