Chapter Sixteen
HE WAS HAPPY, Anah sighed dreamily to herself as she changed into a nightshirt. Ethan was happy. It might not be a love declaration, but for Anah, those words were something better.
Ethan was happy.
It had been all she ever wanted for him. Every birthday she celebrated since knowing him, that had been her only wish. For him to be happy. With or without her, it didn't matter. She just wanted to be happy...
And now he was.
With her.
But instead of feeling deliriously joyful, a chill suddenly swept into the bedroom through the open window, and Anah released a nervous laugh. What was it with tonight and these stupid icy gusts of winds? It was almost as if she was suddenly living out one of her favorite Gothic romances, and the heavens were sending her a warning.
Anah couldn't help shaking her head at her own fancifulness. Wyoming might not suffer from hurricanes as a rule, but what it did experience, and on any given day at that, was hurricane-force winds, just like the ones that had been blowing into town throughout the night.
Ethan was happy, she reminded herself. It was all that mattered, and in any case, the heavens had no reason to be against this. Right?
Another wind blew into the room, icier than ever, and Anah shivered.
Ethan had just finished making coffee in the kitchen when Anah suddenly came bursting out of the bedroom and practically slammed into his back.
A surprised chuckle escaped him as her arms wrapped around him from behind, and he quickly placed the mugs back on the counter, not wanting to accidentally spill hot liquid on her skin.
"Anah?"
Her arms tightened around his waist. "Are you really happy?"
"Yes."
"Promise?"
He gently disentangled her arms so he could turn around to face her. Tipping her chin up, he gazed down at her searchingly. "What's wrong?"
Anah slowly shook her head. "Nothing, really." Because if she looked at her situation logically, there truly was nothing wrong. And yet...
She swallowed hard.
"You really mean it?" Anah just had to ask one last time. "You're truly happy? You're not pretending in any way? Not hiding anything just so you won't hurt me?"
"Anah—-"
"It's not that I don't trust you," she said quickly, "but...I know you, Ethan. You're terribly kind and honorable—-"
Ethan couldn't help arching a brow. "Terribly?"
"Because you would rather hurt yourself than hurt others," she said simply.
Ah.
"So..." It was Anah's turn to gaze up at him searchingly. "You mean it? You're truly happy?"
Ethan took her hand and placed it against his chest.
Anah's eyes widened when she felt the heavy pounding of his heart.
"You brought me back to life."
Her lip started to tremble at the roughness of his voice.
"That's how happy you made me."
Anah bit her lip harder, but it was no use. The tears still fell, and when he slowly pulled her close, it was the tenderness in his touch that truly broke her.
She was sobbing in his arms again.
"Ethan..."
She tried to say the rest of the words, but every time she did, more tears would clog her throat, and she had to start again.
"Ethan..."
I love you.
And even though the words never left her lips, Ethan seemed to have heard her all the same, with a shudder suddenly running through his powerful body just before his arms closed around hers in a tight embrace.
"Anah..."
She heard him suck his breath.
"Anah..."
She heard him curse under his breath.
Anah couldn't help pulling back even as a teary laugh spilled past her lips. "You, too?"
Ethan's grimace was all the answer she needed, and she choked out another laugh. Hopeless , she thought helplessly . This moment was years in the making, and yet neither of them could even say the words out loud.
Maybe they needed something to kickstart things?
Ethan reluctantly let go when Anah suddenly started wriggling out of his hold, but when he saw her head straight for the fridge—-
Déjà vu, Ethan thought with a smile, recalling the last time they had a similar confrontation, and he had started heaping food on her plate.
When Anah turned back to face Ethan, cake box in hand, she saw Ethan already setting plates on the kitchen island, and she burst into laughter. "I was only planning for us to have cake!"
"But what if our conversation outlasts the cake?" Ethan asked pragmatically.
"Maybe, but—-"
"We should heat the pasta, too."
Anah found herself grinning like a fool at the way Jackson Hole's once-infamous heartbreaker was turning into a domesticated god right before her very eyes. The pasta he had spoken of was already in the microwave, and Ethan was now busy turning his two mugs of coffee into iced coffee jelly.
Oh well .
She had only planned to plant last year's candle on top of the cake and declare this day as their official first day as a couple in love, but they didn't have to do that right away, really. Since Ethan was going all out with his preparations, they could just have the cake as the dessert.
But first...
"Do you have a lighter?" She had already seen last year's candle in one of the kitchen drawers, but she hadn't any luck finding any lighter or firestarter around the house.
"I left mine in the pick-up's glovebox," Ethan answered absently.
"Oh."
Ethan glanced at Anah over his shoulder. "You need me to get it?"
Anah couldn't quite answer right away. Three years ago, he had asked her to grab something from his pick-up's glove box, and a pack of condoms had fallen out the moment she opened it.
Ethan turned around at her continued silence, and when he saw the uneasy look on her face—-
A memory flashed in his mind, and his jaw hardened.
Fuck.
He strode to her in the next moment and cupped her face when she refused to meet his gaze. "Anah..."
"I know I'm being silly—-"
"It's not there," he said gently. "Not a single of trace of the past is there."
Anah bit her lip.
"And it's been like that for over a year."
Her eyes widened.
"But don't just take my word for it," Ethan said lightly. "I want you to see it for yourself. And afterwards..." He took a deep breath. "We'll talk." Because it was time for her to know the truth.
Ethan watched Anah walk away and the sight had him fighting against a sudden urge to call her back. Cold sweat had broken out from nowhere to bathe his skin, and breathing had become a struggle for some inexplicable reason.
His instincts started ringing wildly inside of him.
There was something he had forgotten.
Something.
Oh God.
In the past week, he had doggedly shoved off all memories of the day he had proposed to Guilia, and in his determination to forget everything and pretend that part of his life had never existed—-
God.
He truly had fucking forgotten.
Ethan charged down the stairs despite knowing that he was most likely too late—-
And he was.
Anah was standing next to the pick-up when Ethan made it to the garage.
Tears running down her face, she smiled shakily at him as she whispered, "Yes." There was a box in her hand, and a diamond ring inside it. "I'll marry you."