While the coffee brewed, I opened the tallest cabinet and reached around until I felt the small velvet box. It had been up there for three weeks. I opened it, studying the way the ring caught the light.
Nothing had felt more right than this. Than her.
I fixed her coffee and started walking back to the bedroom, then froze, remembering a promise I’d made. One I’d never forgive myself for breaking.
I set the coffee down and skipped down the steps, carefully opening the door to the guest room we’d designated as Gavin’s. He was sprawled out in the middle of the queen-size bed, snoring lightly. I crouched next to the side of the bed and gently rubbed his back.
He snapped up, hair crazy and face creased from heavy sleep. He was sleeping in his Sinclair jersey. “Wha— What happened?”
“Sorry to wake you up early, buddy.”
Gavin’s eyes stayed closed, but he nodded. “It’s okay.”
“Can I ask you something?” I whispered.
“Sure,” he answered around a yawn. “Can we go out to breakfast to that cinnamon roll place?”
I smiled. “Yeah. I’m about to bring your mom some coffee. But I wanted to ask you something else. Something I promised to talk to you about first.”
Gavin scrubbed at his face, finally awake enough that the small box in my hand registered. His eyes widened. “Whoa. Is that for Mom?”
I nodded. “I’d like to give it to her, yeah. But only if you’re okay with that.”
Gavin reached for the ring box and held it carefully in both hands, prying open the top. He didn’t say anything as he stared at the ring, then closed it on a quiet snap. Then he handed it back and leveled a serious look in my direction. “You love her?”
There were no words for how much. Every day, I tried to think of a different way to say it, a different way to show it, but in the end, I knew it was in the simplest ways that she’d feel it the most.
“I do,” I answered. “And you know what else?”
He shook his head.
“I love you too,” I told him in an emotion-thick voice. “And one of the best parts of marrying your mom, if she says yes, is that I’ll get to be with you every day too.”
Gavin’s chin trembled, but a tear spilled down his cheek before he could brush it away. “I love you too,” he said in a shaky voice. “I really want you to marry her.”
My vision had blurred dangerously, and when he leaned forward, throwing his arms around my neck, I didn’t try to stop the tears that fell. “So I have your permission?”
He pulled back, eyes bright. “Do you need my help asking her?”
I grinned, ruffling his hair. “You got a good idea?”
Gavin paused, then glanced over my shoulder. “Well, maybe you could just do it now,” he whispered.
I froze. “She’s in the room, isn’t she?”
He nodded.
“Right.” My chest was too tight, my heart pounding too hard. I hadn’t practiced what I was going to say. Not really. But I tucked the box in my hand and looked behind me. Remi had donned one of my college shirts and some cotton sleep pants that were way too big on her, a tiny smile curling her lips.
“Hi.”
“Firefly. Didn’t expect to see you down here.”
Her eyes were glowing. “Apparently.”
I stood from the side of the bed and approached, my eyes drinking in every inch of this woman I loved so much. When her gaze flicked down to the box in my hand and stayed there for a breathless moment, her chest rose and fell on a deep inhale and a long exhale.
I took her hand in mine, dragging my thumb over the soft skin on her knuckles.