We had an understanding. Mason would wait until I felt more comfortable with the idea. As much as I tried, old scars from Analise and David’s marriage ran deep in me. Or they had.

Now I was ready. More than ready.

I wanted to talk to Mason about it this summer, but I wasn’t sure yet how to have the conversation. Uh, honey? You can propose to me any day you want. Yeah. It felt weird. Maybe I could slip him a note. I smiled to myself at how foolish that seemed as I crested the hill. The clearing opened to me, and I stopped in my tracks.

Mason stood in front of me.

He wasn’t alone.

Logan, Taylor, Nate, Heather, Channing, Malinda—I scanned the group quickly. There were so many. Mark. David. Even Garrett. Sharon was there, holding my little sister, who waved, her cheeks and lips covered in chocolate. Helen was there too, looking like it was the last place she wanted to be, but she folded her hands in front of her and even managed a small smile.

Analise and James held hands, a few feet to the side and behind everyone else. My mother waved, a tentative smile on her face, and drawing in a deep breath, she stepped closer to the group. James patted her back, and she flicked a hand up to her eyes.

She was crying.

Why was my mom crying? Wait. I went back to Malinda. She was crying too. Taylor. Heather. Courtney. Grace. Even Matteo, who was holding Grace’s hand. They were all blinking back tears.

I focused on Mason again. He was in front of everyone, waiting for me.

“What’s going on?”

He knelt down and held up his hand. There. Right there between his finger and thumb was a ring.

I stopped breathing.

It sparkled, and it was beautiful, and it was huge, but I didn’t care about any of that.

“Are you sure?” I asked hoarsely.

He laughed, his own voice raspy, and nodded. “Will you marry me, Samantha? Will you become Samantha Jacquelyn Kade?”

My throat filled, and I nodded. I couldn’t stop nodding, and I couldn’t stop smiling, and then I felt the tears on my cheeks, and I couldn’t stop crying.

“Yes,” I managed, just as he stood and swept me off my feet.

I wrapped my arms tight around him, whispering it again, just for myself. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“I love you,” he whispered, carrying us a few feet away.

He set me back down, and I looked at him. “I love you too.” I touched his lips. “So goddamn much.”

“So goddamn much.” And his lips were on mine.

EPILOGUE

Six months later.

“Tomorrow you’ll become my wife,” Mason murmured, lifting our hands.

We were in bed. I lay in the shelter of his arms, my head propped in the corner of his arm and chest.

“I am.” I grinned up at him. “You’re going to become my husband.”

A soft smile crept over his face, lighting it up. “Husband.”

“Wife.” My grin matched his.

We were defying tradition.

We were supposed to separate, sleep in other beds, but there’d been no discussion. We both knew that wouldn’t happen. And it was now close to five in the morning. The first light of the day would be showing soon, but there was no tired bone in my body. I knew there wouldn’t be all day.

“Are you sure you want to marry me?”

I had settled back into his arms again, but lifted my head once more. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged, his smile gone. “I mean, are you sure? We were high school sweethearts. It’d be normal to think about being single at some point in your life. Right?” His eyes flashed and tense lines formed around his mouth.

“Mason.” I shifted on the bed, propping myself to lie on my stomach. I tucked some of the sheet over my breasts, but they were pressed against his chest. I watched him. “Are you having second thoughts?”

Logan said their bachelor night had been epic. Maybe too epic?

At my question, the tension lines softened, and he slid his hands into my hair, cupping the sides of my face. “No. I’m just worried you might regret this one day.”

“Not possible.” I said those words softly, but they tore at my heart. He really thought that?

“Are you sure you’re not going to regret this?” I asked, feeling my throat burning.

He laid his head back against the headboard and moved it from side to side. “Not possible.”

A thrill went through me as he used my words, a loving smile on his face, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Nope. The words regret and second thoughts would never enter my vocabulary when it came to my relationship with him.

I sat up, drawing more of the sheet around me. It slipped from his waist, so I lifted a corner and spread it out over him.

He snorted, grinning. “What are you doing?”

I shrugged, holding back my own grin. “I have something to say, and I don’t want to get distracted.”

“Distracted?”

I nodded. “Yes. Distracted.” I crossed my arms over my chest and fixed him with a sturdy look. “I want to know more about where this came from. You’ve never mentioned second thoughts to me before.”

He reached over and caught my hands, tugging my arms back down to my lap. He slid his fingers against mine, resting our hands on his chest. “Logan said something earlier about how he got to be free and slutty. He was glad he met Taylor when he did, because he got the wild side of him out and he could be content with her for the rest of his life.” He paused, swallowing. “Got me thinking. You went from Sallaway to me, and you’ve never been single since.” His eyes flicked to mine, a haunted agony lining them. “It’d break my heart if you ever regretted us.”

And that, right there, broke mine.

Feeling choked up, I could only shake my head. “You want to know what I was going to say to you tomorrow?” I murmured, hoarse around the big fat lump in my throat.

“What? No—”

But I’d already started. He was too late, and I knew this was the perfect time to say these words.

“On this day, Mason James Kade, you become my future. You are already, Mason James Kade, a huge part of my past. On this day, Mason James Kade, you are my ever-living present.” I gripped his hand. “I will be side by side with you no matter where our path goes. I have walked with you. I have run with you. I have laughed with you. I have cried with you. I have supported and been supported by you. I have yelled at you, for you, and with you. I have cursed with you. I have felt pain. I have felt joy. I have felt peace. I have felt every emotion a person can experience. Some have been because of you. Some have been because of others, but it was always with you that I could feel what I felt. From the moment I met you, you took me in and loved me as family. We evolved. We became more, and we will continue to evolve, but there is no one else I would choose to have next to me. Ever.”

I had to stop. The tears were drowning my words, but he needed to hear them.

I needed to say them.

“I declare right now that I am not choosing to become Samantha Kade. I have always been Samantha Kade. It will be official tomorrow, but that’s the only difference. That’s it. I am already your wife in every sense of the word.”

I took a deep breath. I had more to say, but then his lips stopped me.

He kissed me, and I felt his tears against my face.

When we parted, he rested his forehead against mine, and before I could stop him, he spoke his own words. He said them as he lifted me onto him, and he continued as he entered me.

He kept saying those words as I gasped, cried, begged, and then screamed my release, and he didn’t stop whispering them until I finally fell asleep.

Just a few hours later, I stood at the end of a rose-strewn aisle, my bouquet in hand. My wedding dress had been fitted over me, and my bridesmaids were already waiting for me at the front of our little wooded paradise.

This was my wedding. This was my dream come true.

I’d gotten the family I dreamed about, but what I’d said to Mason last night was true: I always had it.

Today it was just legal. That was all.

The music changed. The volume rose, and everyone stood.

All eyes turned to me, some misty-eyed, some blurred with tears, and others smiling widely.