Page 126 of Always a Bridesmaid
So much purple it almost looked like… Well, like it’d been pulled from the pages of her sparkly binder.
A bark cut through the silence, and Trouble rushed toward her as fast as his doggy feet could take him. A giant purple ribbon and bow circled his neck, and in spite of her trepidation, Violet squatted and petted her puppy.
She scooped him up and buried her nose in his fur, and her heart didn’t know whether to expand or knot, and she loved him so much her body could hardly contain it. “Using Trouble against me?” she said in Ford’s direction, unable to fully look at him. “That’s a new low, even for you.”
“I deserve that.” Ford took a step toward her—was he limping? “I’m not using him against you, though. He’s a gift. If you want him.”
Her tears blurred Ford’s features—not enough to weaken the effect they had on her, unfortunately. “Of course I want him.”
“And me?” Ford asked. The question came out gravelly and raw, and the strings inside her heart tugged and tugged until all that was left was an unraveled clump.
Tears slipped down her cheeks in warm trails, and Ford closed the distance between them.
“Violet, I screwed up. You were right when you told me that the marriage and kid talk were my issues, not yours.”
She opened her mouth, and he pressed his finger to her lips.
“I’ve been rehearsing while scrambling to pull this whole thing together, and I know it’s not as fancy as the pictures in your binder, but with you leaving, I couldn’t risk spending any more time on it. I did convince Nellie Mae to open the flower shop and cleared her out of every single purple flower she had.”
Ford plucked a purple anemone out of the vase nearest him and slid it behind her ear.
Violet held tight to Trouble, who launched himself off her boob and attacked the flower.
“Thanks for that, buddy,” Ford said with a laugh. “I’ve realized a lot of things this past week. For instance”—his green eyes locked onto hers as he took her hand—“even though I like to play hero, I’m a coward. You’re the heroic one, putting yourself out there and not making excuses about who you are or what you want. I let my fears get the best of me, and in the process, I lost you.
“For some reason, I thought if I settled down, my adventures would come to an end. But last night, as I was rappelling down to an injured hiker—”
“Is that why you’re limping? Are you hurt?” Violet set Trouble on the bench and squatted to peek at Ford’s leg. She lifted the slacks and gasped at the giant scrape crisscrossing his shin.
Ford crouched as well, placing his fingers under her chin and gently tipping her face to his. “There’s my distracted angel,” he said with a smile. “The cuts and bruises I can handle. But losing you…” Ford’s voice turned husky, and his thumb brushed her jaw. “That’s an injury I’ll never recover from. It took me way too long to realize it, but if you give me another chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Violet’s heartbeats tripped over each other, and her breath lodged in her throat. “The rest of your life? You know what that phrase means, right? That it could be decades?”
One corner of his mouth kicked up in that way that she adored. “It doesn’t scare me anymore. Iwantto be with you, Violet.”
Ford dropped fully onto his knees. “I’m down herebeggingyou to give me another chance. I want all my adventures to include you. Because I’ve fallen completely in love with you.”
Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. Did he just…?
“That’s right.” He took both of her hands in his. “I love you, Violet Abrams. I don’t want to move too fast and ruin everything or scare you, but if you take my sorry ass back, I promise you that I’ll be in this for the long haul. That I choose you, and I’ll show up, and I’ll continue to choose you forever.
“And not someday—but one day—I wanna marry you and have kids with you. It doesn’t scare me anymore. The only thing that scares me is losing you.”
Another wave of tears hit her, and she couldn’t withhold the sniff.
Trouble jumped onto her lap and licked at the saltwater trails, a whimper coming out.
“I’m okay,” she whispered to the puppy. Then she glanced around the gazebo at all the work Ford had done in such a short time.
The flowers and the lights and Ford down on his knees, his declaration about loving her hanging in the air. It was a dream she’d given up on, and yet here it was, coming true. “You realize I’d have to be a fool to accept this apology and stay in town, right?”
Ford swallowed thickly, the hope shining in his features fading as he hung his head. “I know. But I had to try.”
Violet placed her hand on the side of his face, studying the man she loved with her entire heart and soul. “Lucky for you—and as you’ve implied several times since we met that day over a fiery oven—I happen to be a bit bonkers, especially when it comes to you.”
His head jerked up, the happiness flooding the curve of his smile transferring joy to her, too. “Are you saying…?”
“I love you, too.”
