I peered at him through the cracks in my fingers. His eyebrows were bumped together in a confused scowl.
I sniffled. “You’ve been distant. We’ve been driving separately to work. Barely spend any time together.”
He licked his lips before he pressed a kiss to my forehead. He grabbed my hands away from my face and dropped to one knee. My mouth fell open as I stared at him, with tears still streaming down my cheeks.
“Seven years ago, I was a fucking idiot. I walked away from you naked in that bed thinking you’d call. My stubborn ass didn’t think anything except that you must’ve wanted nothing more to do with me.” He chuckled and reached for a little blue box in his pocket. I gasped as the moment became more of a dream. He opened it to reveal an elegant silver diamond ring. “Now that I know you love me at least half as much as I love you, I’m never walking away again. Faith, will you marry me?”
The lake was as flat as a mirror. It existed just as it had the night we connected without a ripple in the silver-green water as if time itself had been frozen. But I knew that time had passed. Asher and I had changed since that night, and yet all I could think of was how much I yearned to relive it. From the tall pines around the edge came not a sound, no movement of branches, and no bull frogs singing.
“Of course, I’ll marry you.” My knees sunk into the damp mud beside him. “I love you.”
He gently took my ring finger and slid it on. The ring fit perfectly and looked like it belonged. I wrapped my arms around him and smashed my lips to his.
Clapping sounded from behind us and I pulled away to see Mags and Luca holding champagne-filled glasses with big smiles on their faces. They were up the path, standing just outside the back door of the cabin.
“You knew? You assholes! You knew I’d been thinking he was going to leave.” I sobbed.
Asher lifted me up to my feet and enveloped me in a hug. “They were sworn to secrecy.”
“Congratulations to you both!” Luca called down.
“There is a meal on the counter for you. Also, since we all knew you’d say yes.” Mags winked. “You have an engagement party tomorrow here with our family and friends.”
I giggled and we trekked up the path and joined our friends. “You guys are so sweet. Thank you, I guess I can ignore the fact that you hid Asher’s true feelings from me.”
“Oh, hush!” Mags swatted my shoulder. “Alright, I have a date. I’ll leave you love birds to it. Wish me luck you guys!”
“Who’s the date with?” Luca asked as he leaned against the cabin.
“None of your business.” She swished her hips and strutted back toward the dirt drive. She didn’t glance back once.
He shook his head. “That woman.”
“You had your chance, Luca.” I shrugged. “Still do if you get your head out of your ass.”
He rolled his eyes before pushing off the side and rounded back up front. “Congratulations! See you two tomorrow!”
I shook my head, my face was hot and I felt silly for getting so worked up. “I really thought you were going to leave me.”
“I understand. I wasn’t around much because I was planning everything. And trying to keep it a secret.” He tilted my chin up.
“I’ll forgive you for now. But never do that shit again.”
“Never again, sweet fiance.” He brought his lips down to meet mine.
“I love you, Asher,” I mumbled against his soft lips.
“I love you.”
Those three words meant the world to me. I would never tire of hearing them over and over again.
Asher held the champagne glass up. “Thank you, everyone, for coming to celebrate our engagement. I can’t wait to marry this woman!”
I held mine up beside his. “We first connected at this cabin and it’s so special to be back here with him.”
“Yeah, you really connected back then!” Luca barked out a laugh.
Asher smirked. “I’ll drink to that.”
The crowd cheered as we downed our champagne, my ears burned at Luca’s obvious comment.
My dad walked over to us and gave me an awkward side-hug. “It’s good to see you so happy. Both of you.”
Asher shook his hand. “Thank you, sir.”
He scoffed. “No need to call me sir, boy. I’m going to be your father-in-law after all.”
Asher gave him a boyish grin as my aunt and uncle joined us.
“I don’t think we want to know what Luca insinuated earlier.” Aunt Jess shivered.
Uncle Mark shook his head. “Don’t even go there.”
“Best not knowing, honestly.” Asher scratched the back of his head.
“Hey, isn’t that Eve?” I asked, pointing toward the door. She stood there with Gerald.
Asher nodded. “We should go say hi.”
Dad chuckled. “I’d try to make a clean break from this conversation too.”
We laughed and excused ourselves before we made our way to Eve.
As we approached, she gave me a big hug. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered in my ear.
“We all miss you,” I whispered before we pulled apart.
“Thanks for coming.” Asher held his hand out to Gerald who reluctantly shook it.
“Yeah.”
We stood for a few awkward seconds of silence. Asher blew out a long breath of air. “Well, I have to take Faith somewhere for a second.”
“Of course, congratulations to both of you.” Eve smiled at us. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes as Gerald wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
I nodded with a small frown as Asher interlaced our fingers and took me outside. The evening breeze tousled my hair as we started down the all too familiar pebble path down to the wooden dock on the lake.
I felt the smile form on my lips as we approached the dock. Someone should fix it back up, seeing it in shambles didn’t sit right with me. We stood on the dirt beside it, right where he proposed, and I inhaled the rich smell of the lakeshore.
“This
