Chapter Thirty-Three Archer
Chapter Thirty-Three
Archer
“Is it too soon to propose?”
Remi handled my question remarkably well. With a thoughtful expression on her face, she set down her mint–chocolate chip ice cream and swiveled to face me. The place was almost empty, considering most of our dates happened later in the evening, when her work was done and Gavin was almost in bed.
“Well, it’s our second official date,” she said, her eyes glinting with humor.
“That’s not a no.”
She motioned for some of my ice cream by opening her mouth. I raised the spoon, loaded with chocolate chip–cookie dough topped with brownie pieces, and watched raptly as she closed her lips around it. Remi hummed, licking at the corner of her mouth.
“Tease,” I whispered, tugging her closer for a sugary kiss.
“Maybe a little too soon.”
It didn’t feel like rejection because we were so fucking happy.
Beyond the once-a-week dates, we’d seen each other every day for the last two weeks.
Sometimes Analise came to their house with me—she and Pops had discovered a mutual love for Clue—and sometimes Remi and Gavin came over to mine.
She hadn’t spent the night again, but we’d gotten very good at quiet sex in her bedroom after the other occupants of her house were asleep.
Or loud sex in my truck before I brought her back home and knew Analise wouldn’t hear.
After another bite of ice cream, an idea occurred to me. “Eight dates,” I told her.
Her brows furrowed. “What about them?”
“That sounds like a perfect amount of time, doesn’t it?”
“To propose,” she clarified. I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t sure if she should believe me.
“Marriage.” I motioned with my hand, making a circular motion over my ring finger. “You and me. Big ring.”
Her eyes widened. “Not that big, please.”
I chuckled, pulling her close for another kiss.
The sweet old lady behind the counter smiled, then disappeared through a swinging door to give us some privacy.
We’d enjoyed a decent amount of that since the pictures outside the courtroom went public.
The buzz had faded quickly because there wasn’t enough of a story to make it juicy.
We met in an unconventional way and fell in love. The end.
Not for us, of course. For us, it was the beginning.
“Sorta big,” I whispered, then kissed her again. “I told you I’d be obnoxious.”
“Fine. Big ring, small wedding,” she said, brow arched in a challenge.
Even though my heart thundered in my chest at the ease with which we talked about it, I kept my face even. “I can handle that.”
As long as she was the one walking down the aisle in my direction, I could handle fucking anything.
It didn’t come up again. Not on date three, only a few days after date two—when I rented out a Michelin-star restaurant and watched her eat the most decadent meal either of us had ever experienced.
Not on date four, when we went to a drive-in movie and cuddled under the stars in the bed of my truck.
We didn’t talk about it in between our dates either.
Not when I picked up Gavin from the last day of school in a blue Porsche that looked exactly like his LEGO set and watched with satisfaction as his classmates high-fived him on his way to where I was waiting in the parking lot.
Not when we took Analise to the courthouse to finalize the paperwork for her legal emancipation, which went off without a hitch.
We didn’t talk about it when Analise and I snuck into the shelter and filled out paperwork to adopt Bandit while Remi was in a meeting.
She found us in the outdoor space, fitting him with his new red collar and a Buffalo Storm bandanna around his neck.
She cried, of course, and even if it still didn’t come up, we were both thinking it.
When dates six and seven rolled around—a picnic dinner at midfield, where we talked about football and what the season would look like when training camp started in just a few days, and then when I cooked dinner at my place, after which she spent the night again—I woke with her in my arms and wondered how the fuck I was supposed to wait to make her mine.
Every single day, every single action, big or small, was another building block in the kind of life we wanted together.
Remi was sound asleep when I snuck into the kitchen to start the coffee.
Bandit lifted his head from where he slept on the couch.
I’d bought the dog five beds of various shapes and sizes, and the only place he’d sleep was in the corner of the couch where I preferred to stretch out when I watched film.
“What do you think, bud? Stick to the program or wing it?” I asked, leaning down to scratch behind his ears. He leaned into my touch and groaned happily. “Yeah, I think I should wing it too. She’ll forgive me.”
While the coffee brewed, I opened the tallest cabinet and reached around until I felt the small velvet box. It had been up there for three weeks. I opened it, studying the way the ring caught the light.
Nothing had felt more right than this. Than her.
I fixed her coffee and started walking back to the bedroom, then froze, remembering a promise I’d made. One I’d never forgive myself for breaking.
I set the coffee down and skipped down the steps, carefully opening the door to the guest room we’d designated as Gavin’s. He was sprawled out in the middle of the queen-size bed, snoring lightly. I crouched next to the side of the bed and gently rubbed his back.
He snapped up, hair crazy and face creased from heavy sleep. He was sleeping in his Sinclair jersey. “Wha— What happened?”
“Sorry to wake you up early, buddy.”
Gavin’s eyes stayed closed, but he nodded. “It’s okay.”
“Can I ask you something?” I whispered.
“Sure,” he answered around a yawn. “Can we go out to breakfast to that cinnamon roll place?”
I smiled. “Yeah. I’m about to bring your mom some coffee. But I wanted to ask you something else. Something I promised to talk to you about first.”
Gavin scrubbed at his face, finally awake enough that the small box in my hand registered. His eyes widened. “Whoa. Is that for Mom?”
I nodded. “I’d like to give it to her, yeah. But only if you’re okay with that.”
Gavin reached for the ring box and held it carefully in both hands, prying open the top. He didn’t say anything as he stared at the ring, then closed it on a quiet snap. Then he handed it back and leveled a serious look in my direction. “You love her?”
There were no words for how much. Every day, I tried to think of a different way to say it, a different way to show it, but in the end, I knew it was in the simplest ways that she’d feel it the most.
“I do,” I answered. “And you know what else?”
He shook his head.
“I love you too,” I told him in an emotion-thick voice. “And one of the best parts of marrying your mom, if she says yes, is that I’ll get to be with you every day too.”
Gavin’s chin trembled, but a tear spilled down his cheek before he could brush it away. “I love you too,” he said in a shaky voice. “I really want you to marry her.”
My vision had blurred dangerously, and when he leaned forward, throwing his arms around my neck, I didn’t try to stop the tears that fell. “So I have your permission?”
He pulled back, eyes bright. “Do you need my help asking her?”
I grinned, ruffling his hair. “You got a good idea?”
Gavin paused, then glanced over my shoulder. “Well, maybe you could just do it now,” he whispered.
I froze. “She’s in the room, isn’t she?”
He nodded.
“Right.” My chest was too tight, my heart pounding too hard.
I hadn’t practiced what I was going to say.
Not really. But I tucked the box in my hand and looked behind me.
Remi had donned one of my college shirts and some cotton sleep pants that were way too big on her, a tiny smile curling her lips.
“Hi.”
“Firefly. Didn’t expect to see you down here.”
Her eyes were glowing. “Apparently.”
I stood from the side of the bed and approached, my eyes drinking in every inch of this woman I loved so much. When her gaze flicked down to the box in my hand and stayed there for a breathless moment, her chest rose and fell on a deep inhale and a long exhale.
I took her hand in mine, dragging my thumb over the soft skin on her knuckles.
“There are a million different ways I could try to say this,” I started, “but there’s only one thing I need you to know, and if you believe in that, then we don’t need a million ways. We just need ours.”
Remi’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears as I slowly lowered to one knee, keeping her hand in mine. Then I opened the box and pulled out the ring, staring down at it for a moment. When I looked back up, she wasn’t looking at the jewel. She was looking at me.
“I love you, Remi Sinclair. I will always love you. Always take care of you. Take care of our family. The one we have now and the one we build together. And if you’d do me the honor of marrying me, showing you that will be the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
She closed her eyes, tears coursing down her cheeks. My face was wet, and when she sank down to the floor with me, wrapping her arms around my neck and finding my mouth for a tear-salted kiss, I exhaled an incredulous laugh.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Gavin jumped up on the bed and whooped loudly.
Bandit ran down the stairs to investigate, hopping up onto Gavin’s bed before he let out an excited bark.
The dog had no idea what was happening, but damn if he didn’t look happy.
From across the basement, the sound of Analise’s door opening made me grin as I buried my face in Remi’s neck.
“It’s so early,” my sister groaned. “What is going on down here?”
I pulled back and slid the ring onto Remi’s finger. She let out a shocked exhale when she finally saw it—two carats of a cushion-cut yellow diamond. A bright, warm light for my bright, warm girl.
“Archer,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
Analise gasped. “Is that—”
Gavin thrust his fist into the air. “We’re getting married!”
Remi and I traded a look and burst into laughter.