Epilogue

EPILOGUE

O ne Month Later

"A picnic by the water," Raine said. "What a romantic thing."

"I thought I could do the activity this time," Aster said. "You always come up with everything."

"I have fun doing that, but I'm glad you did this," she said. "Wish I'd thought of it. I do love it here."

"I do too," he said. "But I know it's not a lot of space. At some point, I'm going to want to buy something. You'd want to be on the water, right?"

She lifted an eyebrow. "If I had a choice, sure, but it's way out of my league."

"We know it's not out of mine," he said. "Though I wouldn't empty my accounts for something. I figured if I started to look now I could find the right place. Maybe a fixer-upper. I'm pretty handy."

She smiled and opened the picnic basket. "You are. Yummy. You got fried chicken and not just sandwiches. Did you make this?"

He grimaced. "I'll be honest and say no. I picked it up from Mona's yesterday before I got out of work and put it in the fridge. But I did make the pasta salad and fruit salad. Does that count?"

"That counts a ton," she said. "I wouldn't have cared if there was fast food in here. It's just the thought of us together on this beautiful day. Not a raindrop in sight even though they said there was a chance of it."

He looked up at the sky, the sun beating down on top of them, almost casting a halo over the woman he loved.

"There will be some raindrops today," he said, holding back a grin.

"Hopefully not until later," she said.

She put a drumstick on her plate. She'd carried the plates and silverware out while he'd had the basket in his hand.

"Or we could do it now," he said. Maybe he couldn't wait much longer.

Yeah, that was it.

He was ready for this and he was positive she was too.

They'd gotten through everything last month and cleared the air.

He had an outpatient surgery scheduled at the end of July with Theo to get the bone fragments out and hopefully could move on and put that part of his life behind him.

Now it was time for the next chapter, and he found he was too excited to even consider waiting another minute.

"Do what now?" she asked with her mouth full of the chicken she'd taken a bite of.

He reached into the pocket of the basket, thankful she hadn't noticed the ring box there.

"This," he said. He flipped the lid. "I'm asking you to marry me. I'm not waiting another second. I've come close to death and don't want to go another day without taking this step. Without knowing I'll have you by my side through the rest of my life."

"Oh wow," she said. Her eyes were filling and she chewed fast and gulped. "Yes! And that ring. Oh my God. It's a teardrop."

"A raindrop," he said. "I told you we'd have one."

He slid it on her hand, but she took it right off and turned it. "Aster. There are daisies on each side and a yellow diamond in the center of the flowers. Did Rose or Daisy make this? I know Aster is a daisy flower."

"Rose made it," he said. "Daisy has a daisy engagement ring. It's nice and all, but it's not you. You're your own person, and to me, that's a raindrop, but it's also a teardrop. What I felt when I thought I messed up so badly that you'd never forgive me and say you were done. Daisies need water to grow. Rain. I need you to help me grow."

She slid the ring back on her finger and launched herself at him. He wasn't expecting that reaction and it knocked him onto his back, her on top and laughing and kissing him multiple times.

"That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard from anyone. The best thing you could have said. I'll remember this day for the rest of my life. You just summed up everything I've ever wanted in my life in that statement."

"I did?" he asked.

"Yes. We are who we are, and with each other, we can grow to be even better."

He framed her face in his hands. "We can and we will." He laid his lips to hers thinking she was one hundred percent right when she said months ago that sometimes life turned out better than what you planned!

The End!