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My eyes fly open. Okay, we have exchanged the words ‘I love you’ in various ways over the years, but his words sound different. There’s a satisfied grin on his face and I glance down at my hand, which he’s placed on his chest and is still holding my wrist to keep it there.

“Oh,” I gasp when I notice the ring he’s put around my finger.

He leans forward and brushes his nose against mine. “Is that a yes?”

“To forever and always?” I murmur.

“We already agreed to that, it’s the binding me to you that’s on the table, wifey,” he fires back.

I bite my bottom lip and mumble, “That depends.”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “We’ll swing by the courthouse and bring Parker and Cosima, no one else needs to know. It’ll be just us.”

A huge smile slides across my face and I tell him with my whole heart, “Yes.”

Some things might always make me pause, but if there’s anything I learned in life is that there’s always a way to get from start to finish. Sometimes we need to take hurdles or the long way around, but ultimately, we’ll reach that finish line no matter what.

Mine is met every day I get to spend with Rourke. The man brightens my horizons and allows me to see past said hurdles to get to our own personal finish line. Each one of those becomes a milestone in our past and a new goal to set for our future.