Page 182 of At First Spark
“Better moment?” I ask.
He glances at me, something softer settling into his expression.
“Yeah,” he says.
He steps closer, close enough that I can feel the shift in him before he says anything.
“This place,” he says, his voice quieter now, steadier. “It’s not just something you built.”
I tilt my head slightly, watching him.
“It’s something you stayed for,” he continues. “Even when it got hard. Even when it would’ve been easier to walk away.”
I swallow. That matters more than anything else he could say.
“I’m still here,” I say softly.
“I know.”
His hand finds mine again, the contact grounding in a way that feels familiar now instead of new.
“I just want to make sure you know,” he adds, “I’m not going anywhere either.”
I step closer, closing the last bit of space between us, my hand tightening in his.
“Good,” I say.
Holt doesn’t move this time. Doesn’t kiss me. Doesn’t let the moment pass. Instead, he exhales slowly as if he’s steadying himself, then he lets go of my hand. Just for a moment. Long enough to reach into his back pocket.
My breath catches before I even understand why.
“Okay,” he mutters under his breath, almost to himself. “Maybe now.”
“Holt…”
He looks up at me, then drops to one knee. Everything in me goes completely still. The world doesn’t disappear—if anything, it electrifies—but the noise fades, the party, the music, the voices all slipping into something distant and irrelevant.
It’s just him.
Just this.
“I told you I had a speech,” he says, a hint of that familiar dry humor threading through his voice, but it doesn’t hide the seriousness underneath it. Not even close. My heart is pounding so hard I’m not sure I can hear anything else.
“You did.”
“Yeah,” he says. “And I’m probably going to mess it up.”
“You’re not—”
“I am,” he cuts in gently. “But you’re going to let me try anyway.”
My throat tightens.
“Okay.”
His gaze holds mine. Steady. Certain.
“I don’t need this place to mean something because it’s where we met,” he says. “It means something because you’re here. Because you fought. Because you chose this life… and somehow, you chose me with it.”
