Page 99 of Hearts of Fairlake

I snorted, opening the container to find the darkest piece of chocolate cake I'd ever seen and a container of half-liquefied raspberries I immediately poured over the top. "He already knows. I told him ages ago. He complimented me on my choice of establishment. Said that Crumble was why he’d been cautious about opening up a branch of his bakery down in Denver. I can't say I blame him."

Once again, Chase had knocked the combination out of the park. The rich cake and fruit combination was beautiful with the wine, which had its own fruity taste, probably enhanced by the raspberry concoction. It also added something spicy and exotic. While he had only been able to peck at a few things on the tray and had decided not to touch the sandwiches, his cake went down just as quickly as mine but without the wine.

As I finished the cake, I let out a contented sigh. "I have to say, you hit this right out of the park."

"The park that needs thousands of dollars worth of repairs?"

"Don't be so gloomy."

He smirked at that. “Well, it does."

"Chase."

He chuckled, looking toward the window, which we could see out of now the lights in the room had gone outwhile we were eating, leaving us with only the dim lights near the floor. "I wanted to do this outside, where we could look up at the stars like we used to as kids, dreaming of where we’d end up and hoping it would be a good place."

"I don't need to see the stars to remember those nights," I said, taking his hand in mine and squeezing it. "And I didn't need all this to know that although it took us a long ass time, we finally got to where we wanted to be...more or less. We didn't get exactly what we wanted, but even back then, we knew life wasn't going to hand us everything. I couldn't be happier, and don't get me wrong, this was unbelievably sweet and ridiculously thoughtful of you. I can definitely understand why you didn't want Bennett to know because, yeah, he would have teased you."

"He would have," Chase said with a roll of his eyes. "And I know you...wanted more out of the past few years than we got, but?—"

I sighed loudly. “Chase, really?"

"Hey, let me finish," he said, surprising me a little. Normally, he’d get pissy with me, and we'd have to sort out if we were going to have an argument or find our way to peace. It wasn't often he stopped me in my tracks so easily and without a struggle. "I know you're happy you're sober, not in a dead-end job, and the two of us are finally together. We've got the house, we've got the idiot cats, we've got so much more than we ever dreamed. But I've also seen how you sometimes look at Adam and Bennett, how you cried at every one of the weddings because you've always been the romantic, sappy sort who would do that while I'm waiting to see what kind of food they have. And I know you've always said you don't want kids and are not worried about getting married?—"

"I don't want kids," I said with a laugh. "I don't...no. We both agreed on that."

"We did," he said with a curl of his lips. "Though it looks like there's much more to Uncle duty than I originally thought."

I smirked. “And you love it."

"I do."

"And I told you, marriage isn't a requirement. If you don't want to, then I'm not going to stomp my feet and demand you marry me right now, or I'm leaving."

"I know, you're not that person," he said with a sigh. "And I can't explain why I kept putting it off, time and time again. All I know is that I have, and you've kept it to yourself, but it's bothered you...a lot. And everyone's been giving me shit for it, and I've been avoiding it like a coward."

"You are many things, but you're not a coward," I told him with a frown. "And quit worrying about marriage, alright? I don't even think about it anymore."

He smirked, and I knew what was going to come out of his mouth was calling me a dirty liar. If anyone knew I was lying, it was him. Because,of course,I wanted to get married. That was the penultimate dream I’d had when we were younger, not just to find someone I could spend the rest of my life with, but someone I could walk down an aisle to meet and make the final symbolic gesture of our love and shared intent to be together for the rest of our lives in front of our loved ones. But that didn't mean it was a requirement.

"So," he said, reaching into the basket. "I guess you don't care about this then?"

I stared at the small box in his hand, my heart giving a heavy thump as I realized what it was. Continuing to look pleased with himself, he opened it with the other hand, and I stared at the band. In the center was a latticework of intertwining gold and platinum bands that surrounded an astoundingly bright, half-purple, half-blue heart that showed its colors vibrantly even in the low light.

"I..." Holy shit, this picnic had been his way of working up to proposing to me?

Damn, I guess even after knowing each other for so long, you really could still surprise your partner at times.

"Devin," he said, holding the ring out. "It would make me the happiest moron on the planet if you married me...so, will you?"

I said the only thing I could at that moment, although my younger self never imagined I would say yes in quite that fashion. Then again, younger me never imagined I’d be a drugged-up washout for years, either. Or that it would be Chase who would finally be my rescuer, and it would be him I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. Or that I would end up back in Fairlake and actually be happy about that and with the town and its people. It was home, and he was the foundation that made it what it was.

"Fuck, yes."

EPILOGUE

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

"Mommm!"

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