Page 166 of Through the Storm

I turn.

And I see it. A small bonfire. Soft string lights everywhere. The ocean stretching behind it.

It looks exactly like the night of my first bonfire party.

“Katy, dance with me.”

My hands are trembling, but I nod. We move together easily, like we’ve done this a hundred times before.

“Good thing there’s no storm this time,” he says.

I smile. “The storm’s already passed.”

When the song ends, he steps back. Then he drops to one knee and everything else disappears.

“Katy,” he says, my name steady in a way that makes my heart ache. “I don’t know where the draft is going to take us. What city. Or how many times we’ll have to start over.” He exhales. “But I do know I don’t want to build a single version of my life without you in it.”

My breath catches.

“You’ve always seen the best in me,” he continues. “You were my biggest supporter and my home before I even understood what that meant. Before the baby. Before everything got real.”

“And now… you’re still it.”

His voice softens but doesn’t waver. “You’re my person. The one I choose every time, in every version of what our life could look like.”

A tear slips down my cheek.

“Katy… will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I say immediately. “Yes.”

He exhales, sliding the ring onto my finger. It’s simple and elegant. It’s perfect.

Then he pulls me into him, arms tight. “I love you,” he murmurs.

“I love you too. I always have.” I pull back just enough to look at him.

“I’ll always?—”

“Wait.” I press my hand flat against his chest, stopping him before he can say anything else. “That’s not fair.”

He blinks. “What?”

“You don’t just get to do that and then we’re done.” My voice comes out wobbly but certain. “I have things to say too.”

His mouth curves. “Katy?—”

“I’m serious. Give me a second.” I take a breath, the ring cool and new on my finger. “Okay.”

I swallow. “Before you, I was always bracing for something. Bracing for everyone to realize I’m not perfect.” I shake my head. “And then there’s you. And you’re just... happy. You wake up happy and you just… live. And somehow, I stopped bracing. Because you’d never expect perfection from me, so I started just living too.

“You make me fearless,” I continue. “Not because nothing scary happens, but because I know you’re next to me when it does. And I get to build a life that’s right next to yours, and laugh at everything, and actually enjoy it instead of just surviving it.” I pause, shaking my head a little. “You are so relentlessly, stubbornly, annoyingly happy, Ben. Like, genuinely. All the time. Who does that?”

He lets out a surprised laugh.

“So.” I straighten, sniffling. “Yes. Obviously yes. But I needed you to know that you’re pretty amazing, and I’ve always been annoyingly in love with you.”

He looks at me for a long moment. Then he laughs, quiet and undone, and pulls me back in.