Page 142 of Revival

He sets his hands on my shoulders and gives me a nudge. “Turn around.”

I close my eyes. Tears suddenly collect along my lash line. I close my fingers around the ring, afraid my shaking hands will send it tumbling to the grass. Ollie gives me a slow twirl. He hugs me from around my back and kisses the side of my head. Then he steps back.

“Open your eyes, Kitten,” Spencer says.

Through wet, fluttering lashes, I find Spencer on one knee. My entire family and his is spread out around him in a semicircle.

Spencer turns his chin to his shoulder. “Just to reiterate, I did get permission for this.”

Chuckles ripple through the small crowd.

Spencer takes my left hand in his warm, strong fingers. His thumb brushes softly over my fourth knuckle, and he plucks the ring from my palm.

“I know you recognize this ring. When you gave it back to me on the plane, I held on to it in the hopes we’d someday find ourselves right here. We have a lot of history together. Most of it good, some of it bad. But it’s long and complicated and something only the two of us will understand. This last year has been incredible. I knew at eighteen, just as I know today, that you are the love of my life. And I’ve been waiting more than twenty years to get down on one knee in front of you and ask you a very important question.”

I can’t help the tears that leak down my cheeks as I stifle a sob.

“Cortney Elizabeth Powell, will you marry me?”

I’m nodding before I can get any words out. “Yes!”

Spencer slips the ring on my finger and surges to his feet. I kiss him hard as my family claps in the background. “I love you, Cortney.”

“I love you too.”

He swipes at the tears streaming down my cheeks. “I’ll buy you a new ring. This one is more of a symbolic thing.”

“I don’t want a new one.” I hold my hand out, admiring the shimmering stone. “I want to go back to the beginning. With you, this ring, and a real honeymoon.”

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