"Anah..."
She heard him curse under his breath.
Anah couldn't help pulling back even as a teary laugh spilled past her lips. "You, too?"
Ethan's grimace was all the answer she needed, and she choked out another laugh. Hopeless, she thought helplessly. This moment was years in the making, and yet neither of them could even say the words out loud.
Maybe they needed something to kickstart things?
Ethan reluctantly let go when Anah suddenly started wriggling out of his hold, but when he saw her head straight for the fridge—-
Déjà vu, Ethan thought with a smile, recalling the last time they had a similar confrontation, and he had started heaping food on her plate.
When Anah turned back to face Ethan, cake box in hand, she saw Ethan already setting plates on the kitchen island, and she burst into laughter. "I was only planning for us to have cake!"
"But what if our conversation outlasts the cake?" Ethan asked pragmatically.
"Maybe, but—-"
"We should heat the pasta, too."
Anah found herself grinning like a fool at the way Jackson Hole's once-infamous heartbreaker was turning into a domesticated god right before her very eyes. The pasta he had spoken of was already in the microwave, and Ethan was now busy turning his two mugs of coffee into iced coffee jelly.
Oh well.
She had only planned to plant last year's candle on top of the cake and declare this day as their official first day as a couple in love, but they didn't have to do that right away, really. Since Ethan was going all out with his preparations, they could just have the cake as the dessert.
But first...
"Do you have a lighter?" She had already seen last year's candle in one of the kitchen drawers, but she hadn't any luck finding any lighter or firestarter around the house.
"I left mine in the pick-up's glovebox," Ethan answered absently.
"Oh."
Ethan glanced at Anah over his shoulder. "You need me to get it?"
Anah couldn't quite answer right away. Three years ago, he had asked her to grab something from his pick-up's glove box, and a pack of condoms had fallen out the moment she opened it.
Ethan turned around at her continued silence, and when he saw the uneasy look on her face—-
A memory flashed in his mind, and his jaw hardened.
Fuck.
He strode to her in the next moment and cupped her face when she refused to meet his gaze. "Anah..."
"I know I'm being silly—-"
"It's not there," he said gently. "Not a single of trace of the past is there."
Anah bit her lip.
"And it's been like that for over a year."
Her eyes widened.
"But don't just take my word for it," Ethan said lightly. "I want you to see it for yourself. And afterwards..." He took a deep breath. "We'll talk." Because it was time for her to know the truth.
Ethan watched Anah walk away and the sight had him fighting against a sudden urge to call her back. Cold sweat had broken out from nowhere to bathe his skin, and breathing had become a struggle for some inexplicable reason.
His instincts started ringing wildly inside of him.
There was something he had forgotten.
Something.
Oh God.
In the past week, he had doggedly shoved off all memories of the day he had proposed to Guilia, and in his determination to forget everything and pretend that part of his life had never existed—-
God.
He truly had fucking forgotten.
Ethan charged down the stairs despite knowing that he was most likely too late—-
And he was.
Anah was standing next to the pick-up when Ethan made it to the garage.
Tears running down her face, she smiled shakily at him as she whispered, "Yes." There was a box in her hand, and a diamond ring inside it. "I'll marry you."
Chapter Seventeen
It's going to be fine. You can fix this. You're not going to lose her.
The words might as well be Ethan's entire vocabulary, with the way he had to keep repeating them to himself, each time fear stabbed his heart. He would see Anah smile, and it fucking terrified him, just thinking how it could be the last time he might see her smile, if she ever found out the truth.
And since just about everything in his life reminded Ethan of her these days—-
A bitter smile played over his lips.
Everything had become a crippling reminder of what he would lose.
Because Anah was his life.
Had been so since probably the first day they met, if he hadn't been so damn determined to do what was right.
The passenger door opened, and Ethan forced himself to relax as Anah jumped back into the seat next to him.
"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly.
"What did you forget?"
An impish smile curved over her lips, and a wave of terror threatened to drown him.
"This!"
A diamond ring winked at Ethan as Anah wiggled her fingers at him.
"I thought I'd leave it at first, but then I changed my mind..." She turned to him, dark, doll-like eyes shining with love, and Ethan's fingers tightened around the wheel until his knuckles turned white. "I want everyone to see it," Anah said shyly, "because I want everyone to know I'm yours."
Ethan took hold of her hand, and his eyes closed as he pressed his lips to her knuckles.
It's going to be fine. You can fix this. You're not going to lose her.
But he was wrong.
IT'S GOING TO BE FINE. There's nothing to fix. You're not going to lose him.
Anah repeated the words over and over in her mind while she pretended to read her textbook. She had lied about having a test to study for, and Ethan, distracted by the various road blockages he suddenly needed to circumvent because of an early morning flashflood, had only nodded and promised to get her to school in time.
The urge to look his way suddenly struck her, and Anah quickly flipped to the next page. Don't cry, Anah. But the words had already started to swim, and her gaze began to blur.
She flipped to another page just as the first teardrop fell, and it landed
