Page 107 of My Grumpy Fire Chief Next Door
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to love again,” I say. “But then you showed up… and wrecked every wall I’d built.”
Kate trembles.
I don’t have a speech. Not a clean one. Not the one I practiced with Blaze at two in the morning.
But I look up at her, and somehow, the words come.
“I thought loving again meant forgetting the past,” I start, voice thick. “But then you showed up and proved love doesn't erase what came before. It just builds something new."
Kate’s lips tremble.
“I didn’t mean for you to be the one. But now I can’t imagine my life without you. I love you, Katie. I love Parker. I love how you challenge me, calm me, make me feel like I still have a heart worth holding.”
My voice cracks.
“I want to make a home with you. Not just one you live in, but one you feel in your bones. I want to be yours in every way a man can be. I want your mornings, your storms, your quiet, your chaos. All of it. And I want Parker to know I'm here forever.Loving you isn’t something I chose. It’s something my soul remembered the moment I saw you."
I hold up the ring.
“Will you marry me, Katie?”
She stares at me, breathing hard, blinking like she can’t believe this is real.
Then she drops to her knees and wraps me in her arms and whispers. “Yes. Yes. Yes, Noah.”
A gasp ripples through the air—then the lights bloom, the music swells, and the whole beach erupts.
A joyful, wild sound. Strings and horns layered with that familiar song Emily picked out, she said it’s Kate’s favorite, something golden and rich that lifts over the dunes as if it’s always belonged here. The first notes catch the breeze and sweep across the sand, curling around us like a warm tide.
Overhead, string lights flick on like stars, stretching from the trees to the tent to the wooden arch behind us, everything soaked in an amber glow. It’s as if the whole night decided to open its arms to us.
And then everyone surges forward.
Laughter, cheers, and claps spill out first, wild and high. Then bodies follow, dozens of them, emerging from behind coolers, surfboards, palm trees, tents. Emily jogs out, waving her hands in the air, eyes already shining.
Knox comes barreling from the deck with Maddox. Rachel tosses something high into the sky, white petals fluttering down like soft rain, and yells, “SHE SAID YES!” like she’s announcing it to the ocean.
Ava’s crying openly.
Not the dainty kind either, her shoulders are shaking, her hands are pressed over her mouth, and she’s laughing through the tears like she can’t decide what emotion to feel first. She’sclutching Beverly’s hand while Elaine fans herself beside them. Dottie’s sniffling. Everyone’s eyes are on us.
Margaret whistles so sharp it cuts through the music.
“Aboutdamntime!” she shouts, voice rough with emotion, and then she throws her arms up and pulls Emily into a hug that nearly topples them both.
Connor lifts Parker into the air, high above the crowd.
Parker shrieks with joy, wild and unfiltered, and his little arms fly wide like he’s about to take flight. Connor spins him in a circle, and Parker yells at the top of his lungs,“COACH NOAH’S GONNA BE MY DAD!”
Cheers ripple down the beach like a wave hitting the shore.
One person starts clapping, and then another, and then the whole place erupts in claps, whoops, and whistles. It’s loud. It’s alive. The crowd surges forward, laughter and cheers kicking up little clouds of sand.
But through it all, I don’t move.
I don’t turn. I don’t wave. I don’t even try to speak.
Because I’m holding her.
