“It was. Itis.” I try to stay serious, but I just laugh even harder as I watch Caleb pull out a silver ring from the remnants of the strawberry and chocolate mess.
“I had this whole speech planned.” He wipes the ring on his shirt, leaving a pale pink stain.
“I don’t need a speech,” I say breathlessly, my eyes glued to the ring. It’s a simple silver band with a small blue stone in the middle. “I just need you and that damn ring on my finger.” I hold out my hand between us. Caleb’s breath is hot against my face, rushed and nervous. Wrapping his hand around my fingers, he holds out the ring, and the stone glimmers in the candlelight, more turquoise than blue.
“I love you, Kayden,” he says, his voice low and serious. “I love everything about you. I love our life together.” His jaw clenches, and he brushes his thumb along my ring finger. “I never saw this coming. I never sawyoucoming.” It feels like my heart is ready to jump out of my chest because I never saw him coming either. “We’re together all the time, and still, I want more. We work together and we drive home together. You fall asleep next to me, and I watch you, trying to make sense of how I ever got to be this lucky. I look at you, how peaceful you look next to me, and I can’t wait for a new day to begin with you, because every morning when you open your eyes, you look at me like I’m your entire world.”
“You are,” I whisper, and the tears begin again. “You are my world, Caleb.”
“You’re mine, too. My heart, my love, my life.” He carefully slides the ring along my finger, the silver cool against my overheated skin. I hold my breath. “I know you’re already mine, Kayden, but I’d love to marry you. You’re already my boyfriend, but I’d love to be able to call youhusband, too.”Husband.The word echoes through my chest, igniting small fires in its wake before they spread to the rest of my body.
“Yes,” I cry, nodding furiously. It’s the easiest yes I’ve ever spoken. “I want that too. So much. I want to call youhusbandtoo.”
“Yeah?” Relief washes over Caleb’s face, and he suddenly looks so young and vulnerable.
“Of course!”
He pulls me against him, squeezing me impossibly tight, and I melt into him, our hands locked between us, Caleb’s ring on my finger. He kisses me everywhere he can reach: my neck, below my ear, my chin. He eases me away from him and presses his lips against mine, murmuring, “K, my beautiful K,” again and again. It feels like my heart is going to burst into a million little pieces, for the wind to pick up and carry away, telling the entire world of my happiness.
When we eventually break away, we’re both panting. My gaze dips to my hand, the silver so pretty against my sun-kissed skin.
“It’s beautiful.”
“You like it?” Caleb asks, eagerness in his voice.
“Are you kidding me? I fucking love it.”
“Yeah? It’s a blue diamond. The color reminded me of the color of your eyes.” He says it like it’s just one of those things, and like he isn’t just killing me all over again with how amazing he is.
“I love it. I love you. I can’t wait to marry you. Because I love our life too. I love it so much. And this,” I brush my thumb along the ring, “is just—” My voice breaks, and Caleb pulls me against him.
“It is, isn’t it?” His voice is filled with warmth and wonder.
“It is.”
We stand like that for a long time, just holding each other, looking at the ring again and again.
“Kayden Somner-Morgan,” I eventually say. “It has a really nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
Caleb sucks in a breath. “It does. Would you want that? To take my name? Then I could take yours too.”
“Caleb Somner-Morgan,” I whisper, tasting his name together with mine on my lips. “Yeah, I’d like that. Then everyone will know that we belong together.”
“They will. I can’t wait.”
“Me neither. And I can’t wait to tell Mom. To show her the ring.” Nervousness builds in my chest at the thought of Dad. He’s only just gotten used to the idea of Caleb and me living together. I have no idea how he’ll take this. I guess when Caleb is in, he’s all in. My head is spinning, a thousand questions twirling around. I look up at Caleb. “Do you think Dad will be okay?”
His fingers tighten around mine. “Sal is okay with it.”
It takes a few seconds for the words to register in my mind.Is.“You told him?”
“Iaskedhim.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Just before we left. I, uhm… I wanted his blessing because I knew how much it’d matter to you. How much it means to you that your dad and I are in a good place.”
“It does. Thank you.”