Page 134 of Spark

Sweet Ruby would answer, “Yes, KC . . . I’ll be . . . your bride.”

Ruby gasps at the final words out of my mouth, while the crowd around her explodes like a nuclear bomb. But a moment later, as if on cue, everyone stops screaming, all at once, in order to give me the floor for what’s obviously coming next.

I step off the piano bench slowly, feeling like every breath in this room is being held around me, the same as my own. With my heart thumping in my ears, and my skin tingling, I pull out the ring box from my pocket with a shaking hand and walk toward Ruby, who’s now standing alone after being deserted by Laila.

When I reach my future wife, she’s shaking and wide-eyed.

Slowly, I sink to my knee before her, eliciting titters and muted squeals all around me. And when I’m in the traditional pose, I flip open the ring box and raise the sparkling diamond Laila helped me pick out, making Ruby gasp and burst into tears.

“Ruby Margaret Connolly, I love you, baby. I always have, and I always will. I don’t want to live a single day without you by my side, and I can’t wait to call you my wife. Please, baby, will youpleasemarry me?”

“Yes!” Ruby shrieks, throwing her palms to her rosy, tear-streaked cheeks.

With a huge smile, I rise, pull her to me, and kiss her deeply. And by the time I get the ring onto her correct finger, we’re being mobbed by our bandmates and closest friends.

“That poem was amazing!” Ruby shrieks, as we hug and kiss gleefully. “Kendrick, oh my god, baby, this ring is insane! Gorgeous!”

“Laila helped me pick it out.”

“She gave you excellent advice. I would have picked this out myself, if I’d been there.” Squealing, Ruby throws her arms around my neck and peppers my face with kisses. “I loved your proposal so much!”

“Good, because I love you. So fucking much.”

“And you thought you couldn’t write a poem called ‘Spank.’Ha!”

A few feet away, Savage yells to nobody in particular to crank up the music again. And God bless whoever’s manning the tunes—they put on “Spark.” Why not? It’s about Ruby, after all. And this right here is quite the surprise happily-ever-after for the tortured poet who wrote those words with no idea of the joy they’d bring him one day soon.

“I love you so much, my love,” Ruby yells above the music. “I can’t wait to marry you.”

“I love you, too, baby. Andnotlike a sister, to be clear.”

Ruby snorts. “God, I hope not.”

We both laugh as music, love, and joy swirl around us.

“I can’t wait to marry you,” I shout, simply because it feels so good to say it. I take her hand and kiss the new ring on her finger. The symbol of the life we’re going to build together. “I love you so much, Ruby Connolly! And, baby, I always will.”

If you’re interested in hearing the musical accompaniment to each dare and song during Savage’s Birthday Party, click here!

EPILOGUE

RUBY

Five years later

“This is . . . unexpected,” Kendrick says, as he looks around C-Bomb’s bumping, family-friendly Fourth of July party on the shore of his lake house in Prairie Springs, Montana, of all places.

“I wouldn’t have imagined Caleb’s life turning out like this in a million guesses,” I reply in a murmur.

“A billion,” Kendrick replies.

“A trillion. Did Aubrey give him a lobotomy?”

“We stay here,” our two-year-old son, Kyrie, who’s standing next to Kendrick, murmurs, right before smashing his sweet little face into his daddy’s muscular thigh.

“Yep, we’ll stay here till you’re ready,” Kendrick coos to him. “We’ll hang back and get a lay of the land, okay? We’ve got you, cutie. Take your time.”

We’ve just stepped foot into Mr. and Mrs. Caleb and Aubrey Baumgarten’s outdoor, lakeside summer bash that’smostly taking place behind C-Bomb’s beautiful, rustic home on Lake Lucille. And as per our custom when introducing our shy, easily over-stimulated two-year-old to new places and people, we’re letting him acclimate for a minute before entering the fray.

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