Page 94 of Something Good
Will took my hand in his, shooting me a smile. “We’re here because you love me, and I want to be here to support Jason.” He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. “I think Rafi’s coming. You like him.”
“Barely,” I grumbled. “Besides, he has a new baby at home. He’s going to spend the whole night shoving pictures in my face just like he did at Julio’s last week.”
Though I had to admit, his daughter was pretty cute for a one-month-old. Still, I wasn’t going to tell Rafi that. Babies made me uncomfortable. Admit she’s cute, and the next thing I knew, he’d ask me to babysit. “Wait. Why’s he coming, anyway? Rafi graduated a year behind us.”
“I think he decided he was crashing. Told me he was dying to get out of the house when we saw him last week. And he was friends with more kids in our class than his own. Besides, you know Rafi never could resist a bonfire.”
Will made a left turn when he should have made a right, and my brows drew up in confusion. “Why didn’t you turn back there?”
“You’ll see,” he said cryptically. Moments later, he pulled over, parking the truck against the curb and climbing out. When I didn’t move, he came around and pulled open the door. “You coming?”
“I haven’t been back here in years. I came once after we broke up, when I needed a picture for the artist I commissioned, but it was too hard, and I haven’t tried again since.”
"You said that piece reminded you of how lucky you were. If coming here was painful, wouldn’t looking at that piece be painful too?”
”The piece did remind me of how lucky I’d been to have you in the first place. But I think it was also a bit of self-punishment to remind me of what I’d done. Of how I’d fucked up.”
“Baby, we talked about this. No more going back and beating ourselves up over things we can’t change.”
“I know. I’m not doing that, not really. I’m just saying I think that was my headspace at the time.”
“Well, I brought you here today because I want to make a good memory. I think it’s time we take back the place we thought of as ours. Will you come with me?”
I took his outstretched hand and climbed down from the truck, turning to follow him through the brush that led to the main trail. We walked for a bit, not saying anything, lost in memories. We’d arrived at golden hour, the light bathing everything in warmth, giving the trees an almost ethereal glow. It was amazing that despite nearly ten years, the forest looked unchanged.
We approached the boulder, wordlessly making our way to the back side and climbing to stand on top, hands clasped together. Will was right. Something about coming out here todaywith him was cleansing, as if we’d recovered something precious we’d once thought lost.
“We should bring Goldie out here sometime,” I said, thinking about how much she’d love to sniff her way back and forth across the trail. We’d left her at Will’s house, unsure how late we’d be out tonight. We hadn’t wanted to worry about her around the fire.
When Will didn’t respond, I turned to look at him, but his face was unreadable. My chest pinched with concern, and I wondered if coming here wasn’t cleansing for him in the same way it was for me.
He turned more fully toward me, taking my other hand in his so we were standing face to face. “There’s something about this place that has always felt special to me. How many times did one of us come here searching out the other only to find the other had done the same thing? Even now, I feel more connected to you here than I’ve felt in any other place we’ve been since I’ve been back.”
I nodded. “I feel it too.”
“Marry me, Sammy.”
My heart jumped into my throat, but before I’d even entirely processed what he’d said, the magnitude of it, I was responding. “Yes.”
“Yes? Just like that?”
I grinned. “Just like that.”
“I had a speech prepared, and I thought it was going to take some convincing, but when I got out here, all I could think of was just that I wanted to make you mine. Permanently. Forever.”
“I want that too. What have I done to make you think you’d need to do some convincing?” I hadn’t expected a marriage proposal today. Or for a long time, honestly. I’d spent so much of the last couple of months hoping he’d give me a second chance that I hadn’t really thought about what might happen beyondthat. Still, I thought I’d shown him how committed I was to us and our relationship. I was a little hurt he thought I might need to be convinced. Had I not done as good a job as I’d thought?
“We just haven’t talked about marriage. And it’s only been a couple of months since I’ve been back. We don’t even live together. I thought I might be jumping ahead about seven steps.”
I pulled Will into me, smiling. “First of all, we might as well live together. I don’t think we’ve spent a night apart since Chicago. And I don’t really care whether we live in my condo or your house as long as you and Goldie are there.”
“Second of all,” I continued, “as for marriage, I’ve never been a fan. At least not until you walked back into my life. With you… You’re my something good, and I want forever. I love you.”
I pulled him forward and kissed him. Deeply. Passionately. Trying to infuse it with every bit of my love for him.
He pulled back, eyes gone hazy with lust. Still, my golden boy was a worrier and couldn’t let the matter drop entirely. “You don’t think it’s too fast?”
I chuckled. “Who asked who here? You were worried about convincing me, but it seems like you’re still trying to convince yourself. Doyoufeel like it’s too fast?”
