Olivia’s Ride(28)

So it was Keeton. I knew it.

I hadn’t seen him since right after lunch. He had given me some lame excuse about going with Uncle Noah to the ranch when I knew for a fact Uncle Noah was on shift at the station. But instead of calling bullshit I let it ride. I had felt for the last week that everyone around me had been up to no good. They were all so secretive and jumpy when I was around.

The passenger door came open and I knew it wasn’t Trinity because she had not yet crawled out from behind the wheel.

A strong hand gripped my thigh, that familiar scent I loved so much engulfed me, and I knew it was Keeton at my side. He reached across my lap and unbuckled my seatbelt just before brushing his lips over mine. “Hey baby,” he whispered and the feeling of his breath tickled my jaw and gave me goosebumps. “Come with me.”

“Where?” I asked, yet my question had again gone unanswered.

I allowed him to help me from the truck and lead me with one hand on my lower back as he held my hand firmly in his other.

“Do you have any idea just how much I love you?” he asked and I smiled. “I’m not sure there’s even a word to describe the feeling I get every time you flash me that gorgeous smile of yours. I just know that nine out of ten times you leave me breathless.” I could feel the effects of his words as my chest tightened and I fought back the tears.

He continued to lead me along, with the blindfold still blocking everything from my view.

“You are so deep in my soul I sometimes feel you are a part of me, like I can’t breathe without you near. And I love that feeling,” he confessed. “I love knowing that the love I have for you runs so deep that without it, I’d be lost.”

He slowed to a stop and positioned me in front of him as he reached up and began to untie the blindfold.

As the material fell from my eyes I had to blink a few times before it all came in to view.

There we stood on the dock where Amber and my father had their first kiss, their first date, and the very place my mother loved to spend hours just hanging her feet in the water below. But it no longer was just a lake in the darkness—it was now covered with tiny little flickers of light. An array of candles glistened in the center of small lanterns that floated in the water.

The deck also had the same small lanterns leading out toward the water.

“What is this?” I asked as I turned to look back at him.

He offered that sweet smile that still affected me as much as it had that first time he flashed it.

“This is the place where I ask the woman I adore to spend the rest her life with me,” Keeton whispered, and I swear in that moment my knees grew weak.

He stepped around and before I could say anything in return he knelt before me and took my hand in his. “Nothing would make me happier than having you as my wife.” He licked his lips and pulled something from his back pocket.

I watched in awe as he lifted the ring up and held it near the hand he still held.

“No one has ever loved me the way you do. No one has ever given me the hope and joy that you’ve given me, and I wanna spent the rest of my life having all those things. I want you by my side every day and in my arms every night.” His eyes locked on mine and he smiled sweetly. “Say you’ll marry me, Liv, because nothing would make me happier.”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation.

My lower lip trembled as I watched him slide the beautiful ring on my finger, before standing up to pull me into his arms.

“I love you so much,” he whispered into the crook of my neck as he hugged me tighter.

I knew my heart would always be safe with Keeton.

He had never truly felt the effects of a love this strong until he fully allowed me to love him. But now he was loved so fiercely, it was truly a beautiful thing.

And he was mine.

Nothing felt better. Nothing made me feel more alive than his love.

And I knew then that my momma had again sent me a gift.

She brought me the love of a man who would forever keep me safe.