Page 110 of Gorgeous

“Whatever floats your boat, Jameson.”

Inside the cabin-like building along the river, Cade buys us a few bags of dirt which seems silly but whatever. “I thought we would be digging for gold. What is this?” I flip the bag of dirt over in my hand, trying to see if I have anything more than mud in it.

“Do you want to dig in the dirt?” He points to my nails. “I hear it’s great for the cuticles.”

I scowl at his awful sense of humor and follow a troll-like man to what looks like a huge trough. “Smartass.”

Cade shrugs, grabbing my hand before the guy tells us what to do. Basically, pour your bag of dirt into this thing that looks like a sand strainer, and see what you get. I’m sure it’s rigged but I have to admit, I’ve never done anything like this before and it’s kind of exciting.

“Let me know if you need anything,” troll-man says, slinking off behind his counter.

Cade thanks him and opens one of our bags of dirt. “So, you know what to do, right?”

I nod. “Pour, sift, and scream if I find gold.”

He makes this soft noise and corrects me. “Maybe not scream. You don’t want to scare the other guests.”

My face scrunches as I look around the empty cabin, “What other patrons? It’s just us.”

Cade looks around too and shrugs. “Maybe it’s the off season?” It’s Fourth of July weekend. I would think they would be busy, but what do I know, I’m no travel agent. I let it go and focus on finding gold. Cade seems intently focused on his dirt, so I try to get to work, carefully sifting out the dirt in the trough water for any gems that may be hiding underneath.

When I turn up empty-handed and Cade has three flakes of gold, I’m pissed. “I got a bad batch,” I pout.

He chuckles and hands over his sifter. “Try mine. I seem to be having good luck today.”

He comes around and stands behind me, placing his hands on the sifter, helping me sift the dirt.

I’m combing through every grain of dirt when I spot gold. “Gold! I found gold!” Acting like I just struck oil, I bounce up and down as Cade chuckles behind me. Carefully, I clean off the mud. I see more, and it’s in the shape of … “Oh my gosh.”

Cade lets go of me, taking the ring from the sifter, and eases down to a knee. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life.” He pulls in a ragged breath and gives me a gentle smile. “You will not be one of them, Brecklyn Brannon.”

There’s no point in stopping the tears. They’re coming whether I want them to or not.

“I don’t know why you have no self-preservation and love me.”

Oh hell. I drop to my knees, against his protests, and place my hands on each side of his face. I want to remember every single second of this moment. I want to remember the almost tears that well along the bottom of his eyes. I want to remember his hands shaking on mine. And most of all, I want to remember the way he is looking at me. Like he can’t imagine ever loving me as much as he does right now.

“I love you with everything that I am and everything I hope to be. I’m not perfect, Breck. I’m flawed and damaged beyond what is repairable. I’m going to piss you off and probably let you down eventually, but Breck …”

With his thumb, he wipes away the tears along my cheek. “I will never betray you or forsake you. I promise to love you and protect you until my very last breath.”

A hiccup escapes me as he seals our fate with one last declaration. “I feel like I should tell you that you could do so much better than me, but I’m selfish and I’m begging you to marry me instead so I’ll never have to live a day without you.”

I silence the rest of his proposal by kissing the ever-loving shit out of this man. I kiss him so hard he loses his balance and has to stick his hands out behind him so we don’t fall on our asses. I kiss him like there’s not a weird looking little man watching us.

I kiss him like it’s our forever.

Back at the cabin Cade rented for the weekend, we’re naked—of course—under a blanket, staring at the night sky. Fireworks are going off every few seconds, lighting up the sky in vivid colors of the rainbow. I tried to get Cade to go inside when the first one went off and he tensed up behind me, but he refused, claiming the mountains have the most beautiful skies. So we stayed, wrapped in each other’s arms as the rest of the country celebrates.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

He slides his mother’s ring back and forth on my finger, and then places the softest kiss to my cheek and says, “Like I’m free.”

Seven Years Ago

“Can’t you just stick it in and grunt a few times?”

Beer erupts out of Theo’s mouth like a geyser, spattering all over my tank top, soaking through to my braless boobs. I’d like to say this kind of thing never happens to me but it happens rather often when you are best friends with an athlete. Athletes love to project shit from their mouths, like a rite of passage or something. Spit. Beer. Sunflower seeds. You name it.

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