Page 153 of Fall Into Me

“Calista?”

“Yes?” she squeaked and then dropped to her knees in front of me, cold hands gripping my wrists and tear-filled eyes on my face.

“Will you marry me?”

She started nodding frantically. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, yes, yes, holy shit, yes!” Her voice got louder with every word, and when I slipped the ring onto her shaking hand, her body crashed into mine.

I didn’t care when the cold snow soaked into my jacket. My eyes stayed on her, like they always had.

Like they always would.

“Does this mean I might finally get you into a cowboy hat?” she asked, her eyes still house behind us.

“You might,” I said, still absorbed by the wonder on her face, watching bit by bit as something mischievous started to bloom in her eyes.

“You know,” she said, wiggling off me and dusting the snow from her hands as she came to standing. “This feels like an opportune time to try number five from the sex list.”

Then, she was off. Her laughter bounced off the trees around us, loud and unrestrained. Pouring out of her in the way laughter does when you give yourself over to it completely.

And so I got up, dusted the snow off my own hands, and followed.

The end