Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
He looks amazing, and as much as it kills me to have to let him go so soon, I hope he’s able to move on and find something incredible with a woman who inspires him to be everything I know he can be. But on the down-low, I hope he doesn’t love her quite as much as he loved me.
A smile pulls at my lips as he walks toward me. “What are you doing here?” I ask as he steps right into my arms, taking my weight from my mom. “How’d you know we were here? No, better yet, why are you in a suit? Was the baby-pushing party that fancy? I thought it was a casual thing.”
Noah just laughs, and as his fingers brush up and down my arm, he leaves a trail of goosebumps everywhere our skin touches. “Walk with me,” he murmurs in that deep tone that makes me believe that nothing bad could ever happen in this dark world.
We make our way a little further down the lake, my feet barely skimming across the water’s edge. “You’re being awfully shady, Noah Ryan,” I say. “Explain yourself.”
“Can’t I just do something nice for my girl?”
I narrow my eyes. He knows how I feel about surprises. I like giving them, love it even, but the whole receiving thing has always been a sore point for me, and over the past few weeks, the surprises just seem to keep rolling in.
He takes me around the bend in the lake, and when I glance up and peer out into the opening, my heart swells bigger than it’s ever been. My eyes instantly fill with unshed tears. “Noah,” I gasp, clinging on to him with everything I am.
Hundreds of long-stemmed red roses have been planted into the ground to form a large semi-circle with dozens of candles scattered among them. Fairy lights hang from the trees above, creating a beautiful canopy over the rose-lined circle below, and if that weren’t enough to take my breath away, the words MARRY ME are written in giant light letters, creating the most stunning backdrop.
I fall into him, my knees going weak. I knew he might try to make some grand gesture over the next few weeks, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that he’d propose.
My heart has never beat so fast, and as he takes my hand and leads me toward the rose-lined circle, my whole body goes weak, but for the first time in months, it’s not because of the cancer or medications pulsing through my veins.
We enter the semi-circle, and as he leads me right into the middle and turns to face me, I take a quick look around, which is when I see my whole family—Mom and Dad standing in each other’s arms, tears in my mother’s eyes, while my dad . . . God, he’s never looked at me with such pride before. Aunt Maya is here, her arm around Hope’s shoulder, and damn it, I’m going to have to have a word with her about secret keeping, but it can wait because all that matters right now is the man standing before me.
He clutches my hands, his thumbs rolling over my knuckles. “Zo, you’ve been my world since the day I first met you. You’ve been my everything. My bestest friend, my partner in crime, my salvation when the world was closing in on me, and through it all, you’ve been the love of my life. I’m proud that you’ve allowed me to be the man by your side right from the beginning, and you know that I’ll be right here, holding your hand until the end. Getting to see you grow from the scrawny little kid who went mud diving with me into the radiant, incredible woman you are today has been and will always be my greatest honor. And Zo,” he says, pausing a moment. “No words will ever be enough to express just how in love I am with you, and while I know our time is limited, I want to be able to give you everything you’ve always deserved.”
Tears flow from my eyes as I clutch his hands tighter. His words play on repeat in my mind, and my heart has never been so full. “Just having you by my side for the past eighteen years is more than I could have ever asked for, Noah,” I tell him, my voice breaking over the lump in my throat, my lips starting to tremble. “I love you more every day, and getting to walk this life with you has been the greatest gift of all.”
He smiles and leans into me, gently brushing his lips over mine. “Always, Zozo,” he murmurs. “You’ll always be the other half of my soul. Without you, I’m not whole, and while having to learn to walk this earth alone is going to be the hardest thing I’ll ever do, I want to treasure every last moment I have with you.”