Analise and James held hands, a few feet to the side and behind everyone else. My mother waved, a tentative smile on her face, and drawing in a deep breath, she stepped closer to the group. James patted her back, and she flicked a hand up to her eyes.
She was crying.
Why was my mom crying? Wait. I went back to Malinda. She was crying too. Taylor. Heather. Courtney. Grace. Even Matteo, who was holding Grace’s hand. They were all blinking back tears.
I focused on Mason again. He was in front of everyone, waiting for me.
“What’s going on?”
He knelt down and held up his hand. There. Right there between his finger and thumb was a ring.
I stopped breathing.
It sparkled, and it was beautiful, and it was huge, but I didn’t care about any of that.
“Are you sure?” I asked hoarsely.
He laughed, his own voice raspy, and nodded. “Will you marry me, Samantha? Will you become Samantha Jacquelyn Kade?”
My throat filled, and I nodded. I couldn’t stop nodding, and I couldn’t stop smiling, and then I felt the tears on my cheeks, and I couldn’t stop crying.
“Yes,” I managed, just as he stood and swept me off my feet.
I wrapped my arms tight around him, whispering it again, just for myself. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“I love you,” he whispered, carrying us a few feet away.
He set me back down, and I looked at him. “I love you too.” I touched his lips. “So goddamn much.”
“So goddamn much.” And his lips were on mine.
EPILOGUE
Six months later.
“Tomorrow you’ll become my wife,” Mason murmured, lifting our hands.
We were in bed. I lay in the shelter of his arms, my head propped in the corner of his arm and chest.
“I am.” I grinned up at him. “You’re going to become my husband.”
A soft smile crept over his face, lighting it up. “Husband.”
“Wife.” My grin matched his.
We were defying tradition.
We were supposed to separate, sleep in other beds, but there’d been no discussion. We both knew that wouldn’t happen. And it was now close to five in the morning. The first light of the day would be showing soon, but there was no tired bone in my body. I knew there wouldn’t be all day.
“Are you sure you want to marry me?”
I had settled back into his arms again, but lifted my head once more. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged, his smile gone. “I mean, are you sure? We were high school sweethearts. It’d be normal to think about being single at some point in your life. Right?” His eyes flashed and tense lines formed around his mouth.
“Mason.” I shifted on the bed, propping myself to lie on my stomach. I tucked some of the sheet over my breasts, but they were pressed against his chest. I watched him. “Are you having second thoughts?”
Logan said their bachelor night had been epic. Maybe too epic?
At my question, the tension lines softened, and he slid his hands into my hair, cupping the sides of my face. “No. I’m just worried you might regret this one day.”
“Not possible.” I said those words softly, but they tore at my heart. He really thought that?
“Are you sure you’re not going to regret this?” I asked, feeling my throat burning.
He laid his head back against the headboard and moved it from side to side. “Not possible.”
A thrill went through me as he used my words, a loving smile on his face, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Nope. The words regret and second thoughts would never enter my vocabulary when it came to my relationship with him.
I sat up, drawing more of the sheet around me. It slipped from his waist, so I lifted a corner and spread it out over him.
He snorted, grinning. “What are you doing?”
I shrugged, holding back my own grin. “I have something to say, and I don’t want to get distracted.”
“Distracted?”
I nodded. “Yes. Distracted.” I crossed my arms over my chest and fixed him with a sturdy look. “I want to know more about where this came from. You’ve never mentioned second thoughts to me before.”
He reached over and caught my hands, tugging my arms back down to my lap. He slid his fingers against mine, resting our hands on his chest. “Logan said something earlier about how he got to be free and slutty. He was glad he met Taylor when he did, because he got the wild side of him out and he could be content with her for the rest of his life.” He paused, swallowing. “Got me thinking. You went from Sallaway to me, and you’ve never been single since.” His eyes flicked to mine, a haunted agony lining them. “It’d break my heart if you ever regretted us.”