Page 92 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
He shifted again, sitting up until he was cross-legged, fully facing me. “The beginning was messy, Sienna. I know that. I handled it horribly. I didn’t know how to do any of this without pulling back the second anything felt real. And then I wanted to fix it, wanted totry, but you told me you were pregnant, and I’d already fucked up twice, and the stakes were so much higher, and I thought—fuck, I thought there was no way you’d believe me with just words that I was all in. I know I tried, but all I could do was show you.”
My throat closed in. “You did,” I whispered.
His lips twitched up a little. “I fell in love with you somewhere in the middle of all thatshowing,” he continued, his hand tightening around mine, his gaze dropping to it. “I didn’tnotice it at first. But I know it now. It’s not—Fuck, it’s not the kind of love that comes with strings or conditions, not the kind I was terrified of. It’s justthere. Everywhere. Overwhelming. All-consuming.”
I blinked, my eyes burning. “Matt?—”
“I love you,” he said, lifting his gaze back to mine. “I have for a while. I just didn’t know how to say the words right. And I—shit.”
He reached behind him, hand shaking just a little as he fumbled around beneath a pillow.
He pulled out a box.
A very,verysmall box.
My brain completely short-circuited as he opened it.
Inside, a ring sat on a little pillow that was just ostentatious enough to look like it belonged in a goddamn museum. A delicate yellow diamond, oval shaped, with two clear, square diamonds on either side, a gold band that shimmered under the soft twinkle of the fairy lights — it was warm and bold and nothing like the ones I’d imagined in the past. This wasme. Or maybeus.
“You were wearing that stupid fucking yellow dress in the lounge when I first met you,” he said, his voice hoarse, rough, cracking at the edges. “I’ve never been able to shake that memory. You looked like summer was sitting in the middle of the room and was daring me to try not to melt around it.”
I choked on something between a laugh and a sob, my hand covering my mouth.
“I know it’s fast,” he murmured, “and we’ve done everything backward. But I don’t care. I want this, I wantyou, I want our girls. I want to do every hard thing, every stupid fight, every long day. All of it, with you.”
My jaw quivered, a shaky, broken breath escaping me.
“Sienna, marry me.”
I choked on a sob. “You asshole,” I whispered, tears sliding over my cheeks. “You romantic, ridiculous asshole.”
His lips quirked up at the corner. “Is that a yes?”
I laughed, nodding when my mouth wouldn’t work properly, trying to take enough of a steady breath to actually respond. “I love you.Christ,I love you, yes, of course,yes.”
He let out a harsh breath, his hand shaking as he plucked the ring out of the box, barely holding it steady enough to slip over the first knuckle of my ring finger.
I could barely see through the blur of tears, but I felt the pressure when he got to the next knuckle, the way it didn’t want to move forward any further, the way his shoulders started to silently shake with laughter.
“Fuck,” he muttered, barely containing his laugh. “I’m, uh—I’m just now realizing that maybe I shouldn’t have relied on the ring sizes that the stylist at Regale took of you pre-pregnancy.”
A full-blown cackle burst out of me. “Matt, my hands have been swollen for, like, fourweeks!”
He tipped forward, his head falling onto my shoulder, his body shaking with laughter. “I’m an idiot,” he laughed. “There’s no point in resizing this for two months.”
“No,” I snorted. “None at all.”
“I’ll get you a placeholder one in the meantime.” He slid it off my finger, tucking it neatly back in the box before setting it beside him.
“You don’t need?—”
“I’m not having you walking around ringless as myfiancée,” he grinned, lifting back up to look me in the eyes. He took my face in his hands, his face softening as if I were something precious, all those hard lines smoothing out, and kissed me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
Well, me and Zach and the girls.
“Matt,” I deadpanned, my voice barely a whisper against his lips. “I’m not walking around anywhere. I’m basically decorative at this point.”
Epilogue
