Chapter 51
Kelsi
“Where are you taking me?” Kelsi asked, laughing slightly as Dylan’s hands guided her forward while a blindfold was fastened tightly over her eyes. She groaned as her shin hit a stair, and he swore under his breath.
“Sorry, Red. Crap, I’m bad at this. Okay, there are six steps in front of you. Take it slow, but if you fall I’ll catch you.”
She snorted and crooned, “My hero.”
As he led her, she allowed her mind to wander and catch on what had happened in the span of a few short months.
With McGuinness gone, their workloads had settled.
Sheridan accepted the deal Tom offered and pleaded guilty, accepting the minimum sentence for all his crimes.
He would still be in jail for a long time.
Turns out, his wife didn’t know about any of it—other than the gambling—and very quickly filed for divorce when she found out the extent of his issues.
Kelsi and Dylan dove headfirst into their relationship together without a stalker looming over their shoulders, and with the truth between them now, they’d been steady. It was the happiest six months Kelsi could ever remember.
Together, they made it up the stairs and he ushered her over a threshold. He undid the knot of the blindfold, and it fell away from her face, revealing his home. Pembrooke.
Her heart thundered loudly in her ears, and she was sure he could hear it. She was stunned. “You finished it. This . . . this is exactly how I would’ve decorated it. I think I have these paint colors and that exact couch on my Pinterest board.”
She studied him, hardly daring to breathe. He’d stayed at her house almost every night since the trial. Dylan had told her that his house wasn’t done, and he had special additions he wanted to make before showing her again.
“I looked at your boards,” he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly with pink cheeks. “I wanted this all to be perfect for you.”
Her heart stopped, then resumed beating double time.
“For me?” she whispered, shaking her head. “But I was still with Tom when you bought the house and started renovations.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed, before saying in a strangled voice, “You were with him, yeah. But I held out some foolish hope that one day you would be with me. I was willing to wait forever, if need be, to have you, finally, in my arms. And if you never wanted to be there, I could at least give you my heart and soul in this home. Knowing you would be in it, that would have been enough.”
His eyes shone, the light from the windows catching on the tears in his eyes, and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a gentle kiss.
“I can’t imagine a life without you beside me,” he continued, “let alone living in this beautiful home without you. This was both of our dreams.”
The most beautiful smile spread across his face, and her heart felt lighter than it had felt in ages.
“I love you, Kelsi Marie Cameron.”
His hands bracketed her face, and she felt the strain in her cheeks from how wide she was smiling.
“I love you, Dylan Jackson Holloway.”
He smiled right back at her, and it felt like the sun coming out from behind the clouds for the first time in days.
“All right, I have another surprise for you. I’m going to put the blindfold back on, okay?”
She assented, allowing him to gently tie the bandana around her eyes again. He grabbed her hand and led her through the house. She heard the telltale sign of the sliding door he installed off the kitchen open, and followed him into the night air.
Their steps were soft as they walked through the grass between his house and the dock. She thought she knew where they were going when he veered slightly off the path toward the dock, but she didn’t question him.
“Okay, a few short steps here now.” His voice shook faintly, and she took the steps slowly. He pulled her a few feet farther before he stopped, exhaled loudly, and slowly undid the blindfold.
She gasped when it fell away and she saw that they were in the old gazebo. The one she had loved as a child, dreaming up fantasies of couples making epic declarations of love beneath it.
Kelsi slowly turned, taking in all the final touches he had made.
It looked completely new. Gone were the old boards, all replaced by new, sturdier planks.
A faint glow surrounded them, and she looked up.
Above her were strings of fairy lights, exactly as she’d always talked about.
Emotion swelled in her chest, and she’d never loved this man more than she did in that moment, knowing he’d done so much for her, working to make her happy without any expectations and after she’d broken his heart.
“Look, Dylan, I need to say this now or I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to again.
” She took a deep breath, meeting his blue eyes.
“I can’t—I don’t—regret the years we spent apart.
I think if things had been different, if we’d started dating after graduation, I think we would’ve been happy.
But I also think we needed those years apart.
We’d never spent any time apart, truly without each other.
We needed to grow as individuals, not just two halves of one soul.
“If things had been different, you never would have enlisted. You wouldn’t have met Kole, or Boone, or Jace.
You wouldn’t have felt that kinship with your father.
And I . . . I would have always wondered if there was a world I could fit into outside of this town, and on my own.
So, even though it was painful, and I missed you every day, I wouldn’t change a thing.
And I don’t want you to want to change anything either. ”
He was quiet for a long moment. “Well,” he spoke, voice low, “I do wish I could change one thing.”
“Oh?” She looked at him, unsure of where he was heading.
“I would have told you that I loved you every moment of every hour since I got my head out of my own ass and realized you were the only woman I could ever want or need.” He kissed her quickly. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for that, if you let me.”
With that, he released her hands and slowly slid to one knee, wincing as his weight rested heavily on his injured leg, and pulled a small velvet box from his jacket pocket.
His voice was thick with emotion, hands trembling as he rasped, “Kelsi, you’ve kept me on my toes since before I even knew what toes were. ”
She choked a laugh through tears, smiling down at him brilliantly, feeling incandescently happy.
“I love you more today than I ever thought possible. Will you keep me on my toes for the rest of my life?” He flipped the lid of the box open, revealing a beautiful white gold engagement ring, an emerald cut diamond winking as it caught the moonlight.
Kelsi gasped as she looked from the ring to Dylan. “But isn’t this your mother’s?”
“She gave it to me. The night she told me you were coming back to town. She said she couldn’t imagine anyone more perfect to wear the ring my dad got for her and to carry their love forward.”
His nervous grin fixed her in place, as she lifted her own trembling hands to her lips. “That night? But how did she know?”
“She’s always known, Kelsi. There could never be anyone else at the end of the day for me.
” He smiled, but it turned into a grimace a second later.
“Now, will you please say you’ll marry me?
I don’t want to ruin the moment, but my leg is sort of cramping, and I’m pretty sure if I don’t get up in the next few seconds, I won’t be able to. ”
She laughed. “Yes, yes, of course yes!”
Kelsi grabbed his face for a kiss before looping her hands under his armpits and helping him rise back to both feet. Once standing, he grabbed her left hand—with his own hands trembling—and slowly slid the ring onto her finger, eyes riveted on where his ring sat.
Nothing in her life had ever felt more perfect than this moment with Dylan, getting that second chance they needed.
There may be a rule against double jeopardy in law, but thank God there wasn’t such a rule when it came to love.