Page 97 of Forever Finds Us
“Well, the sun has already set, and I don’t have a valiant steed, but I love you more than my own life, and I’ve got two draft horses and a Christmas carriage outside waitin’ for us, and?—”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a box.
My mama gasped loudly, and Daddy wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Everyone else stood speechless, watching my dreams come true in real time, and the kids all began to filter in from the living room, poking their heads around the adults wherever they could to get a good view.
But my eyes stayed fixed on Brand. No one else existed anymore.
He reached for his hat, and I watched silently as he placed it on his head. His hair had grown longer since we’d been apart, and the thick ends showed beneath.
He was exactly the man I had been in search of my whole life, but it wasn’t the hat or his money or a ring; it was the love in his eyes.
“I planned to do this on the sleigh under a warm blanket and the falling snow, but right now feels perfect.”
Suddenly, the front door opened and shut loudly, a deep, brusque voice interrupted the most important moment of my life, and then it really was perfect.
My uncle Al’s head popped around the corner, his gray hair cropped short as usual and a sixer of Coors dangled from his fingers. “What’s goin’ on here?”
Daddy whispered, “Brand’s about to propose to Riri. Be quiet.”
“Who?”
Exasperated, Drew pointed to Brand on his knees on the kitchen floor in front of me. “That guy.” He rolled his eyes at Uncle Al. “Now shhh. They’re just gettin’ to the good stuff.”
Uncle Al smirked at me and pretended to zip and lock his lips.
I looked at Brand and saw utter devotion on his face.
“Roxanne Rhiannon Fitts. Roxi. Riri.” He inhaled deeply and smiled. “I love you. You are the kindest, most open and honest person I’ve ever known. Your deep sense of loyalty and the way you love disarm me. I want you. And I need you. You will never again have to question or doubt me. To this I swear.”
Somebody could have dropped a grain of sand on the floor and we all would’ve heard it.
Mama and Merv clutched each other’s hands and held their breath, and my daddy beamed with pride.
Brand lifted one leg and planted his boot on the kitchen floor to steady himself as he pulled a massive diamond ring from the little black box. He stuffed the box back in his jacket, took my left hand in his, and isolated my ring finger.
“Will you marry me, Roxanne? Will you love me forever as I do you?”
Pins and needles rushed through me from head to toe. My breath hitched in my lungs. And was I bawling? Yep. Completely blubbering now. I held my breath to stop the sobs, and when they died down to hiccups, he pushed the ring to the root of my finger.
Even the house seemed to be holding its breath.
I couldn’t look away from Brand’s eyes, not even to admire the ring. So many things flashed across his face: hope, joy, excitement, pain, regret, submission and dominance at the same time. But all of it boiled down to one thing.
Love.
“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes, I will marry you, and yes, I will love you…
“Forever.”
Epilogue
BRAND
A Year and a Half Later
My phone ringing on my desk jerked me out of the daydream I’d been having about what I wanted to do to my wife in our kink bed when she got home from work.
I answered and listened to Billie Cade deliver unpromising news.
