Page 54 of Knot Enough

“With darts, you want to have a straight back.” He started. I could feel his breath in my ear as he talked. I knew goosebumps would start appearing soon from his breath. I did my best to straighten my back. “Now, feet shoulder width apart.” He used his foot to tap my feet, letting me know to move them apart. “Good, now relax your grip and use your dominant eye to throw.” He finished.I went through all the steps in my mind again and threw the dart. It didn’t hit the bull's eye, but at least it was on the board. I looked back at Graham, and he nodded in approval before he headed back to his side. In turn, we both threw our darts. Graham constantly either hit close to the bull's eye or dead on. He finished rather quickly compared to me, who started to get frustrated when two of my darts didn’t hit the board. By the time I finally finished, I was pouting at losing so badly. Graham, amused at my expression, pinched my puffed-out cheek.

“What’d you do that for?” I asked, moving my face away from his fingers. I rubbed my face, trying to lessen the soft stinging.

“I didn’t want you frowning before I proposed to you.” He said with a laugh. I rolled my eyes as he took a small box from his pocket. He didn’t kneel like Finn, but he brought my hand to the top of the box. He and I opened it together to reveal a similar ring to Finn’s, but this one had a red stone. I remained silent as he took the ring out and placed it in front of Finn’s ring. They fit together perfectly.

“Do you like them?” he asked me, bringing his head down to touch mine. I looked at my hand, flipping it over. My eyes kept getting drawn to the stones, and they fit my hand like someone had measured it when I wasn’t looking or when I was asleep.

“I love them,” I admitted. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

“Good because we can’t return them. Gabriel was so confident you would like them that he made sure we bought them long enough ago that the return policy would be null.” He admitted. I laughed.

“That sounds like him.” I agreed.

“Now off you go, Sorren’s next, and he was adamant you should find him,” Graham said, leaning down to kiss me. I kissed back with my hand reaching against his cheek. A teasing glint appeared in his eyes when we separated.

“Don’t tempt me to keep you to myself tonight.” He whispered in my ear before shooing me off. I rolled my eyes at his response, but quickly focused on the task. I remembered Sorren heading downstairs when Gabriel dragged Corretta and me to the dancing game, so I started my search there. Like I guessed, I found Sorren on the lower level playing pool alone.

“Got room for one more?” I asked, stepping off the last step. Sorren looked up from where he was trying to shoot a ball and smiled widely.

“For you? Always.” He replied. I blushed at his response. Instead of bringing the redness of my face up, he returned all the pool balls to the center.

“Know how to play?” He asked.

“Yep, though I’m not very good at it,” I admitted, grabbing a pole that suited my size. Sorren reapplied chalk to his stick.

“Don’t worry, I’m not either. I never win when it’s me and Graham.” He admitted, taking the triangular holder away from the balls. “Ladies first.”

Taking my stance, I used the cue stick to shoot the white ball. The balls scattered, but none landed in any of the holes. We took turns shooting the balls till eventually Sorren got stripes and I got solids. This game was more evenly matched compared to my dart game with Graham. We also took longer to finish. In the end, Sorren and I were tied. The last ball, the black, kept nearly missing the holes we picked for it to go in. I think 10 minutes went by before I finally landed the ball.

“Yes!” I shouted out while jumping in the air. Sorren clapped in congratulations.

“Good job. You were a tough opponent.” He said, taking my pole from me.

“As were you,” I replied, giving him a little bow. He laughed.

“Would you mind grabbing the white ball from the hole?” he asked as he placed the poles back in their stand. I nodded and went to get it. I fished around to find the ball, but instead, I came up with a familiar black box.

“Sorren, is this?” I asked, looking from him to the box.

“Why don’t you open it?” He said, leaning against the pool table. Following his direction, I opened the box slowly. Inside was a ring that looked identical to mine, but the stone was an emerald green.

“It’s lovely,” I said out loud. Taking the ring, I put it on my ring finger with all the others. Before I realized it, Sorren had grabbed me and twirled me in the air with my feet off the ground.

“I’m glad you're mine. I hope you know that.” He said before kissing me. My arms were still trapped under his, but I purred, letting him know how happy I was.

“Lydia.” Gabriel's voice came out from behind me. Sorren released me, so I could turn to him. Gabriel was a little ahead of me, holding a large birthday cake. I noticed everyone else had joined us now. In the middle, surrounded by lit candles, was another black box. “Happy birthday!” He and everyone else screamed out. Tears started to spill from my eyes as they sang the birthday song. I hadn’t had this much effort go into my birthday since I was 9.

“Now blow out the candles!” Gabriel said excitedly once the song finished.

I took a moment to think of my wish.I hope the rest of our lives are exciting and happy and that we’re together.I repeated the wish in my head before finally blowing the candles out. Everyone clapped in excitement. Gabriel set the cake on the pool table and opened the box to show me his ring. Once again, it was the same style, but this ring was royal blue. He took my head and slipped it on, completing my set. Not being able to resist, I pulled Gabriel in for a hug.

“I love you guys. I love this pack. I’m so glad I’m here.” I said loudly enough for them all to hear it. Within seconds, I was surrounded by the pack I loved and that loved me. For once, I felt like I was finally enough.

Now that my pack's declarations of love are over, the drinks and food came out. We sat around a large table. Conversation was nonstop, with Corretta and Gabriel leading the charge to ensure the topics didn’t run dry. It was late into the night before we tired out.

Chapter 29

Gabriel

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