When I Was Yours(69)

“Aw, look at that.” I pat my hand on Adam’s hard stomach, getting his attention. “A couple is getting married on our one-year anniversary.”

I stare at the couple. They look so happy.

I have a thought in my mind, a picture, that the couple could be Adam and me one day.

It makes my insides feel all warm and gooey.

I smile up at Adam, only to see his eyes fixed on the soon-to-be newlyweds.

He’s not smiling. He just has this really serious look in his eyes.

Then, he stops walking.

“Hey, you okay?” I ask him.

He turns to face me. “Marry me.”

“What?” I stare back at him, unblinking.

I couldn’t have heard that correctly. I mean, I know I was just having a mini daydream about future Adam and Evie becoming Mr. and Mrs. Adam Gunner, but he couldn’t have said that for real.

He moves closer, taking my face in his hands. “I love you, Evie. I look into the future, and the only thing I see clearly is you. Marry me.”

Yep, he definitely did say that.

Holy. Shit.

I part my suddenly dry lips, but nothing comes out of my mouth but air.

What am I supposed to say to that?

I mean, I know it’s either usually a yes or no answer, but—

Holy crap!

We’re so young…but he’s…he’s Adam. And I love him so much. I don’t see myself ever being with anyone but him.

But we’re so young.

“You think we’re too young.” It isn’t a question, and apparently, he can also read minds as well as throw out-of-the-blue marriage proposals out there.

“Aren’t we?” I manage to say.

“I don’t think we are. I love you, Evie, and that’s not changing…well, ever. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Everything else is just semantics.”

“I just…I don’t know. I guess I’m just feeling a little blindsided by this. I definitely did not see that one coming. You sure know how to surprise a girl.”

“So, is that a yes?” He gives me a smile, but I can see that it’s laced with worry.

He’s worried that I’ll say no.

Do I want to say no?

I close my eyes and try to think about this good and hard—well, as hard as I can in the short time frame I have.

I love Adam more than anything. And I do see myself with him, building a life with him, forever. He’s all I see.

But he’s leaving to go to Harvard.

I open my eyes. “Harvard,” I say. “If we did this, I couldn’t go with you. I can’t leave Casey and Dad, especially not while Casey’s still so sick.”

He grasps my face again. “I’m not going to Harvard. I’m staying here with you.”

“Adam, you can’t. It’s a great opportunity—”

“That I don’t want. I never wanted to go to Harvard. Ava and Eric told me I had to go. Then, I’ll have to go work for Eric. I don’t want that. You know I don’t. All this time, I thought that I was trapped, that I had to do what they said, join the family business, but I don’t. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to. So, I’m not going to. I’m finally doing what I want, and what I want is to marry you.”

He looks so alive in this moment, more alive than I have ever seen him.

And I love it. I love him.

“Can we really do this? Get married?”

“We can do anything we want, babe. You’ve made me realize that. Being with you has made me realize a lot of things…that I can do anything I want. I don’t know exactly what I want to do yet”—he chuckles—“but what I am certain of is that whatever I do, I want you by my side.”

“Where would we live?” I’m trying to look at this from all angles before I give him an answer. I’m being practical, one of us has to be.

“The beach house. It’s paid up until the end of August. We can stay there until we find another place.”

“My dad and Casey need me with them though.”

“Then, we’ll all live together. We don’t have to plan everything. We can work the rest out later. All I need right now from you is a yes.”

For a long moment, I stare up into his eyes, those turquoise eyes that I adore so much. From the instant I saw those eyes, I knew that I could spend a lifetime staring into them.

“This is crazy. You know that, right?”

“Maybe it is. But I don’t fucking care. Just…just say yes, Evie.”

My heart is thudding against my ribcage. My thoughts are running a mile a minute. But each time, they circle back to one word.

“Yes.”

The look on his face…I’ll remember it forever.

“Yes?”

“Yes”—I smile so big that it feels like my face might split in two—“I will marry you, Adam Gunner.”