Page 68 of Brutal for It
She blinks. “Why?”
“Because it doesn’t matter.”
Her voice wavers. “How can you say that?”
“Because I already decided,” I tell her. “Whatever comes, whoever this child belongs to by blood — they’re mine if you want them to be. I don’t need a test to tell me what my heart already knows.”
Tears spill over before she can stop them. “You’d really…?”
“I already do.”
She covers her mouth, crying harder now, and I pull her in, wrapping her against me until her shaking slows. The ocean wind tugs at our clothes, salt stinging my throat.
“You keep apologizing,” I whisper into her hair. “But love ain’t about keeping score. You think I don’t know what broken feels like? We’ve both been there. Difference is, now we get to build something whole outta the pieces.”
She sniffles, looking up at me. “How are you so sure?”
“Because I learned a long time ago that pain’s a down payment on peace,” I say. “And Tiny, life has been Hell. Yours has been brutal at times. That price for peace, baby, we paid it in full.”
We walk for a while, hand in hand. The sun climbs higher, catching the silver thread of her bracelet, the one she never takes off.
When we stop, I pull something from my pocket.
Her eyes widen when she sees the box. “Tommy…”
“Don’t panic,” I say with a smile that doesn’t quite reach my chest. “Ain’t no surprise proposal. You’ve already said yes once.”
She bites her lip, trembling. “You kept it?”
“Never could imagine letting you go, so yeah, I kept it waiting for you,” I admit. “I just needed to know when it was time. I’m not saying it’s got to be right away, but I want you to know.”
“Now?”
I drop to one knee — not the way movies do it, not dramatic, just steady. The sand crunches beneath me. I hold the box steady.
The ring gleams, same as it did that first night.
Her hands fly to her mouth, tears already streaming.
“Jami,” I start, voice low but sure. “You told me once you didn’t think you deserved forever. I’m here to tell you that’s a lie. You deserve every sunrise, every laugh, every quiet moment you were ever denied. You deserve peace. And I want to be the man who gives it to you. I want to give you my everything for always.”
Her breath catches, a sound between a sob and a laugh.
“I don’t care about yesterday,” I continue. “We all come from hell. What matters is what we build from the ashes. I love you, Jameson Rivera. I loved you through the dark, through the silence, through every mile between us. And I’ll love you through this too. I wanna raise kids with you, but more than anything I wanna give you my last name.”
She’s crying so hard she can’t speak. I take her left hand gently, sliding the ring back where it belongs.
“There,” I say softly. “Right where it’s meant to be.”
Her fingers tremble against mine. “You’re sure?”
I look her dead in the eye. “More sure than I’ve ever been about anything in my life.”
She falls into me then, arms tight around my neck, sobbing against my shoulder. I hold her until the shaking turns into laughter.
“I thought you’d never forgive me,” she whispers.
“I didn’t have to,” I tell her the truth. “Love is unconditional. Without conditions what is there for me to forgive. We’re a team, a unit. You’re mine and Tiny, I’m yours. We’re one. The good times, the bad times, the hard times, and all the in between.”
