Epilogue
Liam
S ix months later
“You look like you’re going to hurl,” Keelan says unhelpfully from his spot on the mudroom bench. It’s Christmas Day, and both of our families, plus Keelan’s girlfriend, are here at mine and Lark’s house for presents and brunch that Mom and Momma Monroe have been slaving over since six a.m.
Glaring at my friend, I flip him off, to which he just snorts in response. Glancing to the tiny bundle of black and golden fluff he just brought into the house, I sigh. “Is this stupid? Fish isn’t even a year old, what if she doesn’t want another puppy so soon?”
Keelan laughs, snuggling the puppy closer to his chest. “I know she’s been begging you for another puppy. What’s the real issue? Getting cold feet already?”
His tone is joking, but his eyes are not . If I say I have even one tiny shred of doubt about asking Lark to marry me, I know Keelan will do what he can to call the whole thing off. I shake my head vehemently. “That’s not it at all! ”
Sighing, I pull the blue velvet box out of my pocket and slowly slide the ring and ribbon out. The ring is something I had to recruit Kelsey’s help on to make sure I got exactly what Lark would love. I ended up with a two-carat emerald-cut diamond with tapered baguette rubies on either side of the stone.
Moving to Keelan’s side, I carefully tie the ring to Blue’s collar. “What if she’s not ready?”
He studies the ring, his eyes going misty when he sees the inscription. “I promise, she’s ready. She loves you more than anything, Liam. Trust me. You’re all she ever talks about. Well, you and Fish.” Snuggling his face back into Blue’s fur, he continues, “And I’m sure she’ll talk about you, too, handsome.”
Snorting, I grab the dog from him before he decides Rosie needs a puppy, too. “Back off, Loveless, this one is mine.”
He pouts, looking eerily like his sister as he does. “But you somehow found a golden retriever with black feet ! I didn’t even know they made those!”
I just shake my head with a smile. It was pure luck that I was at the shelter when someone dropped off a basket of puppies. Someone found them abandoned at a popular dumping ground when they were on a work trip near Seattle and rather than leave them in one of the overcrowded shelters there, the guy brought them back to Echo Cove with him.
“You know the litter had three others like Blue, go get one of them. One of them even had a mask like a raccoon. You could call him Bandit.”
Keelan’s eyes widen, but I hold up a hand. “ Later . You can’t miss this.”
He nods, smiling at me. “Well, get out there then.”
Taking a deep breath, I grab Blue from Keelan and quietly make my way out to the living room. Lark is sitting on the end of the chaise, talking animatedly with her hands as she tells her dad a story. Setting Blue down on the ground, I hold him still and call out for Lark.
“Hey, Red! I’ve got one more present for you.”
Turning my way, she gasps, tears instantly springing to her gorgeous eyes. “Liam! Oh my god he’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” Fish nudges her leg from his spot on the couch, and she coos at him while holding Blue. “Besides you, Fish. You’ll always be my best guy.”
Ouch.
Ignoring the lump in my throat from seeing the sheer joy on her face, I grin and take a few steps forward. She smiles up at me as I do, eyes glistening. “What’s his name?”
“He has a name tag on his collar.”
My nerves ratchet to a whole new level as she twists the collar so she can see the name tag. I know the exact moment she spots the ring because she gasps and tears fall down her cheeks in steady streams.
Stepping into her space, I get down on one knee and untie the ring from Blue’s collar.
“Red,” I try to start, but I’m already choked up from seeing her so happy, so the word comes out as a croak. Clearing my throat, I try again. “Red. I have loved you for longer than I knew you. For years, Keelan spoke about you with so much love and awe, and I think at some point those feelings started to rub off on me, whether I knew it or not. I didn’t really understand at the time why he felt like that about someone who everyone told me was so prickly, but then I met you.”
I sniffle hard, and Lark grabs my hand with hers. It’s only then I notice I’m shaking. Taking a choppy breath, I keep going. “I met you, and the rest of the world fell away. You let me see beneath that prickly exterior to the fiercely loyal and loving woman underneath, and I was a goner. It only took me two weeks to fall in love with you, and I have loved you more with every day since. I didn’t believe in soulmates until I met you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with mine if you’ll have me.”
Taking the ring from her trembling hands, I smile, a tear falling down my cheek. “I love you with everything I am, Lark. Marry me?”
She nods, crying in earnest now as I slip the ring onto her finger. In less than a second she’s in my arms as Blue wriggles out to run hot laps behind me, Fish chasing close behind and happily barking. We laugh, and she pulls back to kiss me. “I love you forever, plant boy. I can’t wait to be your wife.”
It feels like every moment in my life has been leading me to this moment, this woman. Lark took every fractured piece of me and knit them back together, inextricably twining her soul with mine. Fate brought me to Echo Cove, and then it brought my girl back home and to me.
The En d