41 CONNOR
“Are you sure the reservation is for here? It doesn’t look like a restaurant,” Sam grumbled, trying to navigate the narrow planks of the pier. “Let me check my phone—”
“Sam!” I took the phone from her hand. “Can you relax a little? I know what I’m doing.”
I pulled her close, positioning her in front of me with her back against my chest.
“I know your birthday is complicated for you,” I whispered in her ear, covering her eyes with my hand.
The sea breeze tossed her hair. “But I wanted today to be a new beginning. I wanted us to see this day as the day the most incredible, stubborn, and radiant woman arrived on this earth to illuminate it with her amber light.”
“Happy birthday!” I kissed her shoulder and my fingers slid away, letting her see.
“Hazel…” she whispered, reading the name of the boat in front of us—all decorated for her birthday, complete with a tiered cake.
“It was a coincidence,” I explained. “If you don’t like it…”
Sam turned to face me. Her eyes were brimming with tears that streaked unevenly down her cheeks in the wind.
“I love you,” she said suddenly. Until now, we’d never said those words, though we’d known in our bones that it was love.
“I love you, Sam.” I smiled and slipped my hand into my pocket. “Since we finally said it out loud… I think this is a good time to…”
I knelt down, resting on one knee, and held out the black box with an amber solitaire ring inside.
“Samantha Riad Vargas, will you be my partner forever?”
“Leading Audioslave and the Muffins?” she joked, still crying.
“The first and only,” I smiled.
“I do, Detective Silver Fox.”