Collins

CHAPTER 46 johnnie

johnnie

NOW

Pizza fully devoured, the grease-stained box pushed aside, the movie rolls into my favorite scene, the Halloween party Max and Dani’s parents are at.

The room onscreen pulses with music and bodies, and then the witches take the stage, full of haunting mischief, and launch into “I Put a Spell on You.”

When I look over, Billy’s head is tipping forward, eyelids heavy, his sugar crash finally catching up to him. His mask bunches awkwardly beneath his chin as he fights sleep.

Bea’s thumbs move quickly over her phone, her focus sharp, when she pauses and looks up at me.

“Hey,” she says, lowering her phone slightly. “Campbell asked if I could drive you home. Apparently Collins started feeling sick, and he just dropped him off.”

The words land heavy. Well…there goes my plans for tonight. Sick?

A small knot tightens in my chest. Maybe I can make him some soup. Cuddle with him. Play nurse for the night.

“Okay,” I say. “You don’t mind?”

“Nope. It’s on the way to Campbell’s house anyway.” Her lips curve into a teasing smirk, eyebrows lifting in a way that tells me there’s a story sitting just beneath the surface.

I narrow my eyes at her, a grin tugging at my mouth. “Oh, so you’re going to his house, huh? I think you have some details to fill me in on.”

Beside us, Billy suddenly straightens, blinking hard like he’s been wide awake the entire time. Bea flicks her gaze toward him.

“I will definitely do that,” she says lightly, voice dropping just a touch. “But it’ll have to wait until there aren’t little ears around.”

A laugh slips out of me as I push myself to my feet. Bolt’s tail thumps against the couch when I reach down to pat his head.

“Okay,” I say, looking at the door, mind already on the other side of it. “We should probably head out. I need to check on him.”

And just like that, the spell of the movie breaks. Unease settles in.

I run through the contents of Collins’ pantry in my head as we glide down the dark, winding road along the lake, taking inventory of everything I bought earlier, what I might need to throw together some chicken noodle soup.

Broth, carrots, celery…I’m halfway through mentally checking off ingredients when the opening chords of “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers sing through the speakers.

A soft breath leaves me, almost a laugh.

This song.

Ours, mine and Bea’s.

I can’t even remember when it started. One day it just…

was. A constant. Since we were kids, we’ve blasted it through speakers, twirling around living rooms and backyards, singing at the top of our lungs until we’re breathless, doubled over in laughter, tears streaming down our faces.

It’s stitched into so many memories of us.

Bea turns down the long gravel driveway, tires crunching beneath us, and as the house comes into view, something shifts in my chest. My gaze catches on two familiar shapes parked in the drive, Crandall’s motorcycle and Campbell’s truck.

My stomach drops.

“I thought Campbell dropped him off?” The words come out sharp. My heart stutters, then kicks hard against my ribs. He didn’t feel good, did something happen?

Before the car is even fully in park, I’m out, the door slamming behind me as I rush toward the garage keypad. My pulse is loud in my ears, drowning out everything else.

“You’re needed out back.”

I gasp, jumping at the sudden voice that cracks through the quiet like thunder.

“Oh my god!”

My hand flies to my chest as I spin around. I think it’s Crandall who spoke, but Campbell is there too now, both of them stepping into the wash of moonlight. Their faces are…calm. Amused, even.

Not panicked.

Not worried.

“Huh?” The confusion tangles with the adrenaline still surging through me.

They exchange a glance. One of those looks people give when they know something you don’t, and then they smile. Not small smiles either. Full knowing ones that only make my pulse trip over itself harder.

Headlights sweep across the driveway just then, another car pulling in behind us.

Lou’s.

The engine cuts, and Bea steps out of the driver’s seat, that same smirk tugging at her lips. It’s the exact one mirrored on the twins’ faces.

A slow realization begins to creep in, but it doesn’t settle into anything solid.

Not yet.

“What the hell is going on?” I breathe, my voice thinner now, caught somewhere between suspicion and something I can’t quite name.

“Just trust us,” she says softly.

My gaze flicks between all of them, my heart still racing, still trying to catch up.

“Collins is waiting for you out back.”

My heart is thundering as I round the edge of the garage. Each step feels uneven, unsteady, dry grass and brittle leaves crackling beneath my shoes like they’re announcing my every movement to the night.

Then—

Music.

Faint at first. Carried on the breeze from somewhere out back.

I freeze mid-step.

My heart trips, then stops altogether.

“The Freshmen.”

The sound of it hits me like a physical force, stealing all my air. For a second, I can’t move, can’t think. It’s like my body doesn’t know how to exist in this moment.

I still can’t see anything, the back of the house juts out too far past the garage. There’s a glow now, though. Soft. Golden. Flickering in the distance like something out of a dream.

I take another step. Then another. Drawn forward by something deeper than logic, deeper than sense.

And then I round the edge of the patio.

Everything comes into view.

My breath leaves me in a sharp, broken gasp.

I’m going to die right here.

This—this cannot be real.

The music swells, wrapping around me, sinking into my bones. Our song. The one that lives in the quiet spaces between us.

And then I see him.

Collins.

Standing there in the middle of the yard, like he’s been waiting for me his entire life.

Hundreds, no thousands, of warm string lights glow above him. They’re draped between the towering trees, cascading down in soft golden rays. They stretch all the way to the trailer nestled between the house and the lake.

Nan’s trailer.

The sight of it hits something deep and fragile inside me, and it shatters.

Tears flood my eyes so fast I can barely see, turning everything into blurred light and color. My hands fly to my mouth, like I can somehow hold myself together, like I can stop the sob that’s already rising in my chest.

But I can’t.

My breathing breaks apart, uneven and desperate, each inhale catching on the next.

“Oh my god,” I whisper, the words barely there, carried out on a trembling exhale.

He’s smiling.

Just…standing there, hands clasped in front of him, like the world isn’t unraveling inside my chest. Like he hasn’t just tilted my entire universe on its axis.

He doesn’t move.

Doesn’t need to.

Because I can’t look at anything else.

The most beautiful man I have ever seen. He’s lit in gold, wrapped in memory, soul tugging on my own…I can feel it.

And somehow he’s looking at me like I’m his salvation, little does he know, he’s absolutely mine.

I don’t remember deciding to move, but I do.

One step.

Then another.

Like something inside me has taken over, pulling me toward him.

Collins’ hand lifts, reaching for me, steady and sure. My own hand trembles as I bring it up to meet his, the other still pressed tight against my mouth, the only thing holding me together.

Tears blur everything, but I find him anyway.

I always do.

My fingers slip into his, and then—

He drops.

Collins sinks down onto one knee.

Time pauses.

A small black box appears between us, held carefully in his hand, containing something fragile.

Something sacred.

A broken sound rips from my chest, and there’s no stopping it. I can’t stop the way I gasp for air, the way sobs spill out of me in uneven, uncontrollable waves.

“Johnnie,” he starts, and even my name sounds different coming from him now. It holds more weight than ever before, like it means everything.

“I know this is still new…” His voice catches, emotion laced in every word. “But it’s not. It’s not new. This, us, we started a long time ago.”

My chest aches so sharply I press my hand harder against it, like I can contain my heart before it shatters right out of me.

“And when you know…” His breath shakes, a tear slipping free, trickling down his cheek. “When you know who you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want to start the rest of your life as soon as you can.”

I’m crying so hard I can barely see him. But I don’t need to.

I feel him.

“I love you so damn much.”

The words land somewhere in the core of my being, somewhere permanent.

A soft, breathless laugh breaks through his emotion, sudden and human and so him, it almost undoes me more than anything else.

“I might’ve stolen some of that from a Dierks Bentley song.”

Even now.

Even here.

His cheeks flush, actually flush. Color rising under the soft glow of the lights, visible even in the dimness. And that’s it. That’s the moment I almost completely fall apart.

Because he’s still Collins.

Still mine.

He looks up at me, eyes shining, hand steady despite everything.

“Marry me?”

Everything yields. Every memory, every second that led me here, collides all at once. My gaze drifts past him, pulled for just a moment to the trailer behind him. Nan’s trailer.

A place that holds history. Love. Loss. Roots.

Home.

I draw in a deep, shaking breath, my chest expanding like it’s finally allowed to.

And then I smile.

Wider than I ever have in my entire life. So wide it hurts.

“Yes.”

It bursts out of me—certain, immediate, everything.

“Yes!”

He’s on his feet before I can even process it, his arms wrapping around me, lifting me clean off the ground like I weigh nothing at all. A startled laugh mixes with my tears as he spins us, the world blurring into streaks of light and shadow before his mouth finds mine.

The kiss is everything.

Breathless. Fierce. Full of every unsaid word, every second we lost, every moment we’re about to have.

He pours all of it into me, and I meet him there, giving it right back.

For a second—just a second—it’s only us.

And then—

Applause.

It crashes into the moment, pulling me back just enough to remember the world exists beyond him.

I turn, still wrapped up in his arms, my heart racing in an entirely new way now.

Bea and Campbell.

Lou.

Billy.

Crandall.

Even Bolt, weaving excitedly between them, like he somehow understands the gravity of this moment.

A soft, disbelieving laugh breaks from me, my hand flying back to my mouth.

“Oh my god, Collins—how did you—”

He sets me gently back on my feet, but he doesn’t let go. One of his hands stays wrapped around mine as he carefully slides the ring onto my finger.

Gold.

A diamond that catches every strand of light above us, scattering it into a thousand tiny sparks.

I stare at it, breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my heart, completely undone.

It’s beautiful.

But it’s more than that.

It’s him.

It’s us.

And for the first time, everything feels exactly, perfectly, where it’s supposed to be.

He turns us gently toward the trailer, his hand warm and steady at the small of my back. With the other, he gestures to it, a bit shy, almost proud.

“I couldn’t let it go,” he says softly. “It’s where we began.

” His voice thickens, like the weight of it all is sitting right behind his ribs.

“We can keep it. Forever. It’s still empty…

you can make it anything you want. A library.

A quiet place to disappear to. Hell”—he lets out a breath that almost sounds like a laugh—“maybe even a playhouse for our kids someday.”

Our kids.

The words hit me hard. I didn’t know I was capable of this many emotions at once.

I stare at him, at this man who somehow keeps giving me more than I ever knew how to ask for, and my chest aches, so full it almost hurts.

“This is incredible, Collins,” I whisper, my voice trembling under the weight of everything I feel. “I don’t even know what to say.”

His gaze softens, something unwavering and certain settling into it as he steps closer, closing whatever space still exists between us.

“You have the rest of your life to talk to me, John,” he whispers. “You don’t need to say anything right now.” His fingers brush against my cheek. “The only word I needed from your lips tonight…was yes.”

We fall back into each other like fate was always meant to pull us this way, inevitable and consuming. His arms wrap around me, and mine around him, and there is no space left for doubt or fear or anything that came before this moment.

There’s only us.

The soft glow of string lights flickering above, casting everything in gold. The quiet rhythm of the lake lapping against the rocks. The distant echo of the final chorus of our song drifting through the night.

And in his arms, I realize—this isn’t just where we began. It’s where we choose each other.

Again. And again.

Forever.