Chapter 43
ZACH
This was supposed to be a fun qualifying run, a nice little easy event to earn a spot in the bigger race coming up, but it was going better than I’d expected.
The route cut through streets lined with spectators ringing cowbells and shouting encouragement while the runners around me steadily thinned out.
My legs burned, my lungs hurt, and sweat soaked through the back of my shirt, but none of that compared to the weight of Adeline’s ring sitting in the pocket of my running shorts. Eight years ago, I’d bought it thinking I’d propose before summer ended.
I’d hidden it for weeks, trying to plan the perfect moment, which turned out to be ironic considering our relationship had imploded before I’d ever even taken it out of the box. I should’ve thrown it into Lake Michigan years ago. I’d wanted to, but instead, I’d kept it.
Like a fucking psychopath.
If it had only been that, perhaps I wouldn’t have been questioning my own sanity right about now, but it wasn’t.
Running had become a form of both therapy and self-punishment for me, and as it turned out, I enjoyed suffering so much that I’d been carrying the ring around with me ever since Adeline had come back into my life.
I checked my watch as I rounded another corner. Still fast.
For a while there, I’d genuinely been on pace for a 3:30 marathon, which already would’ve been one of my better training runs, but somewhere after mile twenty, my body stopped cooperating.
Everything from the past few weeks started catching up to me, Wisconsin, Lu running away, Adeline crying, the almost marriage, and the actual sex.
Theo repeatedly telling me I was an idiot.
I slowed, my hands braced on my hips. Other runners streamed past me. Maybe I was spent. Done. Out of gas.
Seriously, what even is the point?
My legs felt heavy enough to detach from my body and the thought of another five miles suddenly seemed insane, but then I heard someone yelling.
“Zach!”
I frowned and looked toward the barriers. No one knew where I was right now. Except Theo, but that hadn’t been his voice. In fact, it had sounded a lot like—
Lu was flying down the sidewalk beside the barrier tape on her bike. I blinked hard, genuinely thinking exhaustion had finally caused me to hallucinate. She waved wildly, grinning like mad. “Go faster! Run, Zach.”
“What are you doing here?” I called, but she was already pedaling ahead, disappearing through the crowd.
Adrenaline slammed into me, rebooting my circulatory system as I sprinted after her. “Lu! Where’s your mom?”
Fuck. Did she run away again? How the hell did she know where to find me?
I finally caught a glimpse of her bike weaving ahead near the spectators and pushed myself harder. A second wind hit with supernatural force, my breathing evening out and my legs unlocking as I entered the final stretch of the race.
The crowds thickened near the finish line, spectators screaming while race announcers shouted names through crackling speakers overhead. My vision tunneled slightly as I crossed the final turn, and then, suddenly, I saw the finish line but still no Lu.
I stumbled across it half delirious while volunteers descended, offering me water bottles and some kind of substance in a paper cup, but I waved them all off.
“Sir, over here,” someone was saying. “Medical should—”
“Congratulations on third place!” another volunteer cut off the first.
I frowned, still convinced I was hallucinating. “Wait, what?”
The guy gave me an excited grin. “You placed third overall.”
Another volunteer shoved a timing printout into my hand. 2:49:37.
I looked at it again, but that couldn’t possibly be right. A sub 2:50 marathon was insane.
“What the hell,” I muttered, but followed an attendant toward the recovery tents and electrolyte stations.
My legs wobbled slightly, feeling like they were about to stage a protest when I suddenly saw a line of familiar faces. Lu was standing on top of a barricade, waving both arms like she was directing airport traffic. Jennifer bounced excitedly beside her while Amber clapped.
Adeline was with them, smiling at me like she couldn’t believe what she’d just watched. I looked around a little more, disoriented and unsure if they were real. Another attendant came up behind me. “Right this way, sir.”
I waved him off and stumbled toward them instead. On the off chance that it was actually them, there was a lot I needed to say and right now seemed to be as good a time as any.
“I can’t believe it,” Adeline said as soon as I reached the barrier, her blue eyes wide and smiling. “Zach, that was insane.”
Amber shook her head, looking mildly disappointed. “You beat some of the professional runners.”
I was too exhausted to even begin to process that information. Bracing my hands on my knees, I breathed hard, taking a few seconds before I managed to say anything at all. “That was never my intention.”
As soon as I straightened, I found myself folding straight into Adeline and the girls. Jennifer launched herself at me, shrieking, “You won!”
Lu attached herself to my side a second later before immediately recoiling. “Ew. You’re so sweaty.”
“That tends to happen during marathons,” I managed between harsh breaths.
She wriggled away with a look of disgust while Jennifer laughed so hard, she nearly fell over, and Amber’s nose wrinkled. “You smell like a crime scene.”
“Thank you,” I wheezed, but then Adeline stepped closer and the pain moving through my legs suddenly didn’t feel particularly important anymore.
Shit, she’s beautiful. Her hair was windblown and her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes shone with joy. Without even really thinking about it, I leaned forward until my forehead was resting against hers. Sweat probably got on her but she didn’t seem to care.
“What are you doing here?” I asked once I managed to speak again.
She let out a slightly shaky laugh. “I couldn’t wait.”
Around us, people were still cheering, runners stumbling over the finish line, but I was barely aware of any of that. “You couldn’t wait for what?”
She swallowed so hard that I saw her throat move, but her gaze was still firmly locked on mine. “I love you, Zach.”
Yeah. It’s official. I’m hallucinating. I’m probably holding a banner or something right now, since it can’t really be her. But this is nice. I think I’ll stay in this sweet dream forever.
“I’ve always loved you,” she rushed out.
“I just thought you didn’t actually want this with me and I was afraid.
I thought any arranged marriage would just be what I had with Louis all over again, but you’re not him.
You never were and it was so unfair to make you think I didn’t know that. I do know it. So damn well.”
She looked wrecked saying it, vulnerable, with tears gathering in her eyes and her voice shaking. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Zach. I love you and I should’ve told you. I never should’ve said those things to you. I was scared and—”
“Hey.” I took her face between my hands, still not completely convinced it was her and not a banner I was now caressing, but hell, I’d take it. Whatever it was. “Hey, Adeline. Look at me.”
She blinked a few times but finally stopped muttering apologies and fell silent.
I stroked my thumbs across her cheekbones and lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her deeply and desperately.
It was way too passionate for broad daylight, in public, and especially with her daughters watching, but the taste of her and the sweet scent enveloping me finally had me convinced that I wasn’t hallucinating.
This was real.
She was here.
She loved me.
“Gross!” Lu yelled.
Amber shushed her. “Let them have their moment.”
The crowd around us started clapping and I should’ve probably been a little embarrassed, but I was too far gone to care. Adeline laughed against my mouth, teary and breathless, and I realized then with startling clarity that this was it.
This was the rest of my life.
Her, the girls, and Bear. Early morning runs with Lu and helping Jennifer with her homework.
Watching movies with them when they were sick and carting around more stuff for a weekend than I needed for a whole month.
Quiet nights in with Adeline and waking up with her curled into my side.
Seeing her smile at me every fucking day and getting to spend every night with her for the rest of my natural life.
Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. Maybe I’d manifested this moment by carrying the ring around like a lunatic for so long. I didn’t know. But I did want that ring on her finger, where it had always belonged.
Although this would probably make me look even more like a lunatic, I broke away from her and painfully lowered myself onto one knee. Every muscle in my body threatened mutiny but I barely felt any pain when I looked at Adeline.
Amber’s eyes flew wide open. “Oh my God, he’s going to tear something.”
“Probably,” I agreed grimly, digging into the zipper pocket of my shorts.
Adeline stared at me. A furrow formed between her brows. “No way. What are you doing?”
“I’ve been carrying this around for weeks,” I admitted as my fingers closed around the ring box, eight years of regret now sitting in the palm of my hand. “Since that probably makes me a crazy person, I’d understand if you say no, but it’s about time I give it to you.”
The crowd noticed what was happening and collectively lost their minds. People started filming and a woman somewhere nearby screamed, “Say yes!”
Jennifer started bouncing again. “Is that a ring in there? Please tell me it’s a ring.”
Lu looked suspicious but intrigued as I opened the box.
But I focused on the woman I loved, blocking out the rest of the world. Adeline covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes huge as she stared down at me.
“I love you. To be honest, I’ve loved you all along.
I never stopped,” I said, realizing there was no point being afraid anymore.
Plus, I was too tired to dance around my feelings.
“I want to marry you, Adeline, and not because anyone told me to, but because you’re it for me.
I want you and the girls in my life, as my family, but I’d never force you into anything. ”
I dragged in a few deep breaths, wishing my lungs would just start working again already, but that speech had stolen every ounce of oxygen left in me, and I was nowhere near done saying everything I wanted to say.
“I should’ve put my foot down and stopped this from happening to you the first time around.
I should’ve fought harder. I know that. I know I didn’t try hard enough, and if you can’t forgive me for that, I’ll leave you alone, but I will never move on.
There has never been anyone else for me, Adeline.
There never will be. Will you marry me?”
Adeline nodded before I’d even fully finished speaking. A tear slid down her cheek as she laughed. Her answer came out as a whisper first, but it quickly became a squeal. “Yes. Yes! Of course I’ll marry you, Zach. God. Yes.”
The crowd erupted into cheers and Jennifer screamed. Amber burst out laughing and Lu seemed confused, looking skeptically between me and Adeline. “Does this mean we’re moving to Wisconsin?”
“No,” Amber said quietly. “It does mean you’re moving into a bigger house, though. I’m sure. It probably means a bridesmaid dress too.”
I still couldn’t look away from Adeline for long enough to reassure Lu, but I had time to do that now.
After. Later. I had the rest of my life to prove that I would always be there for her.
Happiness and relief raced through me as I slipped the ring onto Adeline’s finger with trembling hands, finally able to see it, my ring on her finger.
My chest squeezed, my heart galloping. I moved to stand up, wanting to do nothing more than to kiss her again, but I was still on one knee. After a marathon. And my legs had apparently stopped functioning.
“Uh, do you think you can you help me up?” I asked. “I might actually be stuck like this.”