Page 44 of Raised On It (Between the Pines #1)

“Nah, I usually start by telling them I’m going to marry them one day.”

The sincerity in his eyes speaks volumes, and my stomach does somersaults at the thought that there may be more going on than just a beer at The Verdict.

And with impeccable timing, his phone vibrates on the bar, breaking the vulnerability of the moment.

He reads his message, his leg bouncing up and down, and throws back the rest of his beer.

When he takes a twenty out of his wallet and throws it down where his phone had been lying, I can’t help but think something about his text message upset him.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s great, why?”

“Are we leaving?” I ask, tipping my head toward the money on the bar.

I see him notice that I haven’t really put a dent in my beer yet and he relaxes a bit.

“Um, no…take your time. Whenever you’re ready. We just need to head over to Granny’s when we’re done.”

“Oh, well, you should have said something.” I toss back my beer in one long chug. “Ready.”

“You're a freaking unicorn, you know that?” he says in awe.

“Nah, just a fan of Granny and EBC. Shall we? ”

We’re halfway through the bar when one of the songs we danced to the night I agreed to come out with the girls comes on, and he redirects us to the dance floor.

“This is one of the best country songs ever recorded.”

“We’ve danced to this before.”

“Ah, so what you’re saying is you’ve burned every moment we’ve spent together into your memory bank?”

He leans in close, and the warmth of his breath on the shell of my ear sends the good kind of shiver down my spine.

“Me too, baby.”

We sway in time with the sweet song about a chair, but it’s over much too soon, and then we’re headed back in the direction of the exit sign.

It’s dark now, and the moment Miles shuts the truck door, the dark skies finally open up and the rain showers down on us.

“Shit! You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay?”

He sends a text before putting the truck in drive.

The ride to his grandparents’ house is quiet. He’s in his head somewhere or just really, really hates rain. Not sure which, but his mood has taken a slight turn, and I decide to give him his space while he works it out.

Before long, the gravel road that leads to Elsie Lake is under our tires, and he still seems a little stressed.

He parks the truck, and I start to open the door, but he stops me and says he’ll be right back.

He runs into the house and is gone a couple of minutes before returning to the truck with an umbrella big enough for two.

“Miles, I could have run to the front door. You didn’t have to get an umbrella. I won’t melt.”

“I know, but we aren’t going in the house.”

“We aren’t? ”

“Nope, I have a little surprise for you.”

“For me?”

“Come on, let’s go for a walk.”

“A walk? Right now, Miles?”

“Baby, just work with me on this, please?”

Oh boy, so there's a reason he’s pissed it’s raining, and me fighting him on it is stressing him out even more. What in the world is he up to?

“Sure, honey.”

We follow the path that takes us around the side of the house, and when we emerge in the backyard, the dock is lit up with hundreds of white lights. It’s absolutely beautiful.

“Miles, what in the world is going on?”

“Just wanted to do something special for you. Wasn’t expecting the rain, but we can work around it. Come on.”

We follow the pathway to the dock, the lights, and at the end, of course, two weathered Adirondack chairs.

Just standing there huddled under an umbrella in the pouring rain, I finally ask, “Uh, Miles. What’s going on?”

He nods his head in the direction of the house. “He should be able to fill you in.”

Sweet Lou is running toward us, and once he’s in front of us, Miles gives him a signal, and he sits.

“Miles, how in the world did he get here, and why is he out here in the rain too?”

“It looks like he has something for you.”

Sure enough, something is hanging from his neck. I lean forward to take a piece of paper out of a zip lock bag that's been attached to his collar, and Miles follows me with the umbrella to keep me dry.

“What is this?”

“Well, I don’t know. It’s from Lou, not me. Why don’t you read it and see what it says? Read it out loud, though. ”

The rain is drumming on the umbrella nearly as fast as the thumping of my heart as I unfold the letter in my shaking hands.

“Out loud please,” Miles reminds me.

“Mason, Dad and I love you more than kibble and beer. More than sunrises during harvest and bonfires at The Jumps. More than strawberry shakes and walks through Central Park. More than his old truck and more than my throw stick. If you’re willing to put up with Dad for the rest of your life, we'd sure like to love you forever.”

Barely able to see the words on the page through my tears, I turn to Miles, and he hands me the umbrella and steps out into the pounding rain and bends down onto one knee.

“Miles, get back under here, you’re getting soaked!” I yell over the pounding rain.

“Baby, you can have my umbrella, my heart, my last breath. All of it. All of me. In fact, you already have all of that.” He’s yelling over the rain but pauses to pull a box out of his front pocket. “The only thing of mine that I haven’t given you yet is my last name.”

Speechless, I stare at him from the security of the umbrella while he pours his heart out in front of me in the rain.

I can see the sparkle of the ring in the box he’s holding up to me, but I couldn’t tell you what it looks like because the sight of Miles soaked to the bone asking me to be his is more powerful than the shine any ring could ever project when competing with the love of my life.

“We’ll split our time between here and New York. We’ll have babies or we won’t have babies. I just need to be your husband, Mason. That’s really all there is to it. So how does it end, baby? Does she stay or does she go?”

Without thinking, I kneel on the wet dock holding the umbrella over both of us. He kneels on both knees with me and waits for my answer.

“She stays, Miles. She stays. ”

“She sure as hell does.”

Thank you for reading!

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