46. Hunter
Decision Day
I should have told her a time.
That’s the first thing that crosses my mind when the numbers on my watch go from eleven fifty-nine to twelve o’clock. It’s noon, and I’ve been waiting for Rae to show up for hours.
Around the third hour of sitting in the booth at the back of the restaurant where she waited for me all those years ago, it occurred to me that she might not come. That after everything, she might have decided we weren’t worth it. That I wasn’t worth it. But instead of panicking, I breathed. Instead of worrying, I talked to our waitress and told her that I was waiting for someone and tipped her handsomely to have our order out as soon as she got here.
But now, I’m all out of calm breaths and the waitress is looking at me like I’ve constructed some elaborate story just to spend the whole day sitting in her section. I pull out my phone, preparing to text Dee, and ask her if she knows if Rae is coming, but then I hear the bell above the door chime and feel the air in the entire building shift with the weight of her presence.
I’ve got my back to the door, mainly because I didn’t want to sit there staring at it all day, but also because this is where I sat when we first met. The scent of pear and vanilla hits my nostrils as Rae runs her fingers across the top of my back on her way around the table. She drags her hand down my arm as she lowers herself into the booth, and I smile at the casual, familiar touch.
“Happy birthday, Sunshine.”
“Thank you.”
My eyes rush over her features, greedy to consume her. “You look beautiful today.”
She grins. “I know.”
I can’t help but laugh at her cockiness, letting humor and relief that she’s here thread their way through the sound that Rae soaks up happily until the waitress sits our plates down in front of us.
Her brows furrow as she looks down at the steaming, hot food. “You already ordered?”
“Yeah. I had to ensure you ate because someone once told me you can’t make big decisions on an empty stomach.”
“Well, I’ve already convened with my better angels and made a decision.” She bites her lip, and my heart drops. “It was a tough choice, but I think I made the right one.”
I force out a calming breath. “And what did you choose, Sunshine?”
It should be enough that she’s here, that we’ve done the work to get to this moment, but I need her to say the words aloud. Her left hand comes up slowly, and she places it on the table, sliding it toward me. At first, I think she’s just reaching for me, trying to hold my hand, but then I see it.
The gold band I’ve waited a lifetime to see wrapped around her delicate ring finger.
The diamonds fashioned in the shape of sunbursts glinting up at me.
The smile on her face that spells forever.
“You,” she says simply. “I chose you.”
The End