Chapter 35

thirty-five

. . .

River

Rubyand I were insatiable after being apart for a week. We’d had sex down by the water, back at my house two more times, and now she’d convinced me to take a bath with her.

Apparently, relationships were all about compromise. I wouldn’t know because I’d never had one.

But there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for this woman, and that included soaking in a bowl of unusually hot water. It meant that her naked body was pressed against mine.

That made it a win.

“So, we’ve established some new ground rules,” I said, as her back was pressed to my chest, careful not to rest it against the bandage, and our fingers were intertwined on one hand. The bathroom was dark, aside from the two candles she’d lit. The candlelight flickered against the walls, and I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever felt this content.

“Yep. I think we can both live with those terms.” Her voice was all tease. “Do you have anything to add?”

“Is it too soon to ask you to move in with me?”

Her body stiffened, and then she pulled some sort of mermaid move and flipped over onto her stomach so she could look at me. Her eyes scanned the bandage that we’d covered with a waterproof strip on top and then looked up at me.

“It’s not too soon. I don’t think there’s a time limit on when it’s appropriate to love someone.” She put her finger to my lips when I started to speak like I’d won this one. “However, your little stunt last week left me uncertain about where we stood. I’ve agreed to move in with Saylor, and I actually think it’s good for you and me to find our footing together and have our own places while we do that.”

“So, basically, if I annoy you, you have a safe house?” I barked out a laugh.

“I didn’t think of it like that, but yes, it gives us time to get used to this. We’ve both never had a relationship that was this…” She paused to think about it.

“Awesome. Amazing,” I said.

“Intense.” She smirked. “These feelings are new for both of us. So how about we keep doing what we were doing? We can spend our nights together, but sometimes we can be here and other times at my new place.”

“All right. I can live with that. And when you’re ready, you can move in here.” I stroked the hair away from her gorgeous face.

“Deal.”

“How do you feel about marriage and kids?” I asked before I could stop the words from leaving my mouth.

Where the fuck did that come from?

“Wow. I can’t believe you didn’t ask me this on a sticky note.” Her lips turned up in the corners, and my fucking chest ached at just the sight of her. “I never thought either were for me, but I also never thought I’d tell a man outside of my father that I loved him. Never thought I’d want to move in with a man or spend every night with him. So, I’m open to negotiations when the time comes. How about you?”

“Same. Never thought about either, and I’m definitely not there yet, but I can see it. I think about it. That last day you woke up in my bed, I just watched you sleep, and all these thoughts were flooding my mind.”

“That would normally be super creepy, but I can’t lie and say I haven’t watched you sleep many times. You look so peaceful when you sleep, and it’s the one time you aren’t aggravating me.” She chuckled.

“I like aggravating you, Queenie. I want to spend the rest of my life aggravating you.”

“Well, you did go all in on the tattoo. I think you’re kind of stuck with me now.”

“I hope so,” I said, tugging her mouth down to mine and kissing her hard.

Kissing her like she was mine.

“You think you two will get married someday?” Cutler asked, as he held Ruby’s hand in his, and the three of us walked toward the barn together on Demi’s parents’ property.

This was where they came to ride every Saturday. It was one of the most beautiful places in Magnolia Falls, and where Romeo wanted to ask Demi to marry him.

“I’d ask her today if I thought she’d say yes,” I said, and she shook her head with a big smile on her face.

“I think it’ll happen, and I can’t imagine there being a day that if he asked, I wouldn’t say yes.” She raised a brow as if she’d had the better answer.

“Well, today is about Uncle Ro and Beans.” I saw the group standing near the barn.

We’d been surprised that Romeo wanted everyone here when he proposed because he was a fairly private guy. But he knew his girl would want all the people she loved to be there, and that was what he’d wanted for her.

That was what you did when you loved someone. I used to give him shit, but now I got it. I understood it.

Nash came jogging up beside us, scooping up his son in one swift move. He held up the ring Romeo had left in his glove box. “Got it. And we’re cutting it close. He just texted that they are on their way back from their ride. We need to get everyone in the back room at the barn.”

Ruby, Peyton, Saylor, and Demi’s mom and grandmother had been decorating that back room all morning with Romeo. Ruby said it looked like something out of a movie.

Turns out, me and my boys were romantic as shit.

Never would have guessed it, but I’d been the one putting up a wall of sticky notes a few weeks ago, so you never know what you’ll do when you find that one person who makes you feel whole.

Ruby Rose had taken all my broken pieces and put me back together without even trying. Just by breathing. Existing.

We started jogging toward the barn, Cutler all laughs as we hustled everyone into the back room.

“Hey, River,” Slade, Demi’s brother, said. It was the first time I’d seen him in years, and I’d spent a lot of time hating this dude, but today, I was going to give him a chance. He’d put in the work, and he was coming to live in Magnolia Falls in a couple of months, and I was ready to put the past in my rearview.

Maybe it was because I had something I was looking forward to.

A future with this woman beside me.

With these people surrounding me.

“Hi. I’m glad you made it. Romeo really wanted you here, and I know your sister will be happy to see you.” I shook his hand and looked up to see his mom watching us with watery eyes.

Demi’s father was there, standing in the back corner, looking like an outsider. I still had my issues with the man after all he’d done to me and Romeo, but I was trying to get over that because of Demi. Even she hadn’t made a lot of progress in their relationship, and he and Demi’s mom were still separated, but he was here.

He’d shown up.

And sometimes that was all that mattered.

Showing up for the people you love. The rest would work itself out.

I nodded at Demi’s father, and he smiled in return.

Well, I was trying.

Everyone was making their rounds and saying hello, and Brinkley and Lincoln had flown in and made it just in time. Lionel hugged us both before attaching himself to Lincoln because he was a big football fan. Nash and Cutler went to say hello to a few people as Kingston strolled over our way.

“Well, look at you two. You’re glowing, brother.” He smirked, the cocky little fucker.

“And you’re so full of shit your eyes are brown.” I loved to dish it back to him.

His head fell back in laughter, and a few of the ladies shushed him, but he didn’t care.

“I guess I was born full of shit, then?”

“I think what he meant to say was thank you,” Ruby said, wrapping her arms around my brother. I loved how close they were. Kingston and I didn’t have a lot of family, with Grammie being our last living relative that we knew of. But we’d found our extended family here. Most of them being right in this room with us.

“Oh, I have something for you.” Kingston reached into his pocket and pulled out two sticky notes, because he was a wiseass and never missed an opportunity to fuck with me.

He handed Ruby hers first, and she looked down before reading it aloud. “You look beautiful today, Queen Ruby.” She shook her head and smiled. “You wrote this before you saw me.”

“What can I say? I can see the future. I knew you’d show up here in your pretty gray sundress, looking like a vision.”

“Are you done flirting with my girl, asshole?”

He handed me a sticky note, and I looked down and read it to both of them. “Grammie needs more flowers for her garden. Stop slacking on the job, you sack of shit.”

I glared at him as he used his hand to cover his laughter. “Demi’s mom is calling me over. I’ll be right back. Hey, flip that note over, brother. There’s more on the back.”

He walked away, and Ruby glanced over, and we read it together.

Happiness looks good on you, brother. And yes, I’m telling you that I love you on a sticky note.

“This sticky note thing has taken on a life of its own,” Ruby whispered as she leaned against me. “But he’s right. Happiness looks good on you.”

“Yeah? I can live with that, I guess. I just don’t want to tarnish my reputation for being an asshole.”

“Your reputation is still solid; don’t you worry about it.”

Hayes, Nash, Cutler, and Kingston all walked over, with Peyton and Saylor right behind them, just as Lincoln and Brinkley hurried over to us.

“Okay, Romeo said they are two minutes out,” Nash said, making sure they all heard him. Everyone stopped talking, and I glanced around the space. They’d covered it in those lights I’d used a few weeks ago when I’d tried to impress Ruby. There were hay bales and buckets of flowers all around. We were having dinner after this out on their property.

Voices came from the other side of the door, and Cutler’s eyes widened, and I waggled my brows at him. He used his chubby little hand to cover his mouth, and Nash raised a brow in warning to keep it quiet.

Demi was laughing, and Ruby found my hand, knowing they were close.

“I think dinner’s probably ready. Why do you want to go in here?” Demi said as the door started to slide open.

“I have a surprise for you, baby,” Romeo said, and Peyton held up her fingers like she’d warned us she would in the three hundred fucking texts she’d sent about how this would go down.

When she held up the third finger, we all shouted, “Surprise!”

Demi startled, Romeo laughed, and everyone cheered. Demi’s gaze moved around the group, and her eyes were wide as they stopped on her brother. She ran toward him and threw herself into his arms. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re about to find out,” Slade said as he set her back down on her feet.

Romeo was right there when she turned around. The romantic fucker had dropped down on one knee.

Damn, the dude was smooth.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “What are you doing?”

Nash must have slipped him the ring already because he pulled it from his pocket and held it in his hand. “You know I’m a man of few words, so I’ll keep it short.”

Everyone chuckled, and I glanced over to see Lincoln, Brinkley, and Tia standing beside Romeo’s mom and grandmother, and they were all smiling.

“I love you, Demi. I love you so much it hurts sometimes. But you know I can take pain like a champ.” His voice was all tease, and everyone laughed, including Demi, who decided to take that moment to drop down on her knees in front of him.

“Baby, I’m kind of doing my thing. What are you doing down here?” he asked, and everyone was smiling at them.

“I want to be close to you.” She swiped at the tears running down her face, and I turned to look at Ruby, who was crying just as hard.

This strong woman, who could handle just about anything, had a tender heart beneath it all. Something I’d come to recognize and cherish.

My woman was strong and brave and caring and sensitive all at the same time.

And I fucking loved it.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into me, like she couldn’t get close enough.

“I want to wake up with you every day and fall asleep with you every night and build our home together that we’ll fill with lots of kids when you’re ready. Will you marry me, baby?”

Demi threw her arms around Romeo’s neck and hugged him as she shouted out a very clear yes, and everyone whistled and hollered. He slipped the ring onto her finger and pulled her to her feet before tipping her head back and kissing her.

I found Ruby’s hand as we all made our way out of the barn and took our time congratulating them before going to the back of the house to eat. Ruby took that moment to tug me away from the group, leading me down a little trail.

“This is where we ride when I come out here on the weekends. Look at that view.” She stood beside me as we looked out at the turquoise water in the distance.

I looked down at her wearing her pretty gray sundress with her long, dark hair tumbling down her shoulders and back. My gaze locked with hers. “I like this view, looking at you, best of all.”

“You don’t think you’ll tire of it?” she teased.

“I promised you forever, and I’m a man of my word.”

“I’m going to hold you to it.” She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed me.

And I knew in that moment that forever would never be long enough with Ruby.

But I’d take what I could get.