Epilogue
(Four and a half months later)
“Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”
Jake smiled as he raised Lexie’s hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles.
“You still don’t know how to be surprised, do you?” he asked, taking his eyes off the road long enough to catch the way she pursed her lips in an attempt to hold back a laugh. Jake shook his head fondly and turned to watch the road again as they headed north, Cypress Valley’s last residential neighborhoods fading away behind them.
“You said we were going to dinner.” She waved her hand toward the cornfields passing by outside. “This doesn’t look like dinner.”
Jake chuckled but kept his eyes on the road, watching closely for their turn. “Just trust me, Lex. Have I ever disappointed you?”
He glanced over just long enough to see her soften, her shoulders relaxing against the seat as she looked out her window.
“No,” she admitted quietly.
“Okay, then,” Jake teased, squeezing her hand where it now rested beneath his on the gearshift. He casually ran his thumb along the backs of her fingers, feeling his stomach flip when he got to her ring finger. This might be the last time he’d ever hold her hand when it was bare.
He sure hoped so.
The box in his pocket felt like it weighed twelve tons, even though it was smaller than a Post-it note. He didn’t need to pull it out to see the six small diamonds that formed a sparkling flower atop a gold band. He’d been looking at that ring all his life.
“Choose well,”Grandma Ruby had said, placing it gently into his palm. “May it bring you all the happiness I’ve ever had, and more.”
That had been in February. Three days later, she’d gone to be with Grandpa Jacob for all eternity, home again at last.
The mild April evening was fading into that golden hour when everything was bathed in rich, warm light. The sun glinted off each road sign as they passed, and Jacob felt his nerves grow as they approached their destination. He pulled his hand away and set it on the steering wheel before turning left onto a plain, two-lane road that was almost indistinguishable from any other country lane.
Almost.
Jake drove until he could see three giant grain bins peeking from above the tree line and then eased his truck onto the gravel shoulder in the precise spot he’d scouted out the day before. A line of cattle had congregated along the fencerow as if they’d been specifically invited, and Jake smiled.
“I need to get out and check something. I think we might have a flat,” he said, glancing over to see if Lexie was putting the pieces together—but she was still looking around in confusion.
“You what?” she asked, her brows raised, and Jake almost laughed out loud. She’d never been one to pick up on clues when they were right in front of her.
“I think we might have a flat tire,” he repeated, watching her face for any sign of understanding. But she was still lost. “I’ll only be a second. Stay here.”
He reached for his door, popped the handle and climbed down from the cab as she started to protest. A grin spread over his face when he shut the door, cutting her off midsentence. Now that his girl was finally finding her voice, she didn’t like to be ignored.
Jake rounded the back of the truck quickly, feeling his boots slide on the uneven gravel. He counted silently in his head.
Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .
“Jacob Tanner, don’t you walk away from me!” Lexie shouted as she opened her door. She climbed down as fast as she could, and Jake was glad she’d decided to wear the turquoise dress he loved so much. “And don’t tell me to stay in the truck!” she added, her voice laced with irritation.
“How are you going to help?” he asked, trying to keep his face under control. “Do you know how to change a flat?”
“Yes, actually, I do! You taught me, remember?” she demanded, her hands planted firmly on her hips with the kind of sass he saw a lot of these days. And he loved every second of it.
Jake let his grin go full throttle. “Yes, I did,” he said. “Right here, actually.”
“Right wh—” Lexie started, but her exasperation died on her lips as she finally stopped to take in their surroundings. She looked down the road first in one direction, then the other, and her eyes went wide as they skimmed over the granary and the fencerow where several cows lowed in greeting. “Right here?” she asked, blinking rapidly.
“Right here,” Jake echoed, stepping forward to take her hands in his. It was only then he realized how badly he was shaking. His face sobered completely as he took a deep breath, praying he’d get his next words exactly right.
“Lexie, the last time I stood on the side of this road, I came just to change a tire, but I left knowing I was completely and totally in love with you,” he said. “I want to spend the rest of my life coming to your rescue, even though I know you’re strong enough to save yourself. I want to be the one you run to and the one you cry on and even the one you fight with. I want to have all the ups and downs and in-betweens with you for as many years as God will give us.
“I promise to fight for you and choose you over and over again. I promise to come home to you every night and spend every waking minute trying to be the man you deserve. I want to be your forever, because I already know you’re mine,” he finished, finally reaching for his jacket pocket. Sinking to his knees—since he figured two were better than one—he opened the box and offered her his name, his heart and the rest of his life.
“Lexie Preston, will you marry me?”
Lexie felt Jake’s fingers tighten around hers as he waited for an answer. She had pictured this moment a hundred times over the years—sometimes with nerves she mistook for excitement, but usually with outright dread. The idea of spending the rest of her life with any of the men she’d dated before had always filled her with terror, and even now, she waited for the paralyzing fear to wash over her.
But this time, it didn’t.
This time, she felt a familiar pull in her chest as the golden flecks in Jake’s eyes turned into the constellations that always led her home.
She looked at the ring he held out and recognized it as the one she’d admired on his great-grandmother’s finger several times. The one that had been missing the night she’d stood beside him and helped him say goodbye to such a remarkable woman. The one that would make her a Tanner for good.
“It’s not my engagement ring,”Grandma Ruby had explained when she’d seen Lexie looking. “It was a gift from my Jacob on our fiftieth wedding anniversary. There’s half a century of love already built in.”
Half a century.
Lexie had never been able to picture more than a month at a time with Colt. But now, looking down at Jake where he waited on his knees, she could see every one of those fifty years stretching out before them—happy ones, sad ones and all the in-between ones—and all she felt was overwhelming peace.
“Yes,” she said at last, sure of her choice in a way that filled her with joy. “Yes, I will.”
Jake seemed to sag under the weight of his exhale, finally letting out the breath he’d apparently been holding.
“Yes?”
“Yes,” Lexie repeated, her voice thick as she helped pull him to his feet. He carefully took the ring from its box and slipped it on her finger before wrapping her in a hug that nearly lifted her out of her shoes.
“Even if I make you watch Ghostbusters every year for the rest of your life?” he asked, his question muffled against her hair.
Lexie laughed wetly as happy tears finally gathered and fell. “Yes, Jacob. Even then.”