Page 106 of Fall Apart

Then I spot Lizzy, sitting at the corner of the bar, wearing those damn pink cowboy boots and that black sweater dress. She’s every bit of the perfection she was that first night we met. What I’m more afraid of is the faces Benjamin and Alexis, the bartenders, are making at her while she’s glaring at them, flailing her hands around.

I walk over to them.

“Been a while, Benjamin.” I prop myself up on the bar next to Lizzy, while Benjamin groans in frustration.

“Can you tell your girl to order anything besides a piña colada?”

I look at Lizzy who’s rolling her eyes and now turning her glare to me. “Don’t give me that look. Just because I like bourbon doesn't mean I can’t crave a fruity drink sometimes. I don’t know how a bar can’t have what they need to make them.”

I smirk at her and reach into my jacket pocket, pulling out the small can of coconut cream. Her eyes go wide when I set it on the counter.

“I’m assuming this is what you don’t have?” I turn to Benjamin who scrubs his face with his palm and groans. “So can you make one now?”

He grabs the can and mutters under his breath. “Always something with the Chapmans.” I shake my head as he walks to his drink station at the other end of the bar and starts making her drink.

“Why on earth did you have that?” Lizzy looks at me, a delighted but incredulous look on her face.

I shrug. “You and V were talking about them all week. You kept going on about how you’d want a warm beachside honeymoon if this was your wedding and you’d crave a piña colada.” I watch the smile, the one of pure delight that I love, spread across her face. “So I sort of had a hunch you might want one tonight.”

She props her elbow up on the bar, resting her cheek in her palm. The way she looks at me, like I’m her world, makes me know I’m more than right about her. That she’s the end for me. “You’re something else, Clay Chapman.”

Smiling back at her, I rasp knuckles against the bar. “I need to check on something, but I’ll be right back.” I toss her a playful wink and get up to head towards the hall in the back of the bar to the patio. I look over my shoulder to see her still watching me hungrily from the bar as I walk away, just like that first night.

I turn the corner out of sight and stop. If I know my girl…

One.

Two.

Three.

“I swear, Clay, we can make out in the bar but we are not doing anything else here. This place is dirt-” I hear her already going into a rant when she turns the corner to follow me, but she stops mid-sentence when she sees me kneeling on the floor.

“What are you doing down there? I was just saying these floors are gross.”

Her eyes go wide when I reach into my other jacket pocket, pulling out the small light blue velvet box.

I flip open the box and her hands fly to her mouth when she sees the princess cut diamond.

“What do you say, princess? Want to make me the luckiest man on earth and be my queen?”

Her hands go to her hips and a playful smirk crosses her lips. “First, don’t call me queen. It makes me sound old.” Her smirk turns into a beaming smile and her sapphire eyes shine down on me. “But I will be your princess, forever.”

Standing, I step towards her and smile. “Is that a yes then?”

She stands up on her toes, looping her arms around my neck and bringing her lips to mine for a short kiss. She tugs at my bottom lip as she pulls away just enough to whisper. “Just be a good boy and put the damn ring on my finger.”

BONUS EPILOGUE

LIZZY

Ten Years Later

Jackson, Wyoming

“I still can’t believeyou’re letting him snowboard instead of ski.” I look over at Kayleigh when she lets out a laugh. For the last few years, this has been our favorite time spent together, watching Clay teach our son and Kayleigh’s to ski and now apparently snowboard.

“It’s definitely a first for a Jensen to learn to snowboard.” She smirks from beside me on the bench.

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