My eyes traced it, seeing what it said.
Marry Me Muffins.
It was at the same second that he dropped to his knee.
Ryder
There she was again.
A landslide.
Quicksand that immediately sucked me under.
I dropped to my knee, no escape from her lure, which was a good fucking thing because I didn’t have to fight it any longer.
What we were supposed to be.
This love.
This devotion.
This thing that burned inside me so bright it could never be put out.
Tears slipped from the edges of her eyes, and she pressed her hands to her mouth to cover the tiny cry that slipped out.
“Cookie.” I rumbled it around the thickness in my throat.
More tears fell down her gorgeous face, cinnamon eyes filled with so much adoration that my words choked around the force of it.
“My love for you was a secret for too long. Hidden in the shadows. But your love was big enough and bright enough for the both of us that it never could burn out. Because of it, I will forever burn for you. For so long, I’ve wanted to shout my love for you from the roof of every building in this town. And I figured there is no better place to start than right here, in front of our friends and family, in this place that you built out of your love and devotion and dreams.”
I took in a ragged breath, overcome by what I felt.
“I love you, Cookie, and I want to share all those things with you. This love. This devotion. Every dream we could ever conjure. I want us to chase them together. Today, tomorrow, and always. Be my wife. My partner. The one who believes in me as much as I believe in you. Because I want to share every single day with you.”
Dakota came the rest of the way forward, no longer trying to slow or hide her tears. She knelt in front of me. Reaching out with those tender fingers, she dragged them down the side of my face.
A tremble rolled, and I couldn’t do anything but stare at the woman who had changed everything. The one who’d filled me up when I was empty. The one who’d given me faith when I’d lost all hope.
The one who’d shown me I could believe in myself.
“Nothing could make me happier than spending every day with you, Ryder Nash. All our todays and all our tomorrows.”
I crashed my mouth against hers because I couldn’t keep from touching her for a second longer, kissing her mad through our tears and laughter and the cheers that rose up from our family.
I curled my arm around her waist, guiding us both to stand, and Dakota’s mom set Kayden on his feet. He tottered over, this other piece of my soul, that devotion that could never end, his face full of that dimpled grin as he held the ring over his head.
“I got somefing for you, Mommy.”
Dakota choked, her love so fierce as her son placed the ring in her palm. It was unique and every bit as beautiful as Dakota, made of metal I had forged in my shop, and the stone was a Red Tiger’s Eye.
The same color as that knowing gaze that flashed up to me.
Joy pushed so hard at my chest that it overflowed.
She held her palm out to me, and I took the ring so I could slide it onto her trembling finger, and I whispered, “All our todays and all our tomorrows.”
The End