Page 183 of A Very Merry Enemy
“So, I have something to ask you.” His voice is rough with emotion, but there’s that playful edge that I adore.
A surprised laugh bursts out of me even as I start trembling.
“I’ve been in love with you since we were literal kids.” Lucas takes a shaky breath. “Since I kissed you under Mawmaw’smistletoe when we were sixteen. Since you held my hand at the lake. Since the time at the carnival when you tried to get me to touch your boob. Since July Fourth, when we gave each other everything that we were.”
I can barely breathe as tears stream down my cheeks.
This man. This beautiful, incredible man.
“I stayed in love with you when you left. Every day you were gone, I wondered if you were happy, if you were safe, if you ever thought about me. When you came back broken, I promised myself that I’d help put you back together. That I wouldn’t let you be the girl who got away and haunted me for my entire existence.” His voice cracks, and he takes in another breath.
“You choosing me was the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. And I want to keep choosing you, too. Every single day for the rest of my life.”
I can’t help but sniffle as I wipe my tears away.
“I want to keep conserving water with you. I want to have babies with you and teach them how to cut down Christmas trees and make gingerbread houses. I want to sit on our porch and watch the seasons change. I want to bake cookies with you when we’re eighty. I want a lifetime with you, Holiday.”
He looks up at me with so much emotion in his green eyes that it steals what’s left of my breath completely away.
“I want to have as much fun growing old with you as I had growing up with you.” He smiles, giving me that dimple. “I want fifty more years of arguing about who crushed harder or who loves the other more. I want to laugh until we can’t breathe and make love until we’re too tired to move. I want every ordinary weekday and every big milestone. I want all of it. And I promise to always make you laugh, even when you’re mad. I promise to support every single one of your dreams. I want you exactly as you are, and I will never, ever try to change you. And I promise to never let a day go by without showing you how much you mean to me.”
He pulls the ring from the box with shaking hands and holds it up.
“Holiday Patterson, will you please marry me? Will you be my wife and let me spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you make me?”
I try to speak but no sound comes out.
My throat is too tight.
This is Lucas asking me to be his forever.
The boy I’ve always loved is on one knee, asking me to marry him. I feel like I’m dreaming.
I drop to my knees in front of him so we’re face-to-face, both of us shaking with happiness.
“Yes,” I choke out. “Yes, Lucas! Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!”
His hands tremble from adrenaline as he slides the ring onto my finger.
I hold out my hand, watching it sparkle and send little rainbows dancing across the room.
“This is exactly how I dreamed it would be,” I say, unable to look away from the gem.
“I bought it fifteen years ago.” He wipes moisture from my cheeks with his thumbs.
“What?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah.”
More tears stream down my face. “This is exactly how I dreamed it, too.”
I laugh through the emotion overwhelming me. “You were going to propose to me back then?”
“Yes.” He cups my face in his hands. “You were always supposed to be my wife.”
“I really, really like the sound of that,” I confess.
Our lips crash together, and it’s full of love and promise.
