Chapter 30
Three months later, Brian stood in the jewelry store on Main Street, staring at rings.
"You've been here twenty minutes," Hank said. "Just pick one."
"It's not that simple."
"It's exactly that simple. She loves you. You love her. The ring is a formality."
"The ring is not a formality." Brian pointed at a diamond solitaire. "What about that one?"
"Too plain."
"That one?"
"Too flashy."
"You're not helping."
"I'm helping plenty. You're just not listening." Hank leaned over the display case. "What does Tessa actually like? Not what you think she should like. What does she wear?"
Brian thought about it. Tessa wasn't flashy. She wore simple jewelry, when she wore any at all. Small earrings. A thin chain with a pendant her mother had given her. Nothing ostentatious.
"Something simple," he said. "Elegant. Not too big."
The saleswoman, who had been hovering patiently, stepped forward. "I might have something." She unlocked a case in the corner and pulled out a ring. White gold band, a modest diamond flanked by two smaller stones. Simple. Elegant. Perfect.
"That's it," Brian said.
"You sure?" Hank raised an eyebrow. "You didn't even ask the price."
"Doesn't matter."
"It might matter."
"It doesn't." Brian looked at the saleswoman. "I'll take it."
He walked out of the store with the ring in his pocket and a plan forming in his head. The Copper Moon Holiday Market was this weekend. Tessa had been talking about it for weeks, excited to see the town decorated, the vendors, and the tree lighting in the square.
It would be perfect.
"You've got that look," Hank said as they walked back toward the shop.
"What look?"
"The look that says you're planning something. Bree gets the same look right before she rearranges all the furniture."
"I'm thinking the holiday market. Saturday night, after the tree lighting."
"Public proposal?"
"No. Private. There's that spot on the bluff, past the market. You can see the whole bay from there."
Hank nodded slowly. "Under the copper moon."
"Under the copper moon."
"She'll love it."
"She better. I'm not good at this stuff."
"You're better than you think." Hank clapped him on the shoulder. "And for what it's worth, I'm glad you found her. You've been different since she showed up. Better."
"Different how?"
"Less angry. Less closed off. Like you finally stopped punishing yourself for something that was never your fault."
Brian didn't have a response to that. Mostly because it was true.
The next few days crawled by. Brian threw himself into work, both at the shop and with EMS, trying to keep his mind off the ring burning a hole in his dresser drawer. Tessa noticed something was up; he could tell by the way she looked at him, curious and a little amused.
"You're being weird," she said Thursday night.
"I'm always weird."
"Weirder than usual. You keep checking your phone and then looking disappointed."
"I'm waiting for a parts order."
"Must be some order."
He kissed her to avoid answering. It worked.
Saturday arrived cold and clear, the kind of December day that made everything look like a postcard.
Frost had dusted the town overnight, just enough to coat the rooftops and the bare tree branches.
The holiday market sprawled across the town square, booths selling crafts and food and ornaments, Christmas music playing from speakers strung between lampposts.
They walked through the market together, hand in hand. Tessa bought a knitted scarf from a woman who recognized her from the clinic. Brian got them cups of hot cider that steamed in the cold air.
"This is perfect," Tessa said, looking around at the lights and the snow and the people. "I can't believe I almost didn't come here."
"To the market?"
"To Copper Moon. I almost canceled that rental, you know. A week before I was supposed to leave, I almost backed out."
"Why didn't you?"
"I don't know. Something told me I needed to be here." She smiled up at him. "Turns out it was right."
The tree lighting was at seven. The whole town seemed to gather in the square, families with children on their shoulders, couples pressed close against the cold.
Mayor Patterson gave a short speech that nobody listened to, and then the tree blazed to life, thousands of lights reflecting off the frost.
Brian spotted Hank and Bree in the crowd. Colby and Sabrina. Dr. Hendricks with his wife. Ruth from the bookstore. Diaz, off duty, with a man Brian assumed was her husband. The whole community, gathered together in the cold celebrating something as simple as lights on a tree.
This was home. These were his people. And the woman beside him was everything.
"Come with me," he said.
"Where?"
"You'll see."
He led her away from the crowd, past the edge of the market, up the path that wound toward the bluff. The frost crunched under their feet. The sounds of the celebration faded behind them.
The bluff overlooked the bay, the water dark and endless under the winter sky. The copper moon hung low on the horizon, huge and luminous, painting everything in its warm glow.
"Brian." Tessa's voice was soft. "What are we doing up here?"
He turned to face her. His heart was pounding, his hands sweating despite the cold. He'd rehearsed this a hundred times in his head, and now every word had vanished.
"Six months ago," he started, "a woman showed up at my door with a double-booked rental and a complete refusal to leave."
"I didn’t have anywhere to go."
He smiled despite his nerves. "And I spent the next week trying to convince myself that I didn't want you there. That you were an inconvenience. That I was better off alone."
"You were very convincing."
"I was an idiot." He took her hands. "I spent two years hiding from everything. From the job I loved, from the people who cared about me, from any chance of being happy again. And then you showed up, and you wouldn't let me hide anymore. You saw through every wall I'd built and you just... stayed."
"Brian." Her eyes were bright.
"You told me once that you were going to marry me someday. A statement of intent, you called it." He reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring box. "I'm making my own statement."
He went down on one knee on the frost-covered grass, the cold soaking through his jeans immediately. He didn't care.
"Tessa Callahan. You saved me. Not from Carla, not from Webb.
From myself. From the person I was becoming.
" He opened the box, and the ring caught the moonlight.
"I don't want to imagine my life without you in it.
I don't want to spend another day wondering what this could be.
I want forever. With you. Starting now."
She was crying. Smiling and crying, her breath coming out in white puffs.
"Will you marry me?"
"Yes." She pulled him to his feet and kissed him, her cold hands on his face, her tears wet against his cheeks. "Yes. A thousand times, yes."
He slid the ring onto her finger with shaking hands. It fit perfectly.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too." He pulled her close, holding her tight against the cold. "Forever."
They stood on the bluff, wrapped around each other, the copper moon watching over them like a blessing. Below, the town glittered with lights. Behind them, the sounds of celebration drifted up on the wind.
Brian Knight had spent two years running from his past.
Now he had a future.
And it looked exactly like this.