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He takes a breath, steady, but shaking. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I breathe, without a moment of hesitation, although I’m barely able to get the word out. I swallow roughly, a soft laugh escaping me as tears spring from my eyes. “Yes,” I tell him again, this time louder. “Yes, of course.”

A smile breaks out across his lips and he slides the ring onto my finger. It fits like it’s always belonged there.

He rises to his feet, arms sweeping around my lower back as he tugs my body closer to him. His lips immediately find mine, stealing the air from my lungs as he kisses me with a tenderness that drips into my soul.

He pulls away from our kiss and wraps his arms around my waist as he drops his forehead to mine. “I love you so much, Andi,” he murmurs, his voice dancing against my eardrums. “Thank you for showing me that there’s a life outside of the ice rink.” He pauses. “There’s a life right here, with you and Matteo.”

“And we’re not going anywhere,” I tell him, my eyelids fluttering shut as I take a moment to breathe him in. A soft laughfalls from my lips as I lift my hand, pressing it against his chest. “I can’t believe you tattooed my name and the words I wrote on your skin.”

“You’re my home, Andi,” he breathes, lifting his head to press his lips to my forehead. “You always have been and you always will be.”

The gentle breeze moves through the trees, the leaves swaying above.

“I love you,” I say, the words soaking into the air around us. “Today, tomorrow, forever.”

“I like the sound of that,” he tells me, pulling me closer, until our bodies are flush together, melting into one another.

There was a time where I used to wonder if we would ever be anything more. If there was ever going to be a future for the two of us, where we fit together as perfectly as we do now.

But now, I no longer question any of that. Together is where we’re supposed to be.

Carson Ford is my home. He’s the place where my soul can rest.

And I am his.