Page 61 of At First Flight (Coral Bell Cove #1)

Ferris wheels and sticky fingers. Glow-in-the-dark bracelets wrapped around Evelyn’s wrist like treasure. Oliver with cotton candy smeared across his face, grinning like he’s just seen an actual member of Paw Patrol .

This is what summer looks like now.

The town fair lights up the skyline, all oversized bulbs and childhood wonder.

It’s loud and chaotic in that beautiful, small-town way where everyone knows everyone, and no one’s ever really lost. Music drifts from the speakers above the games booths, a sugary pop tune echoing against the rustle of the midway.

The scent of kettle corn, fried dough, and freshly squeezed lemonade weaves through the air like a memory you want to bottle and keep.

Lila stands a few feet ahead of me, holding two lemonades in her hands, her laugh catching in the air as Evelyn tugs her toward the carousel. Her hair’s in a ponytail, her cheeks flushed from the heat, and I swear I’ve never seen anyone look more like home.

“Daddy, watch!” Oliver calls, hurling a baseball at the tin can pyramid with surprising strength for his size. He misses the first two throws, then knocks them all over with a loud clang on the third. A small stuffed bear lands in his hands a moment later. His grin is all pride and sugar.

He runs back with a balloon in one hand and the bear in the other. “Dad! Look what I won!” It still feels surreal for the kids to call me Dad and Lila Mom, but to them, that’s what we are and I accept the title with such an honor I never knew I wanted.

I crouch down to take it. “You throw those baseballs like a champ.”

He beams. Lila hands me a lemonade, and her fingers linger on mine. There’s a moment, small, quiet, but it catches something deep inside me. The world slows for half a heartbeat.

I’m so in love with her. Madly. Entirely. Unequivocally.

We ride the Ferris wheel just before sunset. Oliver insists on going with Evelyn, and Ashvi dons her aunt honors and joins them, so Lila and I end up in the next car. The wind moves through her hair, and the whole world seems to pause as we rise above the fair.

The sky is streaked with orange and lavender, painting everything below in a warm, forgiving light. I glance over and catch her watching the horizon, one hand resting gently on the metal railing. There’s a quiet peace in her expression, the kind that only comes after the storms have passed.

“Did you ever think this would be your life?” she asks, head leaning on my shoulder.

“No,” I admit. “But I think I always hoped for it. Even when I didn’t believe I deserved it.”

She lifts her head and looks at me, eyes steady. “You deserve all of it. You always did.”

I hesitate. My heart’s hammering. The small velvet box in my pocket suddenly feels like it weighs ten pounds.

When we reach the top, I shift slightly, taking the box out of my pocket. Her brow furrows.

“Dean—”

“I’ve loved you since the first time you spoke about Fast and the Furious on the flight to Scotland. Since the night you held Evelyn while she cried. Since every skinned knee you mended and every time you stayed when it would’ve been easier to walk.”

Her eyes are wide, shimmering.

I twist, careful on the tiny metal bench, and open the box.

“I want all of it. The chaos. The quiet. The peanut butter on the couch cushions and science experiments in the bathtub. I want to write you letters when you don’t expect them and take you to any place in the world. I want you, Lila Wright. Every version. Will you marry me?”

Her hands fly to her mouth. She nods so fast, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

I slide the ring on her finger just as the Ferris wheel dips back down into the multicolored light.

The second the Ferris wheel jolts to a stop and we climb out of the gondola, Lila’s hand still tucked securely in mine, ring glinting like it belongs there, I swear my chest could split open from how hard my heart is pounding.

That was it. The moment. The question I’ve been aching to ask, and she said yes. A breathless, tearful, yes.

Lila barely has time to step down before Evelyn barrels through the crowd, pink-stained face beaming from adrenaline. Oliver follows close behind. Ashvi slows her walk behind him, observing them at a distance.

I glance at Lila just in time to see her face crack into the softest smile, one that settles deep in my bones. “We got engaged,” she says, voice hushed but certain. “Your dad asked me to marry him.”

Evelyn gasps so loudly a couple by the lemonade stand turns to look. “We’re getting married?”

I kneel to her level, pressing a hand to her tiny shoulder. “Well, technically it’s just me and Lila, baby girl. But you’re a part of it, too. Always.”

She squeals and throws herself into Lila’s arms. “Can I wear a dress?”

“You can wear two. ” Lila laughs, spinning her in a little circle. God, I love them both more than I know how to say.

And then, like a freight train of glitter and noise, Ashvi finally catches up. She halts just feet away, eyes bouncing from Lila to the ring and back again.

“Wait. Wait. What?!” she shouts, hands flailing. “You got engaged ?!”

Lila ducks her head, but there’s no hiding her glow. “Yeah. It just… happened. At the top.”

“I’ve been wrangling this duo, and you were out here getting proposed to on the Ferris wheel?!”

“She said yes,” I add, uselessly.

Ashvi barrels into Lila with a squeal so loud I think I lose hearing in one ear. “You’re getting married. You’re getting married! ”

Lila’s laughing and holding Evelyn in one arm and hugging her best friend with the other, and I swear I could live in this moment forever. Pure chaos and absolute perfection.

But then Ashvi turns on me.

“You.” She stabs a finger into my chest. “You better treat her like she hung the damn moon. She’s not just the smart girl or the beautiful one. She’s the whole freaking galaxy. And if you ever hurt her, I’ll curse your Wi-Fi and hex your shampoo.”

“I believe you,” I say seriously even though a chuckle is working its way up. “And I plan on treating her like the marvel she is, every single day.”

She nods once, satisfied, then turns back to Lila and grabs her hand, inspecting the ring. “Oh, this is so you. Understated, timeless, deceptively sparkly.”

Lila rolls her eyes, but her voice is soft when she says, “I still can’t believe it’s real.”

Ashvi brushes a tear from her cheek, smiling like a proud parent. “You deserve every second of this, Lil. I knew from that first week, when you panic called me because you were moving in with a stranger, you were already halfway gone. Oh my gosh, your family is going to flip!”

I glance at Lila, and her eyes meet mine across the space. There’s no hesitation anymore. Just warmth. Certainty. And something deeper than all of it—love.

A love that takes root quietly and then blooms all at once.

Oliver squints at the oversized ring on Lila’s finger. “Is that a real diamond?”

“Real as it gets,” I say. “What do you think?”

He shrugs, but he’s smiling. “Cool. Do I have to wear a penguin costume?”

“No. You can wear a cape if you want,” Lila says, laughing.

We spend the next hour indulging every whim: a second round of cotton candy, another ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl, even the dunk tank where Rowan volunteers as the local hero.

Evelyn throws her ball and misses by a mile, but Rowan plays along, and the entire booth cheers like she knocked him into the water herself.

Rowan winks at her behind the splash, though I don’t miss his narrowed eyes when they clock in on Lila’s new accessory.

A pair of teenagers offer to snap a photo for us in front of the fair sign, and I say yes before I can overthink it. We pose with the kids, Lila between us, the flash capturing our joy in a frame I’ll carry in my wallet for the rest of my life.

As we wander through the midway again, we pass a neighbor I barely know. She pauses, glancing between the kids and me, and then at Lila.

“Aren’t you the nanny?” she asks, voice syrupy with judgment.

I don’t even blink. I wrap my arm around Lila and kiss her temple. “She’s my everything.”

The woman blinks, startled. “Oh. Well… congratulations.”

We keep walking.

The lights dance across the pavement. Evelyn squeals when she sees a cart selling glow-in-the-dark necklaces, and Oliver tugs at my hand, begging for one more ride.

I glance at Lila, and she just nods. “Go.”

Later, when we’re home, and the kids are in bed, she sits on the porch swing, one leg curled beneath her. I hand her a cup of tea and sit beside her. The mug warms her hands, and the sound of frogs and crickets fills the silence between us.

She turns toward me, her fingers brushing my jaw. “That was perfect.”

“It was you,” I say. “You make everything feel like that.”

Her smile is soft. “I don’t need a big wedding. Or a fancy plan. I just want what we already have.”

I lace my fingers through hers. “We’ve got a lifetime to build it, any way we want.”

She leans her head against my shoulder. We sit like that for a long while, the porch creaking gently under our weight, the stars blinking above us.

The warmth of her pressed against my side is better than any blanket.

The quiet peace of knowing she’s mine now?

That’s the stuff no amount of money or legacy could buy.

“I used to think happy endings were only in books,” she whispers.

“This doesn’t feel like an ending,” I say. “More like chapter one.”

She laughs quietly. “Yeah. The real beginning.”

Inside the house, one of Evelyn’s drawings flutters slightly in the breeze from an open window. It’s a crooked heart with all our names scrawled inside it. I catch sight of it and smile.

We sit in silence, but it’s the kind that says everything. We found a way through the grief, through the ache. While what we made is not perfect, it’s ours. Something worth holding on to.

Holding her hand beneath the fading twilight, I think back to that first flight when everything in my life was about boardrooms and bank accounts.

I never thought family would be the thing that gave me purpose and not numbers or power.

But then she sat across from me, and everything changed.

Turns out, love didn’t clip my wings. It gave me a reason to land.

THE END