“I think the name should be something that comes naturally instead of forced,” I said. “When the little nugget starts incubating, we’ll get a better sense of who he or she is. Where we are. Maybe we wait until the kid pops out and looks us in the eyes.”
“Kids don’t pop out,” she scoffed. “I’ve seen the process. Popping is not what happens.”
I laughed. “We’ll know. I trust that.”
We talked about travel for a while after that. Places she’d never been that I wanted to show her. I told her about a stretch of coastline in Portugal. I knew she’d love it. She told me about a reef off the coast of Belize she’d read about. I decided right in that moment I was going to get her there. Maybe for our honeymoon. Hell, maybe I’d buy us a cute little beach house so we could visit whenever we wanted.
“You know where I really want to go?” she asked softly.
“Tell me.”
“Texas. I want to see your home.”
“You’re going to love it. I can’t wait to show you. I want to lie under the stars with you and inhale the dusty air and the smell of cow shit.”
She burst into laughter. “Sounds amazing. I’m going to love watching you there. That version of you.”
“Same version.”
“I want to see where you come from. The whole picture.”
I looked at her. The woman I loved. The only woman I would ever love. I’d been carrying the ring for three weeks. I saw it at an antique shop and knew it was the right one. It was simple. A thinband of gold with aquamarine and sapphire clustered around a simple diamond. It looked like it belonged here. It looked like it belonged on her hand.
I’d been telling myself I was going to wait. Take her to Texas. Do it properly, at the ranch, with the family close. My mother would want to be there. My father would want to shake my hand. I had a whole picture in my head of how it was supposed to go.
But sitting here with her in the dark with the stars showing off overhead and the ocean as my backdrop, the plan I’d been holding onto felt wrong. We were sitting on the beach where it all began. The beach that would be our home. It was the right place. Texas would be the place for other things, but I needed to do this here.
I reached into the front pocket of my shorts.
“Summer,” I said.
“Yeah, baby?”
I slid out of my chair and knelt in front of hers. She smiled at me, clearly thinking I was about to do something else. And then I held up the ring. Her mouth dropped open and she nearly dropped her wine glass. I took it from her and put it in the sand.
“Summer Banks, I love you. When I first saw you, I knew you were the one I was going to marry. I saw you and knew that was my mermaid.”
She giggled, wiping at her eyes.
“I hate that I’ve wasted so many damn years. I don’t want to waste another day. I want to marry you. I want to have babies. We can name them Seaweed, Coral, or Reef. Whatever you want. You have me. I will work my ass off to give you everything you want. My only job in this life is to make you happy. All I ask is you give me your heart and agree to be my wife. Will you marry me?”
She smiled and leaned forward. Her hand cupping my jaw. “You had my heart the moment you chased me into the ocean.Yes, I will marry you. We’ll have babies and none of them will be called Seaweed. I love you.”
She kissed me, leaning against me with her whole weight and knocking me flat on my back in the sand. I held on to the ring while she showered me with kisses.
EPILOGUE
SUMMER
He laughed against my mouth, his arms coming up around me even as his back hit the sand. I was happy. Ecstatic. Crazy in love and I wanted to make love to my man.
“Sand,” he said. “We’re getting sand in everything.”
“I don’t care,” I said against his jaw.
“The ring,” he said. “Let me put it on you before I lose it in the dark.”
I pushed myself up and sat back on my heels, suddenly very aware that I hadn’t actually looked at it yet. I’d seen it appear and then promptly launched myself at the man holding it. I held out my left hand. It was trembling slightly.