Page 97 of Spur of the Moment
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Me?”
I nodded.
“Why me?” she asked hesitantly.
“I want you to help design our house.”
“Ourhouse?”
“You’re mine forever, Huckleberry. Yes, it’s our house. I want to build a family with you, get old with you, sit in somedamn rocking chairs on our porch and complain about the weather. I want it all, as long as it’s with you.”
“You gonna ask me to marry you first?” she teased.
Lettie may have been joking, but I was far from it.
Smiling, I set her down on her feet, then dropped to one knee. I pulled the velvet black box from my pocket and held it out to her, revealing the single white diamond set on a gold band.
Before I could get the words out, she angled my head up with her hands on my cheeks and pressed her lips to mine.
I took that as her ‘yes.’
With my lips still on hers, I pulled the ring from the box. She pulled away and held her hand out for me to slide it on.
“Lettie Cooper. I like the sound of that,” she said.
It was about damn time she took my last name.
I’d planned to propose tonight in the gazebo, but it felt right doing it here, in the place where we’d be building our future.
Besides, everything was spur of the moment when it came to Lettie Cooper.
Epilogue
Bailey
Eight Years Earlier…
My mother walked beside me on the sidewalk as we headed back to the truck with our bags. She’d brought me to the market to pick out a few snacks for my movie night at the Bronsons’ tonight. I’d gone a little overboard but I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.
They never expected me to bring snacks, but I always did anyway. We’d set up the projector in the backyard and lay on blankets as we watched the movie. Reed, Lennon, Callan, and Beck were my best friends. Lettie was too, but the title wouldn’t stick. That girl was too beautiful to let slip out of my hands.
She was so fucking sassy, I couldn’t help my smile every time she opened her pretty mouth.
We grew up together, and while most people would think that would warrant her to be like my little sister, she was far from it. I didn’t miss her little glances. She had a crush on me, and every time her cheeks beat red when she watched me swim in the creek in my boxers or stack hay shirtless, I fell a little harder. A little farther into the chokehold Lettie Bronson had on me.
The day she turned eighteen, I’d show her. Not a second later. I’d wasted too many seconds of my life pausing, hesitating, and not living in the moment.
I couldn’t plan how I’d tell her. I’d overthink it, and end up chickening out. It’d have to be spur of the moment with Lettie. Then I knew I’d show her with no second thoughts.
An old man sat on the corner of the intersection under a white pop-up tent. He had a hand-painted sign that read “huckleberries for sale.”
I gestured to the stand. “Is it alright if I get some for tonight?”
I was nineteen, but was too scared to drive my grandfather’s truck he’d given me in his will. I was terrified of wrecking it, so I opted for my mom to drive me whenever I needed to go into town. If it was on the backroads, I felt more confident. But with the crazy tourists in town, I didn’t want to risk even a scratch on the door.
“Of course.” My mom followed me to the stand and I pulled out my wallet.
