I saw the movements of that, but my gaze was locked on his.
I opened my mouth and said, “Took you long enough.”
He chuckled, then he pulled the ring out of the box, and as he took my left hand and slid it onto my finger, I got my first good look at it and felt everything in my body go still.
It was the ring I wanted when I was fifteen and showed it to him.
It was a replica of Bella’s ring in theTwilightseries.
But it was toned down slightly with a smaller oval and diamonds on the band.
“Alexander,” I gasped.
He winked, then he stood, lifted my hand, pressed a kiss on the ring, and squeezed it.
“You showed me that once. The first big paycheck I got while I was in the military, I bought it. Had every intention of putting it on your finger one day. That ring has been with me ever since.”
I lifted on my tiptoes, placed my hands on either side of his face, and pulled his head down, then I kissed him.
I kissed him with all the love I felt for him.
I kissed him with a passion that I didn’t hear my parents as well as the brothers clapping.
He smiled widely as he looked down at me, then he asked, “So, when and where?”
I didn’t hesitate, “Clubhouse. It held you until you came back to me. This weekend. It’s the same day all those years ago when we met.”
He winked, “Why I planned to ask you today.”
Then I looked over my shoulder and chuckled as I saw our family standing there.
I looked at my mom while Alexander wrapped me in his arms, “Can I wear your dress?”
She winked, “You’re why I picked it out.”
***
October fourth, fourteen years in the making, I smiled up at Alexander as I said, “I do.”
Then I smiled as I lifted on my tiptoes and kissed away the tear that slid down his cheek.
Ripper
I bent my head and pressed a kiss on the tip of her nose, “You know how you always ask me why I call you Star Shine?”
She giggled, “Figures you wait to tell me after you change my last name.”
I chuckled, then I sobered, “Creedence, you stole my heart when I was eighteen, and I didn’t even know it. Been vulnerable with you over the years, but this... this is all of me... me telling you this... it gives you all of me.”
Her head tilted to the side, “Thought you already gave me all of you.”
I nodded, “I did. I gave you my heart, my body, my love, but never my soul.”
She nodded, and then I watched as tears formed in her eyes, “You remember right before your sixteenth birthday?”
She nodded.
“I asked you if you had a wish, what would it be?” I asked.