Chapter 19 The Riders Muse #2
Business plans made sense.
Engines made sense.
Love?
Love remained terrifying.
Especially when it mattered this much.
Mason noticed my expression immediately.
His grin softened slightly.
Only slightly.
"We all know he's gonna say yes."
I looked toward the office.
Toward the desk.
Toward the ring hidden inside.
Then sighed.
"That's not the part I'm worried about."
For once, Mason didn't joke.
Didn't tease.
Didn't push.
Instead, he nodded.
Understanding immediately appearing.
Because beneath all the sarcasm and chaos, Mason possessed an annoying amount of emotional intelligence.
A fact he'd never let anyone admit publicly.
The garage door opened.
Saving me from further conversation.
Thank God.
Rhett entered first.
Followed by Nico.
Both men immediately looked toward me.
Then toward Mason.
Then exchanged a glance.
I hated all of them.
Deeply.
Professionally.
With great affection.
The realization felt unavoidable.
And unfortunately true.
"You ready?"
Rhett's question sounded simple.
Straightforward.
Exactly like him.
The answer should have been easy.
Instead, I looked around Kane Customs.
Really looked.
The restored motorcycles.
The expanded workshop.
The new offices.
Everything we'd built over the past several months.
Everything that existed because we refused to quit.
The sight filled me with quiet pride.
Not because the building was impressive.
Because it represented something.
A future.
A life.
A home.
And at the center of all of it stood one stubborn literature student who'd changed everything.
The realization settled warmly inside my chest.
Then I nodded.
"Yeah."
This time, I meant it.
The plan itself remained simple.
Mostly because complicated plans had a habit of exploding.
Especially around Mason.
Elliot thought we were celebrating graduation.
Technically, we were.
The distinction felt unimportant.
What mattered was getting him to the garage.
Everything after that depended on courage.
A resource I was rapidly running out of.
By sunset, friends and family had started arriving.
Steel Hearts members filled the garage.
Food appeared.
Music played softly.
The atmosphere felt warm.
Comfortable.
Like family.
Exactly what I wanted.
Because if I was going to ask the most important question of my life, I wanted the people who mattered there.
The people who'd helped us survive.
The people who'd become home.
The final arrival happened twenty minutes later.
A familiar motorcycle engine echoed outside.
My heart immediately started pounding.
Wonderful.
Exactly what I needed.
A near-cardiac event.
The garage door opened.
And Elliot walked inside.
The sight stole every coherent thought from my brain.
As usual.
The kid looked happy.
Relaxed.
Beautiful.
The simple reality of it still surprised me sometimes.
Because after everything we'd survived, he still smiled when he looked at me.
The realization felt like a miracle.
"Elliot!"
Mason immediately appeared.
Naturally.
The human hurricane never missed an opportunity for chaos.
The next several minutes passed in a blur.
Conversation.
Laughter.
Celebration.
Normal things.
Wonderful things.
Then Mason suddenly clapped his hands.
Loudly.
Suspiciously.
The room quieted.
Immediately.
I made a mental note to fire him.
Again.
"You all know why we're here."
Mason announced dramatically.
The liar.
Nobody knew why we were here.
Except half the room.
And unfortunately that half included Mason.
Several people laughed.
Elliot looked confused.
A good sign.
Hopefully.
Then Mason pointed directly at me.
"Your turn."
Traitor.
Absolute traitor.
The garage erupted into laughter.
Including Elliot.
Which somehow made everything better.
And worse.
At the same time.
I took a breath.
Then another.
Neither helped.
The room remained quiet.
Waiting.
Watching.
Expecting.
Finally, I walked toward him.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
The noise faded.
The people disappeared.
The world narrowed until only one person remained.
Elliot.
Always Elliot.
His smile slowly faded.
Not from fear.
From realization.
The moment understanding appeared in his eyes, my heart nearly stopped.
Because suddenly he knew.
Or suspected.
And somehow that made everything feel more real.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I reached into my pocket.
The garage became perfectly silent.
The ring box felt absurdly small.
A tiny thing.
Capable of changing everything.
I looked directly at him.
The same way I'd looked at him on that highway months ago.
The same way I'd looked at him every day since.
Like finding him had changed my life.
Because it had.
Completely.
"I spent years thinking I ruined everything I touched."
My voice sounded rough.
Honest.
Real.
The way important things always sounded.
Elliot's eyes immediately filled with emotion.
Still beautiful.
Always beautiful.
"Then you showed up."
A faint laugh escaped him.
The sound steadied me.
Helped.
A little.
I continued.
"You walked into my garage."
"You took over my apartment."
Several people laughed quietly.
Including Elliot.
Good.
He deserved happiness in this memory.
"Then somehow you took over my life."
The truth settled warmly between us.
Simple.
Perfect.
The ring box opened.
A collective gasp echoed somewhere behind us.
I barely heard it.
Because all my attention remained fixed on him.
On the man I loved.
The man who'd taught me that second chances existed.
The man who'd refused to leave.
The man who'd become home.
"Elliot Reed."
His eyes widened immediately.
Tears already gathering.
God.
The sight nearly destroyed me.
"I love you."
The confession felt easy now.
Natural.
Certain.
The easiest truth I'd ever spoken.
"I'll love you when you're writing."
A soft laugh.
"I'll love you when you're panicking."
More laughter.
"I'll love you when you're successful."
The words grew quieter.
Deeper.
"I'll love you when life gets hard."
The garage disappeared completely.
Only him remained.
Only us.
The future stretching ahead.
Bright.
Beautiful.
Possible.
I dropped onto one knee.
And every remaining thought vanished.
Because suddenly the moment was here.
Real.
Finally.
"Will you marry me?"
The silence lasted approximately half a second.
Then Elliot burst into tears.
Completely.
Immediately.
Spectacularly.
The reaction made the entire garage laugh.
Including me.
Eventually, through tears and laughter and emotion, he managed a single word.
"Yes."
The answer hit like sunlight.
Warm.
Overwhelming.
Perfect.
Cheers exploded throughout the garage.
Applause.
Whistles.
Shouting.
Pure chaos.
Mason nearly tackled Rhett.
Nico pretended not to be emotional.
Failed completely.
None of it mattered.
Because Elliot was kissing me.
And for the first time in a very long time, everything felt exactly right.
Much later, after the celebration settled and people stopped demanding photographs every five minutes, Elliot disappeared briefly.
When he returned, he carried something.
A book.
My confusion must have shown.
Because he smiled immediately.
Nervous.
Excited.
Hopeful.
The same expression he'd worn in the hospital.
"I have something for you."
The book landed gently in my hands.
A proof copy.
Professional.
Finished.
Real.
Across the cover sat familiar words.
The Rider's Muse
My stomach immediately tightened.
Because suddenly I remembered.
The hospital.
The confession.
The novel.
The realization arrived all at once.
"This is it?"
Elliot nodded.
A little shy.
A little proud.
Completely adorable.
The room around us seemed to fade again.
Friends still talked nearby.
Music still played.
Life continued.
Yet my attention remained fixed on the book.
Carefully, I opened the cover.
The first pages passed quickly.
Title page.
Copyright.
Acknowledgments.
Then I reached the dedication.
The words waited there.
Simple.
Permanent.
True.
For the rider who stopped in a storm when everyone else kept driving.
For the man who taught me that being seen and being loved are not the same thing—and gave me both.
Thank you for becoming the hero of every chapter, on the page and in my life.
I stared.
Once.
Then again.
Then a third time.
The words blurred unexpectedly.
Emotion tightening my throat.
Because suddenly everything made sense.
The notebooks.
The writing.
The secrecy.
The late nights.
Every page.
Every chapter.
Every word.
Me.
Somehow, impossibly, all of it had been me.
I looked up.
Found Elliot watching anxiously.
Waiting.
The sight nearly broke my heart.
In the best possible way.
"You wrote a whole book about me?"
The question came out rough.
Emotional.
Completely stunned.
His smile grew.
Soft.
Beautiful.
"No."
The answer surprised me.
Then he stepped closer.
Taking my hand.
Looking directly into my eyes.
"I wrote a love story."
The garage seemed to disappear once more.
Leaving only us.
Only truth.
Only the future.
Then Elliot smiled.
The smile that had changed everything.
And quietly added:
"You just happened to inspire every chapter."
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
Couldn't think.
Couldn't breathe.
Because standing there surrounded by friends, family, motorcycles, and second chances, I finally understood something.
I might have been the rider.
But Elliot Reed had always been the author of our happy ending.
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