Bash squeezed his fingers too tight and the ring popped out of his grip like a firecracker. They both gasped as it hit the sand and disappeared. Frantically, Bash scooped a handful of the dirt and sifted through it. “Too rough,” he growled out as he pulled the ring from the pile in his hand.
“Oh, dear goodness, Bash. You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Emerson’s heart was lodged somewhere between her collar bones and her throat.
But when Bash looked back up at her, he was grinning so big she laughed. He pulled her hand away from her chest where she’d clutched her shirt when he’d dropped the ring, and he slid it onto her finger.
Bash hugged her up so tight she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care. Yesterday had been the worst day, but today was going to be amazing. Bash was making sure of that.
Face buried against her neck, Bash murmured, “I thought you would say no. I sat here thinking our timing was bad. Bad timing, bad luck, but you said yes. To me.” He shook his head against her and hugged her closer. “To me,” he repeated softer. He loosened his hold on her, and thank goodness because she was beginning to feel dizzy at the lack of air.
“Let’s go tell everyone,” he said, his eyes round. His excited smile was breathtaking in the gray morning light.
“I love the bench you made for us to watch the sunsets on. And I love the ring you picked for me. It’s perfect—exactly what I would’ve picked.”
“I measured your finger with a string the first night we slept in ten-ten so the store could make the size right. Let’s go tell everyone,” he said again, more urgently.
Emerson laughed as he dragged her off the bench and pulled her along the beach behind him. “Too slow, human,” he finally said when she’d slowed to stare in awe at the ring on her finger. She was really engaged to Bash. She was engaged to the man she’d met years ago who’d paid her a sweet compliment at the library.
Bash turned and folded her into his arms, then strode toward the trail that led to the trailer park. When he started running, she held onto his neck for dear life because her stomach was doing flip flops with how fast he was going.
“Harrison! Kirk! Audrey!” Bash called as they came out of the woods behind his trailer. “Mason!”
“Don’t forget Clinton,” she reminded him.
“Oh, right. Asshole! I have to tell you something!”
Most of them were already gathered around Harrison’s trailer at the front of the park, and Mason stuck his head out of the trailer next to the alpha’s as they passed. Emerson flashed her ring at him, and he grinned.
Breathlessly, Bash set her down and told the others, “I did it. I asked her and she said yes and look.” He shoved his finger at her ring. “Emerson’s gonna be my wife.” Quieter, he repeated, “My wife.”
Audrey got to him first and hugged him up tight. Emerson couldn’t stop laughing and crying and shaking as they embraced her one by one. Clinton kept his distance, but he did pet the top of her head awkwardly like she was a cocker spaniel, and the affection counted. He almost cracked a smile, and she was convinced, deep down, Clinton liked her.
“Okay, if we’re gonna do this, we have to go now,” Harrison said. “It’s a long drive to Saratoga, and we still have to beg, bribe, and bully for a last minute marriage license.”
“I have to put on something nice,” Audrey said, her voice pitched high with excitement.
“Okay, go get ready, but we’re out of here in half an hour,” Harrison said. “If you ladies aren’t polished by then, you’ll have to put your war paint on in the truck.”
“Break!” Bash said, clapping loud. “Wait,” he called after Emerson as she bolted for 1010.
“Yeah, fiancé?”
“Oh, damn I like the sound of that,” he said through a startled grin.
“What were you going to ask me?”
“Oh! What should I wear?”
“You should wear your favorite outfit.”
“So…naked,” he said with a decisive nod.
“Nope,” she said. “You have to wear clothes.”
“That was a joke probably,” he murmured as he walked toward his trailer.
Audrey caught her hand and tugged her toward 1010. “I have to borrow a dress because I don’t have any that will work, and you always wear cute shit.”
“Okay, but I only have half my sundress stash here—”
“Good enough.”
As it turned out, Audrey had much smaller boobs than Emerson, but she happily stuffed her bra and looked like a goddess in her red eyelet sundress. And Emerson felt like a million bucks in her white, strappy beach dress with the gold embroidery along the hem. She wore her favorite pair of strappy, gold sandals with it. And after she stripped the thorns from an Emerson rose from Bash’s landscaping, Audrey pinned it into the cascade of curls fastened at the back of her head. She made a matching bouquet, smoked up her eyes, slathered on pink lip glitter and called her look done. Sure, it wasn’t the traditional wedding gown she’d dreamed of as a little girl, but the look in Bash’s eyes when he laid eyes on her right outside of 1010 made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.