Page 150 of The Hallows Queen

Hayden doesn’t like to talk about it, and Logan has helped me learn more about how to deal with the grief he carries inside of himself daily because of his parents.

Everything feels…right.Life has fallen into place, and for the first time in almost five years, I don’t feel half empty. Instead, I’m fucking overflowing. I have everything I didn’t know I wanted. Looking back at my return to Luxington after college, I realize that this was my future all along, this was what was waiting for me when I stepped off that plane, it just took a long, hard, fucked-up road to get to it.

I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Even all the bad shit, because it made me who I am today. And it made Hayden into the incredible man I want to spend my life with. If we hadn’t been so toxic, so explosive and unhealthy, he wouldn’t have gotten the help he needed at the right time, he wouldn’t have gotten sober, and he wouldn’t have found his happiness. Anything could have come of us. He could have ended up dead, and I could have ended up with some boring life that doesn’t light me on fire.

We were made to complete each other, that I know. Where he lacks, I fill, and vice versa.

Chewing on my lip, I load the dishes from my lunch into the dishwasher, running over what I’m going to wear for my first day of work tomorrow. Laughing as I start to feel déjà vu, I shake my head and close the appliance. I grab my phone from the counter, then I hit shuffle on my playlist before I slide it in my back pocket. I need noise to drown out the inevitable anxiety that’s settled in my stomach.

As I finish cleaning the kitchen, I sing along to the music, dancing around the room. The doorbell rings as I’m finishing up, and I hit pause on my phone before I go to answer it.

When I pull the door open, the sun hits me in a way that makes me squint, so it takes me a second to realize there’s no one standing on the other side. I look around, wondering if maybe I imagined the doorbell, but then I look down at the ground and find a vase of red roses sitting on the mat.

Picking them up, I look around the front yard again, feeling like someone might be watching me, but when I don’t find anyone, I step inside and close the door behind me. I put the vase down on the entry table, grabbing the card that’s sticking out and opening it.

I am yours and you are mine.

I smile, reading the sentence twice more as I start to feel butterflies attacking my insides, but it’s short-lived, because the sound of the doorbell ringing again makes me jump. Putting the card down on the table, I pull the front door open and find Hayden standing on the other side. He’s dressed in a suit, but the top three buttons of his shirt are undone, showing the tattoos on his chest.

“What are you doing?” I chuckle, holding onto the door.

He smiles, holding out a hand for me. “Come with me.”

“Where?” I ask, looking over his shoulder. “Why aren’t you at work?”

He wiggles his fingers. “C’mon.”

“Can I get some shoes?” I ask, pointing at my bare feet.

Hayden shakes his head. “We aren’t going far.”

Raising a brow, I take his hand and step outside with him, closing the door behind me. He leads me down the front steps and through the grass, then around the side of the house toward the road. “H, where are we going?”

He shushes me, laughing softly. We walk a block down the street toward the beach, and onto the little sandy path that leads out to the ocean. His fingers tighten around mine, and I look over at him. When he smiles, so do I.

“You know I love you, right, P?” he asks, licking his lips nervously.

“Yeah…” I answer, looking at him curiously. “I love you too.”

“I didn’t know happiness until you came crashing into my life.” He walks slowly, still leading me. “It was like parts of me were muted, and it wasn’t until I met you that I could hear them clearly.”

My stomach flips and heart warms, my body suddenly feeling jittery from nerves. Following his gaze, I look out ahead as we step onto the soft sand. The strip of beach we’re stepping onto is covered in red rose petals, and my stomach falls to my ass. “Hayden...”

He pulls me after him as I pause mid-step, and he smiles at me.

When we’ve stepped into the field of rose petals, he turns to face me, grabbing my other hand to hold both of them between us. “You are all that I want, P. From sunup to sundown, it’s you. You’re my soul, my heart, my fucking world.”

I bite onto my lip painfully, my heart pounding under my ribs. “Hayden.”

He lets go of my hands, and grabs both sides of my face before he kisses me. His lips are soft and tender, and when he pulls back, he smiles for a breath before he drops to one knee in front of me.

My hand flies to my lips, and I stop breathing. “Hayden.”

Looking up at me, he squints from the sun before his smile widens. “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Penelope. Before you, I didn’t know what love was – you taught me how to feel, how to breathe, and how to exist. I never want to spend a day without you. It’s you and me, baby, forever. You are my forever.”

He slides his hand into the front pocket of his pants and pulls out a little black box, looking back up at me as he opens it. Inside is a ring, a large oval-shaped diamond sitting in the middle, and my eyes fill with tears as I gasp.

My throat starts to swell with emotion, and I whisper his name.

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