Page 41 of Monsters, Vows, and Growls
I blinked, "What?"
"Marry me, Ella. Let us continue this. Let me give you everything. Let me spend the rest of my life making up for the pain I caused. For every day I wasn’t there. For every night I should have been holding you. Let me give you a hundred slow dances, a thousand mornings with waffles, every stupid little thing I remember about you—and all the things I still want to learn.”
I stared at him with a heavy thudding heart. He was serious. This wasn’t a dreamy, planned proposal. There was no ring box. No candlelight choreography. He was still naked under the sheets, his hair a mess, his lips red from kissing me too hard. His chest rose and fell like he was bracing for me to rebuke him.
But I wasn't sure I wanted to.
You're not seriously considering this?
I am! I think I am!
And the more I thought about it, the more the idea made sense. Not in a whirlwind-romance, swept-off-my-feet kind of way—but in a quiet, inevitable way. Like something that had always been meant to happen. I used to imagine it, back when we were young and stupid and thought forever was just something you said when you kissed someone on a football field. I had dreamed of being Mrs. McCloud long before I knew how much that name would come to mean.
Sure, on paper it might look fast. But paper didn't know what we’d been through. Paper didn’t know how many nights I’d cried over him, or how many times I’d rehearsed what I’d say if I ever saw him again. We’d already lost ten years. I wasn’t willing to waste any more.
Still, the old habits crept in. The need to justify. To defend. To prepare a list of bulletproof reasons for people who might not even be listening.
Was it fast? I guess it depended on how you looked at it. We certainly hadn’t just met. We’d known each other for half our lives. We’d loved each other for longer than we’d ever admit out loud. And if love was the measuring stick, we were already late.
But then I caught myself.Justify?Why was I even thinking like that? Who was I trying to convince?
It wasmylife.Hislife.Ourlife. No one else’s.
And truthfully, I already knew what the people who mattered would say. Carol would cry and then threaten to strangle himif he ever hurt me again. Henry would do a happy dance and probably ask us when we were having grandkids before we even cut the cake.
My mother… well. My mother was her own category. An unpredictable one. But her opinion didn’t get to dictate my happiness anymore.
And Gabe?
I paused there, unsure. We’d never been close. When Patrick and I were together the first time, Gabe had been off chasing football and building a life that took him far from family dinners and awkward family parties. We’d exchanged polite small talk at holidays and smiled for a few group photos, but I wasn’t even sure he knew how serious it had been between me and Patrick back then.
So what was I waiting for?
“I—” I started, then stopped, because my voice was all tangled up in my chest.
His expression faltered, just a crack around the edges. “Too soon?”
“Yes,” I said softly. “And also... no.”
His brow furrowed. I reached out and rested my palm over his heart. “You’re asking me to marry you naked, after bear-chasing me through the woods and wrecking me in a cabin bed, Pats.”
He gave a half-smile. “When you say it like that, it soundsromantic.”
“It sounds like something Carol would write,” I muttered, but I was already grinning.
“Then say yes,” he murmured. “And let’s write the rest together.”
I stared at him, at this man who knew every part of me—my ambition, my fear, my need for control, my inability to function if I showed up somewhere two minutes late—and still wanted me. All of me. And maybe that was what finally made me whisper, “Okay.”
His whole body stilled. “Okay?”
“Yes,” I said, a little louder, a little braver. “I’ll marry you.”
Patrick’s grin was instant, boyish, and suffused with relief.He hauled me back into his arms, pressing kisses to my cheeks, my mouth, my neck—anywhere he could reach. Thorne rumbled low in his chest like a bear version of a wedding march.
"I can't believe you said yes. Ells, I swear I will never, ever hurt you again. I?—"
I put a finger on his lips. "Let's let the past be just that, Pats. Let's concentrate only on the future."
