Page 116 of Guilty as Sin

Paige didn’t answer, because they’d rounded the little point, and she saw something up at the edge of the rocks, where the beach ended and the bush began. Something pink. She said, “Up there,” and they scrambled in their swimsuits over hard rock and pockets of firm white sand, cool under their feet even on this hot day, all the way up to where she could grab the pink plastic ring. Which had, of course, a note taped to it.

The beginning comes after the end

As love can grow between good friends.

I pray your heart is truly mine—

My own is yours for all of time.

“I think,” Paige said, keeping her voice steady with a major effort, “that this means we go back.”

There was something on the beach now that hadn’t been there before. A white shade canopy set on poles, with a white-skirted table beneath it.

Paige barely noticed the others arranged behind the structure. She saw Jace standing under that canopy on the blinding white sand, dressed in his swim trunks, a navy-blue T-shirt, and nothing else. There was a bottle of champagne on the table. A vase of pink roses, too. And she wasn’t doing a good job of coordinating her feet with her breath. Good thing Lily had her hand.

When they got close, though, Lily dropped it. “You’ve got this, sweetie,” she told her sister. “You have beautiful wings. Go on and let yourself fly.”

Paige wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh. Lily was holding her note and her pink plastic ring. All she had was herself. And Jace.

She walked up to him, put her hands on his forearms, looked up into his beloved, hard face, and said, “Thank you. You’ve given me a beautiful day. And I love you.”

“Baby,” he said with just the ghost of a laugh, because she could tell he was nervous, too, “I haven’t even done it yet.”

“Yes,” she said. “You have. You took a woman who was scared of so many things, and made her feel like she could have them. That shedeservedthem. I was scared to trust. Scared to feel. And so very scared to love. You made me feel safe. You made me feel beautiful.”

“Then,” he said, “I’d better do this. Because I want you to know that youaresafe, and youarebeautiful. I want you to have a way to remind yourself, when you forget, that somebody loves you more than life.”

He was doing it. She’d never had this. She’d never had anything close. And she was going to cry.

Jace, on a knee. Jace, pulling a box from a pocket and opening it.

It was the ring from the jeweler’s shop. The one beside the pendant, the one she hadn’t dared to look at. Pink gold, the band carved by a patient, expert hand and studded with tiny diamonds. And a pink sapphire, rare and beautiful, sitting like a rose in the midst of tiny diamonds that sparkled like dew on petals. Like grace and strength. Like everything a woman could wish for.

“I love you,” Jace said. “And I promise that I always will. I can’t give you the moon and the stars, but I can promise you this. As long as I have breath, you’ll be what I breathe for. As long as I have strength, you’ll be what I hold strong. And as long as I have life, you’ll be why I’m living it.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t help it. She was going to cry. “I can’t… say anything that good. I can’t…think.”

“Well, to be fair,” he said, those lines crinkling around his blue eyes in the way she loved, “I practiced.”

She laughed, a choked sound. He was still holding the ring, though, and she needed to wear it. She needed to hold him, and to kiss him. So she said, “Could you just… pretend I said something that perfect? And ask me the question, so I can say yes?”

This time, he laughed. “Then here we go. Hold on for it. I love you, baby. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said. “I only have one word, but I hope it’s the right one. Yes.”

He slid the ring onto her finger, and it went there like it was the place it was meant to be. She put her hand over her heart, laughed again, and said, “It’s here now. Those words… they’re going to be in my heart forever. And I’ll love you just that long. Just that hard. I promise.”

“I’ll take that promise,” he said, standing up at last, taking her in his arms, and twining his fingers through hers, so the ring winked between them like the pledge it was. “And I’ll take you.”