Lacey,
You barely know me, but please listen to me. I know this sounds crazy, and that there’s no way I could possibly know this yet, but I’m the man for you. God made one man for you, and I’m him. I’m your one and only. It’s the truth. Don’t ask how I know it. I just do. The first night I got here, I saw you coming down the stairs, and it was like I was looking at an angel coming down from heaven. I always knew I’d meet an angel some day. The priest said, when my parents died, that an angel watched over us all. I didn’t believe him at the time, but when I saw you his words finally made sense to me. You’re my angel Lacey, and I’m going to make you mine. I swear it. I’m going to take you, like a swooping eagle takes a fish from a mountain lake. There’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve always been mine, and you always will be, no matter what.
Forever yours,
Grant Lucas
I felt strangely emotional as I read the words. I was a different person back then, just a kid, a criminal, and everything about me has changed in the years since. Except for this one thing. I was still in love with Lacey. She was still my girl, my angel. I knew it then, and I knew it now. I hadn’t given her the letter back then, when she was just seventeen, but I should have.
I didn’t have to make the same mistake now. I loved her. I loved her with a raging, burning fire that no amount of time would quench. If I didn’t tell her now, I’d lose her forever.
There were some blank pages and the old pencil I’d used years ago, and I started writing. I laughed. My handwriting hadn’t changed a bit. The letter I was writing now was almost identical in every way to the letter I’d written then. Even the words were similar. The love was the same too.
Lacey,
I should have said these words to you years ago. I’ve been a fool. I know it. Please forgive me. I’ve always loved you. It wasn’t just a crush back then when we were kids. It was the real thing, and it’s still the real thing. The night we were together at Faith and Jackson’s wedding, was the best night of my life. I can’t even describe what I feel about it. It felt so right, like our destiny. I know we’re meant to be together, and I’m not going to let anything get in the way anymore.
Be mine, Lacey. Forget everything else, forget all the mistakes I’ve made, forget what an idiot I’ve been, and give yourself, body and soul, to me. I promise I’ll take care of you and honor you.
Let me make you my wife. Let me make you the mother of my children. I beg you. I want everything you have to offer, Lacey. All the joy and love in your heart, I want it to be mine and no one else’s.
Be my bride, and the mother of my children, and I’ll never be so stupid as to let you out of my grasp again.
Forever yours.
Grant Lucas
Chapter 25
Grant
I WAS ABOUT TO CLIMB down the ladder. I was going to give Lacey the letter and let her make up her own mind. If she wasn’t interested, that would be her choice. At least I’d have told her how I felt. I folded the letter neatly and put it in my back pocket. Then I put the pencil and envelope back on the beam above me and reached for the ladder.
I hesitated a moment at the top of the ladder. It was a perfect evening. The air was still, the evening sky a deep crimson. It was a momentous night. The night I would finally tell Lacey that I loved her.
And then I heard someone at the doors of the barn. I was about to call out, I figured it was Jackson coming to check on the horses, but it wasn’t. It was Lacey, and she was with Rob.
What was she doing, bringing him there, to my place? To our place? The place we’d been intimate together?
I know I should have called out, I should have said something, but I was too taken by surprise.
“Lacey,” Rob said, “there’s something I need to say to you.”
Immediately, I knew it was going to be something important. The tone in his voice, the mood in the barn, he was going to say something that I didn’t want to overhear. But there was nothing I could do. I took my hand off the ladder and stepped back into the loft.
“What is it, Rob?”
“I want to ask you something very important.”
“You can ask me anything,” Lacey said.
I was shaking my head. I thought about climbing out the window but it was more likely they’d hear me if I moved. The only thing to do was wait it out.
“What are your feelings on marriage?” Rob said.
My breath caught in my throat. What was I about to overhear?
“I love marriage,” Lacey said. “You know that.”
“Well, we haven’t talked about it much.”
“Because we’ve only been going out for a few weeks,” Lacey said. “From what I’ve seen, marriage is the last thing guys want to talk about.”
“Not me,” Rob said.
“You mean, you like talking about marriage?”
“It’s something I’ve been meaning to take care of.”