I followed the candlelit path, which led me to the balcony. Standing amidst roses and candles, Kalli stood at the railing with a smile I hoped to see every day for the rest of my life. She was beaming at me, simply radiating happiness, and it was all I could do to keep myself from running the rest of the way to her.
“What are you doing?” I whispered when I was finally close enough to her, right before I kissed her quickly.
“Do you like the view?” she asked, her voice wavering the tiniest bit.
“I love the view,” I said, placing my hands on either side of her face and kissing her deeper. I pulled away after a few moments and smiled. “You didn’t buy this cabana did you? It had to cost a fortune.”
She laughed, but then wiped away a tear that had escaped. “No, I didn’t buy the cabana, but I was hoping we could come back here every once in a while to celebrate our anniversary.”
“Of course, baby.” I said, bringing her to me. “But, which day should we count as our anniversary? The day we met on the video shoot, or the day you showed up in my dressing room?”
“How about the day we get married?” I couldn’t see her face, but her voice sounded odd, weak and shaky. My first instinct was to laugh softly, so I did. We’d spoken about getting married before, it was obvious, to me at least, that was where our relationship was heading, but we’d been so busy and both our careers had taken off at the same time. Life was running away with us. “Yeah, baby. We’ll work on that, I promise.”
“Riot,” she whispered, her voice so delicate. “I want you to marry me.”
“Babe, we’ll get married. I promise.” I pulled away to tell her how much I loved her, how I didn’t want her to worry about our future together because she was all I could see for me in ten, twenty, even fifty years from now. I wanted to tell her how I wanted her to have my babies, soon, how I wanted to start a family with her. I wanted everything with her. But when I pulled away to reassure her of all that, I was stopped by the look on her face and the ring she was holding up between us.
“I’m asking you, Riot. I’m asking you to marry me.”
My eyes darted between her face and the ring, wondering what I’d missed, how we’d gotten here. In her hand was a men’s wedding band. It was black and thick, exactly something I would pick out for myself. Was this really happening?
“You’re asking me to marry you? You’re proposing?” I took the tiniest step away from her, trying to take it all in. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face, even if she looked terrified. I didn’t understand her nerves; surely she knew I would say yes.
“I want us to get married. I want you to marry me. And the longer I thought about it, the more I thought I should just ask you.”
“You want to get married?” I asked, smiling, moving closer to her.
“Yes,” she said, her voice suddenly breathy, watching me as I moved into her space so our bodies were touching, her hand with my ring in it still up between us.
“You want this forever?” I tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear, then moved my hand to the back of her neck, squeezing it firmly, watching her eyelids flutter as I did.
She nodded slightly, eyes finding mine. “I want you forever.”
“Then, you got me.” I took the ring from her and slid it onto my finger, laughing slightly at the thought of Kalli proposing to me. She had caught me completely off guard. “Tomorrow, we find a jeweler and we put a ring on your finger,” I said, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I could.
“I’d like that,” she breathed.
“I’d like to take you back into that candlelit bedroom and make love to my fiancée,” I said quietly.
“I’d like that too.”
I kissed her, then swept my arm under her knees and carried her back to the bed, looking forward to the rest of my life spent admiring the view of Kalli Bentley.
The End
Acknowledgements
Kalli and Riot’s story was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. Never Standing Still came with its own hurdles, but I never anticipated the kind of cathartic release I would get when it came time for Kalli to speak with her father. I, truly, never saw that coming; could not have been prepared for the copious amounts of tears shed or the way Kalli’s story went a little ways to heal a part of me that will probably always be a little bit broken. So I guess I’d like to thank anyone who read the book and could relate to Kalli in that way. And I’d like to offer you big hugs too.
To Andrea and Kelly, again, you continually blow me away with your generosity in time and effort. It’s such a relief to me to know you’ll do everything you can, every time, to help me make my books the best they can be.
To Olivia, you’ve edited a few of my books now and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your thoughtful and immensely helpful wisdom. You did a great job on this book, and it’s 100% better for all your work. Thank you. A huge thanks to everyone else at Hot Tree Editing who had a hand (or eyes) on this book. I am forever grateful.