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“Meg,” Nash said as she stared at him with her mouth hanging open. “I get it, if this is too soon. But I love you so much, and I’ve loved you for so long…”
He cleared his throat and swallowed before he continued.
“I just love you so much,” he repeated with a little smile on his face. “And I’m done wasting time, so I wanted to ask if you would marry?—”
“Yes.”
Nash blinked, and his grin widened. “You didn’t let me finish the question,” he said, laughter at the edge of his voice.
“I don’t care. The answer is yes,” Meg said with her own laugh.
“Can I still ask the question to the end?”
“You can if you want, but the answer is yes.”
He just laughed, reaching forward and taking her left hand, then sliding the ring onto the appropriate finger.
“Meg, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
He kissed her, still up on one knee, bringing his lips to hers and cupping her cheeks in his hands. He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers.
“I’m glad you washed your hands from the Opal slobber,” he said, and Meg laughed.
“Yeah, this would have been pretty gross otherwise.”
“Especially because I forgot to bring any forks with me.”
“You would have just had to hand-feed me.”
“I can still do that.”
He settled down out of his kneeling position, reached over, slid a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her in for another kiss. One kiss melded into another, and it was a few minutes before Meg could bring herself to come up for air.
“I love it,” she said. “I love you. I love everything about our life together…”
This time she really did start crying, and she couldn’t deny it, even though she hadn’t had a single sip of champagne. But Nash’s eyes were misty too, shining in the afternoon light, so Meg didn’t feel quite so silly for the tears.
“I love you too,” he said, his voice soft, his hand squeezing the back of her neck. “I always will.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Despite everything they’d been through to get here, or maybe because of it all, Meg knew that his promise really would last forever. There was no doubt about that.
The End