Page 114 of Falling for Her

“It sucks Asa couldn’t come with us.”

“I know,” I deadpan, avoiding looking into her eyes. In three months, she’s cemented herself into my life as if she were there from day one. The two of us share a special bond that no one really could have guessed we would have. Maggie isn’t thrilled about it, because I have a better bond with her than she has with Tim, but that isn’t my problem.

We are supposed to have Asa every other week, but Finley sees him at riding practice twice a week when he’s not with us. He then comes home with her and sometimes ends up staying the night. I swear, if we could have him full-time, Finley would be perfectly fine with it. Which makes me love her even more, which I thought was impossible. She’s created a life for herself that to some would be nothing great, but to her it’s everything.

She slides her hand in mine, as she always does when we are together. “So do we get to cut our own tree down?” she asks me. “Or do we point at it and be like, that one, please?”

“Not really sure.” I look around to see if they have everything planned the way we talked about. I head down the pathway I scoped out yesterday when I told her I had to run an errand. She was busy decorating the tree house to surprise Asa with when he came home. She also had me pinky-swear to tell him I did it, even though he would know I didn’t. But if it made her happy, I would do anything for her.

Her head is down as we make our way up the path, and I can see that the fairy lights are on and strung between the trees. “Look, they put up lights. And it looks like there are ornaments on the tree.” She looks at me. “That’s probably how they get you. They put up pretty tree ornaments, and the next thing you know, the tree costs you a thousand dollars.”

“Please tell me you did not spend a thousand dollars on the tree in our room.”

“I did not spend a thousand dollars for the tree in our room . . .” she mumbles. “It was more like fifteen hundred, but that’s because⁠—”

“Finley,” I snap, “for a tree?”

“Lincoln”—she stops walking—“you love that tree.”

“No, you love that tree.”

“Fine, I love that tree. It’s so pretty with the silver-and-gold ornaments. It’s very magazine-worthy.”

“You really need to stop shopping online.”

She pffts at me as I tug her along. “That will never happen.”

“You know, yesterday we had five packages delivered to the house by four different people.”

“It’s not my fault they ship them at different times. I—” She stops when she spots the blanket on the ground ahead with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. “Oh shit. This is someone’s spot.” She tries to pull me in the opposite direction, but I hold my ground and just smile at her.

“It’s not someone’s,” I say softly. “It’s ours.”

“Oh.” She notices the tree that has pictures hanging all over it. She lets go of my hand and moves closer, gasping when she recognizes they are all pictures of us from over the last three months. More pictures than we know what to do with. But she keeps taking them and printing them, making sure she writes notes behind each one so we can look back and reminisce later. Little does she know, when it comes to her, I have everything memorized.

She examines one picture, and then another, as if it’s the first time she’s seen them.

“Remember?” She turns to look at me, pointing to the picture we took the night before Halloween when she made me stack three pumpkins on top of each other, so the porch looked cooler. Her mouth opens when she sees me in the middle of the blanket on one knee, looking up at her.

“Lincoln,” she whispers. I can see tears brimming in her eyes as she puts her hands to her mouth.

“Finley,” I start, and think about the words that I sort of practiced this week every time I went to work. “Fuck.” I shake my head. “I thought I had this all down and memorized, but I can’t remember a thing. It’s like everything is just erased from my mind. The only thing going through my head right now is the number seventy-two. The scariest thing that has ever happened to me was the seventy-two hours that you were in that coma. Seventy-two hours of rage. Seventy-two hours of different deals I was making with the devil. Seventy-two hours when I felt my heart stop in my chest. I vowed that if you woke up and spoke to me, there was not going to be another day that would go by when I wouldn’t make sure to tell you how much I love you. You came into my life as a pleasantly unexpected surprise.” We both laugh. “And you pushed every single button that you knew how to press. And without even knowing what was happening, I fell madly in love with you. It happened as if I was born to love you. As if I lived this life just to love you.” She puts her hand on her chest. “I want to do life with you by my side, but not without you having my ring on your finger.” I pull out the box I tucked into my pocket right before we walked out of the house, pretending I’d forgotten my phone. “So what do you say, baby?” I open it and show her the antique ring she saw in a shop last month when we were just walking in town. “I can’t give you penthouses and seven closets, but I can give you my heart. Will you marry me?”

“Lincoln Burke,” she sniffles, trying not to sob, “what you give me, there is no money in the world that can buy it. You give me a sense of peace I’ve never felt before. You put me first before anything. You protect me, and you love me unconditionally, no matter how many times we’ve had to replace the microwave.” She laughs, and so do I. “You have given me a home. A place where I can’t wait return to every single night. You gave me something that no one has ever been able to give me, and I will spend the rest of my life thanking you for that.”

“So is that a yes?” I ask her, and she nods her head.

“That’s a yes.” The minute she says the words, I’m off my knees, picking her up, and twirling her around in my arms. Her legs wrap around my waist, and all that can be heard is the sound of her laughter, which means my job here is done.

“She said yes!” I shout, and then we hear cheers from our friends who are all hiding close by.

“She said yes!” Asa cheers. “She said yes!”

She lets go of me, and she’s barely on her feet before Asa runs into her. My hand around her waist stops her from going down. “He was so worried you would say no.”

“Are you kidding me?” she says to him. “I said yes for you”—she winks at him and then looks at me—“and you too.” I bend and kiss her lips. Falling for her is one of the best things that has ever happened to me, and I’m going to spend my life showing her.

EPILOGUE TWO