Page 104 of Fire Island
It’s a nice thought.
I lead her into the lantern room, checking her eyes are, in fact, sealed shut.
“Where’s Reese?” she asks.
“In the shack. Shhhh.”
Her brows rise in tandem, and I smile at the prettiest little face she’s ever pulled. I move her toward the new Fresnel and stop her in front of the control panel. The internal lever that turns the power on. The one that is only ever turned on once, and then the auto-system takes over. It’s on the inside, so I take her hand and send it into the apparatus until her fingertips are touching it.
“Now, do not open your eyes when you push this lever down, okay?”
She gasps.
She’s got it.
“Cal! When?”
“While you and Iris were busy lunching yesterday.”
“Oh my god. I want to open my eyes. Please?”
“You can when I say so.”
“Fine.” She smiles around the word.
“Push the lever down, mo ghràdh.”
She pushes it down, and the queen flickers to life, her dazzling beam shooting through the glass walls that keep her, piercing through the pale violet sky around us. Evie’s hands explore the glass lamp above the lever.
“Oh,” she cries.
I move her where she stands to face the eastern wall, safely with her back to the lamp. “Open your eyes, Evie baby.”
Her eyes fly open, and she stares with wonder capturing her face as the light behind us swings around, leaving her glittering glow across the lantern room. The small box on the ledge glows with every pass and it takes a little while for her to notice it.
“What is that?” she asks, taking a step toward it.
She reaches the east wall, and I flick the lever up and kill the Fresnel. She picks up the box and spins back round. I hit the floor on one knee.
Her face slackens.
I’ve never been one for long speeches. So I get to the point.
“Evie Holland. Love of my damn life. Will you marry me?”
She looks down at the box in her hand.
“Open it,” I rasp.
She simply stares at me, her face twisting with shock before she sinks to her knees, her hands wandering my face. As she huffs a strangled laugh that disintegrates into a sob, the box slips from her hand, still closed. “Where else would I be?”
“Baby, you’re gonna have to spell it out for me,” I rasp through my own swollen throat. I search her face desperately for what she means.
“Of course I will, Cal.”
Tears slip from her eyes as her hands settle on my jaw, and she pulls my mouth down to hers.
Happiness is a man with the woman he will love for the rest of his life.
