It’s a gift and a promise. She’s offering me hope. I just have to trust her and love her. This woman is mine. My friend, my soulmate. She already wears my jersey and sleeps in my bed. Someday, she may even share my name. As we sink to the floor, unable to wait for more, the name rings true in my mind: Tess Langley.
My Tess. The cataclysm that came and shook me up. Now she’s mine to love. Mine to cherish. Mine to make happy for the rest of my lucky fucking life. I smile, kissing her perfect lips.
Nothing has ever felt so right.
EPILOGUE
One Year Later
My alarm goes off and I groan, rolling to my side. It’s too fucking early. But it’s game day, and I have to get up. I snatch for my phone, determined to silence it before it wakes Tess.
As soon as my fingers wrap around it, I go still. That’s not my alarm sound. It’s music. Like a ringtone. I pull my head out from under my pillow, blinking in the semidarkness as I check the screen. It’s my phone, and it’s definitely an alarm, but it’s playing the chorus of ‘Marry Me’ by Jason Derulo.
Gasping, I shut it off and roll over, totally expecting to see Tess sitting up in the bed like a no-sleep gremlin, holding out a ring box. But she’s not there. Her side of the bed is empty.
I drag a tired hand over my face as I sit up.
She’s been hinting pretty strong these last few months that she was ready to propose. She’s been making a game of it, twisting me up just to wind me back down. I’ve about reached my fucking limit. I’ve assured her I’m happy either way. We’re a year into this thing, and there’s no end in sight. I am so in love with that woman, it’s not even funny. Tess is mine.
But a promise is a promise. I’m not proposing. Ever. If she wants me, she knows where to find me.
I set my phone down and swing my legs off the side of the bed. The moment my feet touch the floor, I’m wide fucking awake. There’s a trail of red rose petals starting under my feet and leading across the bedroom, disappearing down the hall.
“Tess, you better be out there,” I shout, tiptoeing through the rose petals.
They go down the stairs and around the corner into the kitchen where—
I stop, eyes wide, looking around as I take in a garden’s worth of red roses. “Oh…fucking hell.”
Vases cover every surface of the kitchen—the counters, the stove, the island. There are more stacked on the dining table. Only one little spot remains cleared away at the end of the table. Tess has prepared my usual game day breakfast bowl of steel cut oats with fresh berries. I just have to add the hot water.
“Tess!” I shout, listening for sounds of her somewhere in the house. She’s probably hiding around the corner, snickering into her hand. “Tess!”
But the house is dead quiet.
I huff, turning back to my breakfast. There’s a red envelope resting next to my bowl. I snatch it up. She drew a heart on the front with a letter R inside it. I pull out the card and as soon as I open it, the chorus of Taylor Swift’s “All of the Girls You Loved Before” starts playing.
Damn it. She knows that’s my favorite Swift song. I call it my ‘Tess Song.’ On a dare, I even sang it to her during karaoke night a few months ago.
I drop the card and pull my phone out of my pajama pants pocket. I call her, one hand on my hip, glaring at my breakfast. The phone rings and rings as the musical card continues to play.
She doesn’t answer.
“Fuck!” I shout at literally no one. “I am marrying you so fucking hard! Don’t even test me!”
Thirty minutes later, Jake and Caleb drag me out of the house for our game day morning beach walk. I tried to tell them what was happening, but Jake wasn’t having it. He’s almost as bad as Mars when it comes to game day rituals.
We stop by the coffee shop on the way. Colby, my favorite barista, passes me my grande iced tea. She’s got the perfect tattoo-to-piercing ratio to know you’re always going to get a quality product.
“Here you go, Ryan,” she chimes. “And hey, guys, good luck tonight!”
“Thanks, Colby Like the Cheese,” Jake teases, taking his coffee from her. It’s their little joke. That’s how she introduced herself on her first day here. Now it’s all he calls her.
I lead the way outside where Sanford is waiting with the dog. Jake hands his husband his coffee, and then we all make our way over to the beach.
“So, she’s dodging your calls?” says Jake, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Yeah.”