Chapter 15
The following weekend, Venice was up well before dawn, his thoughts on the day ahead.
He was fully moved into the cottage, and they’d already moved forward with the home inspection and gathering banking details for the purchase.
They’d spent the last few evenings deep cleaning the home, getting ready to paint and replace the old flooring, and then they’d get new furniture after the home was theirs in another month.
He’d shared the night before that he’d never owned furniture or a house. He’d never had anything he couldn’t pack in a bag and take with him if he decided to leave. But now that he had Tessa, he was ready to put roots down, and that meant making the house theirs from top to bottom.
“You’re up early,” she said as she padded into the kitchen and hugged him from behind, her fingers spreading across his bare chest. He rested his hands on top of hers, smiling to himself.
“I’m too excited to sleep.”
“Because?” she prompted.
He turned in her arms and rested his hands on her hips. Her hair was tousled from sleep, and she was wearing one of his t-shirts; she looked so damn beautiful that it made his chest ache.
“Today feels important.”
“But we’re just spending the morning at the beach.”
“Yeah, the place where I first saw you, two weeks ago. The exact sandy stretch of beach where my whole life changed.”
“You are so incredibly sweet,” she said. She rose on her toes and brushed her lips over his.
“Just for you,” he said. “I never belonged anywhere, you know. I never really owned anything or had a place to call home. I lived in the house I was renting, but I wasn’t really living until I met you.
And now I get to wake up in a house that we’re buying together and making decisions about furniture and paint, and it’s the most amazing thing in the world. ”
“I was definitely just existing before I met you.”
The coffee maker burbled as it finished brewing the pot. “Ready to watch the sun come up?”
“Let me put some shorts on,” she said, hurrying from the kitchen.
He filled travel mugs and fixed the coffee the way they both liked, and by the time they were ready, Tessa had joined him, and they were carrying their beach chairs and mugs to the corner of the beach near the cottage.
They settled on their chairs to watch the sun rise. Within minutes, the darkness slowly lightened as the first rays of the dawn peeked over the water.
“I think this is my favorite time of day,” Tessa said. “Even when I could sleep in because I don’t have to work at the bookstore, I still like watching the sun rise.”
“It’s mine too. Watching the sun come up makes me feel like anything is possible.”
“I think you make me feel that way,” she said. “I like the sunrise because it’s so quiet right before it starts to rise, and the sky is so impossibly dark. And then there’s this bit of light…and it’s amazing to witness. A miracle every day.”
He thought she was a miracle. The sweetest one just for him.
They watched the sun rise, the sky turning brilliant shades of pink and yellow.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
They stood, and he took her hand, leading her to the edge of the water and walking toward the lighthouse on the other side of the beach and marina.
His skin was electrified, nerves skating through him.
“Tessa?”
“Yeah?” she asked.
He stopped walking, and she turned to face him. She looked like an angel, the morning sun highlighting her skin in a halo of gold.
“There’s something I’ve been thinking about as we’ve been moving forward with buying the house and building a life together.”
“What?” she asked, tipping her face up to smile at him.
For just a moment, he stared down at the female who had changed everything for him. He’d been drifting through this life without an anchor. He had friends, but he hadn’t really experienced the kind of love that had taken root inside him. Not until he found her that morning on this very beach.
“You are so unbelievably important to me. Everything good that’s happened to me has been since I met you.
I realized I’d been holding onto anger and shame at falling, when the truth is that the reason I needed to fall was so that I could find you.
If I’d never chosen it, I wouldn’t know you and how sweet it is to find my truemate.
My soulmate. I didn’t know I was missing half of myself, half of my heart, until you filled all the broken spaces inside me and helped me see that my past made me into the male I am, but it doesn’t have to define me. Tessa, I love you.”
“Oh, Venice, you are so special to me. I love you, too.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
He dropped to one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket. Her eyes went wide, and she gasped softly.
“I love you with every inch of my being. You’re my mate, but I want you to be my wife too. I want forever with you. Will you marry me?”
The tears that filled her eyes spilled over as she nodded. “Yes!”
He slid the ring onto her finger and stood, pulling her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him, and they kissed, a sweet promise of the bond between them.
His heart felt like it was going to burst. He kissed her once more and repeated the words that meant everything to him: “I love you, Tessa.”
“I love you too.”
They finished the walk to the end of the beach and then turned to head back to their chairs and coffees. “Oh, this ring is so pretty,” she said.
“The center stone is moonstone,” he said.
He’d found it at a jeweler who had a large selection of antique rings.
Gold filigree accented the oval moonstone, with small accent diamonds on the sides.
“Moonstone is the stone for new beginnings. I thought there was nothing better for our marriage than a ring that symbolizes a new journey.”
She beamed at him. “I love it even more, then. It’s stunning.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Were you worried?” she asked as she settled in the beach chair and he sat next to her.
“Heck yes, I didn’t want to mess up something so important.”
She giggled. “Well, you did good, angel mine.”
They finished their coffees, bathed in the warmth of the morning sunlight, and then they headed back to the cottage to start the day. Already it felt incredible because Tessa had said yes, and now they got to belong to each other forever.
As they walked back to the cottage, he felt like he’d finally come full circle after he chose to fall.
He’d thought he’d lost everything, but he’d really just been prepping to find the love of his life.
Someone he would fight for and protect, not because it was a sacred duty, but because he loved her with every ounce of his being.
She kept looking at her hand. “I think I’ll look at this all day, and I’m worried I might run into a wall or something.”
“I’ll stop you before you do,” he said. “I’m your guardian angel, after all.”
“My very own,” she said.
They reached the cottage, put the chairs away, and then they refilled their mugs. “We should tell our friends,” she said.
“Well, Zay and Lyra already know. And Brody and Delaney.”
“They do?” she asked.
“I asked Zay if he knew where to find antique rings. I wanted something unique for you. He told me about a jeweler, and Lyra gave me some tips on what to look for. And of course, once I bought the ring, Brody knew something was up with me, and he and Delaney don’t have secrets, so they both knew.”
“I bet Lyra is going to cry when she sees it, though. She’s a romantic at heart.”
“I’m sure she will.”
They carried their coffees to the couch and sat next to each other. She rested her head on his chest, snuggling close.
This was heaven to him: in the house he was buying with his mate, with her cuddled close and the day stretched ahead of them, full of possibilities.
“I love this town,” she said, tilting her face to his for a kiss.
He gave it quickly, loving how warm she was in his arms. “I do too. It brought us together.”
“Love has a way of finding us when we least expect it,” she said.
He’d spent so long thinking he didn’t deserve to find love, but in truth he’d just been waiting for love to come to Sable Cove.
And for the first time in his life, he wasn’t wandering aimlessly and wondering what might happen next.
He already had everything.
Thank you so much for reading Must Love Fallen Angels — the final book in the Sable Cove series!