“Most of the other guys on my team talked about it often. Some of them had families and wives back home. I couldn’t have done that for all the same reasons I couldn’t stay with you. Since I didn’t have anybody waiting on me back home anyway, it seemed a moot point. I was career military. Until I wasn’t. Then I was a mess. And now, here you are again. I admit, I hadn’t thought about it before. Hadn’t let myself. But I wondered today.”
“Me too. I don’t know where I stand on kids. It’s not a dealbreaker for me one way or the other. I figure we’ve got plenty of other details to figure out before that becomes a relevant question. I mean, we haven’t even closed on the house, yet.”
“Fair enough.”
Happy to have her curiosity satisfied without it turning into a Thing, Paisley stretched. “In other news, did I imagine Jonathan Bane watching Bethany?”
“No, no, you did not. I was surprised he was there.”
“They were friends as kids. I remember Bethany saying he grew up on the farm next door.”
“Yeah, he did a lot of volunteering with the veterinary clinic back then. I think Doc Rollins mentioned he’s maybe doing something with training therapy dogs now. Not sure. It’s something that has him working with their practice.”
“Huh.”
Ty arched a brow. “What is that huh about?”
“I just wonder if he’s finally going to make a move.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, he totally had a thing for her back in high school. But of course, he never acted on it because there was always Garrett.”
“He’s younger than her.”
“Only by three years.”
“How do you even know this?”
She offered a supercilious grin. “I had a nose for romance, even then.”
“I think your romantic heart is seeing something that isn’t there. She’s pregnant with another man’s baby. That’s not exactly a prime dating situation.”
“Do you think she shouldn’t date?”
He considered the question. “No. No, Garrett wouldn’t want her life to be over any more than he did mine. He’d want her to find someone else to love her. But that’s a big, complicated mess of a situation. Lots of baggage. I don’t know many—or frankly any—men who’d want to sign on for that.”
“We’ll see.” Realizing he wasn’t driving them back to the hotel, she straightened in her seat. “Where are we going?”
“Another walk down memory lane.”
She knew, even before he turned toward the river, where he was headed. Apparently, this was a trip for banishing ghosts. As he parked under what she’d always thought of as their tree, she arched a brow. “Did you have plans of steaming up the windows? Because I will remind you that your truck does not have a bench seat, and it is too cold after dark to make use of your truck bed.”
“As appealing as that is, no. That wasn’t why I brought you out here.” He turned off the truck. “Walk with me.”
Wishing she’d known he wanted to walk, she slid her heels back on and joined him, taking the hand he offered. There was a well-groomed path that hadn’t been there years ago. They stuck to it for a ways, lost in their own thoughts as the river burbled beside them.
“So many memories here,” she murmured.
“Which ones are you thinking of?”
“The day you carved our initials in our tree. Dozens of picnics on the banks. Lazy afternoons dreaming about the future. Our first time.” There were others. So very many others.
“Is it only the good ones for you?”
She understood what he was asking. “It is now.” And why shouldn’t she hang on to those beautiful memories, when the boy who’d given them to her had grown into the man by her side?
He pulled her to a stop, tugging her back against his chest and faced them toward the river. “This place was important to us. But we never came back after that day.”
She didn’t have to ask which day and didn’t think he needed her confirmation.
“I feel like I ruined it for us.”
At the self-recrimination in his voice, she stroked her free hand down his arm. “You did what you had to do. I don’t hold it against this place.”
“Did you ever come back here without me?”
“No. It would have hurt too bad.” She leaned back against him, soaking in the comfort of his nearness. “I’m happy to be here with you now.”
“Me too. And that’s part of why I brought you. Because I wanted to do something to reclaim this place for good memories.”
“Oh?” Where was he going with this?
Turning her to face him, he skimmed the hair back from her face. “I love you Paisley Ann Parish. I love your laugh, your smile, and how you make everything more fun. I love your romantic’s view of the world and how it keeps me from dwelling too long in the dark. I love that stubborn streak that meant you never gave up on me, even when I probably deserved it.”
Lifting both hands, he brushed a kiss over her knuckles that had her halfway to swooning. “You’ve been it for me since that kiss at the homecoming dance all those years ago. I knew it then, and I’m doing now what you thought I was that day the last time we came here.” He dropped to one knee. “Marry me.”
Paisley’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”
He slipped out a ring box from his pocket and flipped it open.
She squeaked. That was a real, shiny engagement ring in there. In his hand. Where he knelt on the ground. The ache in her feet told her in no uncertain terms she was definitely awake and not dreaming this whole thing.
And here she’d thought Bethany’s baby announcement was going to be the biggest shock of the day.
“We spent a lot of years apart. Years that showed me in no uncertain terms that life is short. I wasted a lot of time feeling unworthy and broken. You
