Page 134 of The Freshman Parents

Heather’s chest constricts around her thudding heart. ‘Are you serious? Is this your attempt at a proposal, Scott?’

‘What if it was?’

Her mouth slackens. ‘What if it was?’

The question swirls around the sea breeze and catches strands of hair that tickle against her skin. Could they do that? Could that be them? He takes a step towards her and tucks the errant lock of hair behind her ear.

‘I guess I’m asking if you’d be prepared to share a mattress topper with me. For, like, ever. I know I’ve got stuff to work on, but I’m getting help. I’ve met Leon six times now.’ He holds uphis left hand and splays the fingers then brings the thumb of his right alongside. ‘Six. It’ll take time, but I know now that I’ll get there. And I also know it’s you I want to be with throughout this and at the end of it all. So will you, please, tell me you feel the same. Because it’s you, Heather, it’s you from now on in.’

His eyes drill into hers, a flicker of fear behind the intensity of his gaze.

‘Scott. Are you seriously asking me to – ?’

And suddenly, he’s down, kneeling in the water, his shins submerged with waves licking around his thighs.

‘Heather Alice McVey,’ he says, and he’s groping in his trousers and – he is, he’s pulling a box out of his pocket and opening it up and there, nestling on a bed of green velvet, is a solitaire diamond on a band of glorious platinum, and as it catches the light, little glistening shards of the setting sun are cast across his face – and she’s melting.

Into the sea. Into his arms. Because she’s here. She’s home. She’s safe and protected by someone she now knows will never, ever leave.

‘Buyer of mattress toppers, protector of everyone else, will you marry me?’

She places two hands on either side of his face and cups the cheeks she’s grown to love with an urgency she’s all but forgotten. And they’re kissing, and the waves are breaking at their waists. And suddenly, there are shouts and splashes, and they’re surrounded in the water by their fully grown daughters, who are screaming and hugging and kissing them and each other.

‘You said yes!’ Georgia shrieks.

The tears Heather had been unaware of until now, slide off her face as she nods. And the girls scream and start an embrace of their own.

‘We’re going to be sisters,’ Brianna yells into the horizon.

And it feels – not 75% – not 85% – but 100% perfect.