Page 144 of The Long Way Home
“For the longest time, I was scared, Rhett,” I start, my voice a thread pulled from somewhere deep inside me. “I was scared that for the rest of my life, I’d never want to fall in love again. I thought I was destined to be the girl in love with her brother’s best friend. When I thought you’d never see me the way I saw you, I tried to run from it. I tried to bury it. I tried to fall in love with other people, to convince myself that someone else’s arms could be enough. I tried to move on. But every road I took, every single road, led back here. To you.”
I press my palm flat against his chest, right over his heart, feeling its rhythm. A steady, quiet drum. It has always been my favorite sound.
“With you, I never lost myself,” I say softly. “Even when I thought I had. The girl I was back then, she is still here. You’ve always been the one to bring her back to me. And you helped me find her again.”
My throat tightens, the words catching for a second, but I don’t stop. “And that girl, Rhett,” I say, lifting my gaze to his, “this girl is in love with you.”
I say it again, because I need him to hear it. To believe it. “I’m in love with you, Rhett. All of you.”
The breath he lets out is slow and unsteady. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” I slide my hand to the back of his neck, fingers curling there, pulling him just a little closer.
“Jesus, Sunny,” he says, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, emotion thick in his voice. “Do you have any idea what that does to me?”
“Probably the same thing it’s doing to me,” I whisper.
He leans in, and the kiss comes fast at first, hot and urgent, like he’s afraid the moment might slip away if he doesn’t claim it.Then it slows. Softens. Turns into something careful. Reverent, even. His mouth moves against mine with a quiet intensity.
I part my lips, and he meets me with a slow, teasing glide of his tongue. One hand cups my cheek, thumb brushing over my skin, while the other threads through my hair, steadying me. I press closer, letting myself fall into him completely.
When we finally pull back, he rests his forehead against mine.
“Marry me.”
I blink. “What?”
“Marry me, Sunny,” he repeats, calm and steady.
“Rhett,” I say carefully, my heart already racing, “I don’t think you’re thinking clearly. This is impulsive. It’s the middle of the night. You’re exhausted. This is crazy. You’re in a sex fueled haze.” I pause, trying to meet his eyes. “You can’t say things like that to me unless you mean them.”
He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t rush to reassure me. Instead, he gets out of bed.
I watch him cross the room, my stomach dropping as he digs through his duffel bag, muttering something under his breath. My heart lodges somewhere between panic and hope. Then he turns back toward me with something small clenched in his hand.
He climbs back onto the bed.
“Nothing about this is impulsive.”
He opens the box. The emerald-cut diamond catches the low light and throws it back at me.
“When did you get that?” I whisper.
“The morning after I told you how I felt about you,” he says quietly. “Before I went to work.”
My breath stutters. “You—you brought it here?”
“Sunny,” he says, and the way he says my name caves my chest in, “I know this might feel sudden. Hell, maybe itissudden to you. But it hasn’t been sudden to me.”
He takes my hand.
“I’ve known I wanted you to be my wife for twelve years now.” Emotion hits fast and sharp in the back of my throat.
“If you’d told me at eighteen that meeting Josh would be the most important choice of my life, I wouldn’t have believed you. I could picture a best friend, sure.” His mouth curves into a quiet, almost disbelieving smile. “But you? You weren’t part of the plan. You were the thing I never saw coming.”
His thumb brushes over my knuckles, steady.
“I call you Sunny because, without trying, you are the brightest thing in every room you walk into. And because,” he adds, a little quieter, “when everything else in my life feels heavy, when the weight of the world presses down, and I can’t find my footing, you’re the one thing that makes it stop. Just hearing your voice, being near you, it’s like stepping into the sunlight after a long winter. My chest opens, my skin warms and suddenly I can breathe again. Everything becomes clear. I can think, I can feel, I can just exist—and it is because of you. You are my sun.”
