Page 106 of The Beat of My Heart
Chapter 37
-Hey Brother, Avicii
Julia
Sitting cross-legged on the couch, I watch Trevor closely. I just dropped more bombs than any one man can process at once, and he hasn’t said a single word. Not one.
“Trevor?” I finally ask cautiously, “Are you okay?”
Raising his eyes to meet mine, he says the last thing I’m expecting, “Marry me. Right here, and soon. If you want a big wedding, we can do that, but I don’t want to wait one more minute to make you mine. Please, Julia, marry me.”
“I… Trevor, what? Did you just hear anything I said to you?” I ask.
“Yes. There are letters in here from my dead mother. Loki is related to the Black family he is currently taking out. My mother and father took on a partner who happened to be the mob and Loki’s biological father. They tried to get out, and they killed my mother for it. Marry me,” he says in one breath.
“Your sky just fell down, and you want me to marry you?” I ask incredulously.
“For you, sweetheart, there’s not a thing in this world I wouldn’t do,” he sings. “But yes, I want you to marry me. I knew the first time we danced that I wanted to marry you. When you were taken from me for the second time, I decided I would not let that happen ever again. Marry me.”
“What about the letters? Your dad? Loki?” I ask.
“The letters aren’t going anywhere, and I’m not ready to read them. Someday maybe, but not today. I’ve been living in chaos for long enough. You once told me you would keep my darkness away, do you remember that?” he asks.
“Of course, I do,” I say softly.
“Then marry me, be my guiding light for the rest of my life. As for my father? I-I really don’t know, but he isn’t a priority for me right now. And Loki? I will kick Loki’s fucking ass as soon as I get my hands on him. He should have come to us years ago instead of going vigilante, putting his life on the line day after day while we were clueless,” he says.
“He did what he thought he had to, Trevor,” I argue.
“Exactly. What he thought he had to do, but what about us? He never gave us the option to help him. Who the hell is he to decide all this?”
“It was his family, Trevor. He sent his brothers to prison for life, and he very likely had to kill his own father. Isn’t it the same exact thing you were doing by not talking to Dexter and Preston? You thought you had to handle it all yourself because you didn’t want them involved?” I ask.
“Fuck,” he says, lowering his head to his hands. “In some ways, it’s the same, yes. But, Jules, I had him. I had Loki to help me and be there for me. Who the hell has he had? He should have told me. We should have told the others.”
“You’re right,” I say. “As far as I can tell, you’re all a bunch of pig-headed asshats.”
Laughing, he lunges for me, lifting me easily into his lap. Resting his forehead against mine, he brings his hand in between us. That’s when I notice he is holding a ring box that I know was in his mother's engraved case.
“This was my grandmother’s,” he says. “My mother gave it to me when I turned eighteen and told me to hang on to it until I met the woman that lit up my nights like the fourth of July and filled my days with a love I could never have imagined.”
Opening the box, he pulls out the ring. “Julia Grace McDowell, I’ve spent the last ten years living in a nightmare. The day I met you, I woke up. You’re the sunshine I need to live. You make me want to do better, be better. You make me believe in happily ever after’s when I’ve lived in a horror show most of my life. I want the happily ever after now, with you and Charlie. Please say you’ll marry me and be my light forever?” he begs.
With tears flowing freely, I say, “How could I say no to the only man who has ever calmed my chaos?”
“Is that a yes, Angel?” he asks.
“Yes, it’s a yes,” I say through a sob.
Trevor leans in to kiss me, then pulls back suddenly. “Oh crap, hold on. I’ll be right back,” he says.
I watch on, confused as he sprints from our house towards the main house. After twenty minutes, I’m getting pissed off when I hear cheering and yelling coming from Lanie’s open door. Staring out the window, I see Trevor come running back across the yard.
Busting through the door, he drops to his knee and asks me again, “Angel, now that I’ve gotten your family's approval, will you marry me?”
I can’t help but laugh along with him. “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you,” I finally say and am rewarded by cheers from the doorway.
“We witnessed Lanie’s proposal, I figured it was only fair they got to see ours too,” Trevor says with a shrug.
