Page 37 of Must Love Fallen Angels
“Yeah?”she asked.
He stopped walking, and she turned to face him.She looked like an angel, the morning sun highlighting her skin in a halo of gold.
“There’s something I’ve been thinking about as we’ve been moving forward with buying the house and building a life together.”
“What?”she asked, tipping her face up to smile at him.
For just a moment, he stared down at the female who had changed everything for him.He’d been drifting through this life without an anchor.He had friends, but he hadn’t really experienced the kind of love that had taken root inside him.Not until he found her that morning on this very beach.
“You are so unbelievably important to me.Everything good that’s happened to me has been since I met you.I realized I’d been holding onto anger and shame at falling, when the truth is that the reason I needed to fall was so that I could find you.If I’d never chosen it, I wouldn’t know you and how sweet it is to find my truemate.My soulmate.I didn’t know I was missing half of myself, half of my heart, until you filled all the broken spaces inside me and helped me see that my past made me into the male I am, but it doesn’t have to define me.Tessa, I love you.”
“Oh, Venice, you are so special to me.I love you, too.”Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
He dropped to one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket.Her eyes went wide, and she gasped softly.
“I love you with every inch of my being.You’re my mate, but I want you to be my wife too.I want forever with you.Will you marry me?”
The tears that filled her eyes spilled over as she nodded.“Yes!”
He slid the ring onto her finger and stood, pulling her into his arms.She wrapped her arms around him, and they kissed, a sweet promise of the bond between them.
His heart felt like it was going to burst.He kissed her once more and repeated the words that meant everything to him: “I love you, Tessa.”
“I love you too.”
They finished the walk to the end of the beach and then turned to head back to their chairs and coffees.“Oh, this ring is so pretty,” she said.
“The center stone is moonstone,” he said.He’d found it at a jeweler who had a large selection of antique rings.Gold filigree accented the oval moonstone, with small accent diamonds on the sides.“Moonstone is the stone for new beginnings.I thought there was nothing better for our marriage than a ring that symbolizes a new journey.”
She beamed at him.“I love it even more, then.It’s stunning.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Were you worried?”she asked as she settled in the beach chair and he sat next to her.
“Heck yes, I didn’t want to mess up something so important.”
She giggled.“Well, you did good, angel mine.”
They finished their coffees, bathed in the warmth of the morning sunlight, and then they headed back to the cottage to start the day.Already it felt incredible because Tessa had saidyes, and now they got to belong to each other forever.
As they walked back to the cottage, he felt like he’d finally come full circle after he chose to fall.He’d thought he’d lost everything, but he’d really just been prepping to find the love of his life.Someone he would fight for and protect, not because it was a sacred duty, but because he loved her with every ounce of his being.
She kept looking at her hand.“I think I’ll look at this all day, and I’m worried I might run into a wall or something.”
“I’ll stop you before you do,” he said.“I’m your guardian angel, after all.”
“My very own,” she said.
They reached the cottage, put the chairs away, and then they refilled their mugs.“We should tell our friends,” she said.
“Well, Zay and Lyra already know.And Brody and Delaney.”
“They do?”she asked.
“I asked Zay if he knew where to find antique rings.I wanted something unique for you.He told me about a jeweler, and Lyra gave me some tips on what to look for.And of course, once I bought the ring, Brody knew something was up with me, and he and Delaney don’t have secrets, so they both knew.”
“I bet Lyra is going to cry when she sees it, though.She’s a romantic at heart.”
