Hard Beat

“The bag!” she exclaims. “You kept it?” Wonderment and nostalgia fill her eyes when I nod.

“It’s the only thing I had left from that night, so when I packed to come home, I brought it with me.” I shrug away the thought of how desperately lonely I was without her.

“That’s so sweet.” She traces a finger along it. “Wine?”

“One glass won’t harm the baby. I asked the doctor.”

She throws her head back and laughs as she thrusts the bottle at me to open since she’s done without it for this long. “I figured you’d ask the doctor about sex in the third trimester, not wine.”

“Well, I did ask that too.” I wink at her with my smile a permanent fixture on my lips.

“Of course you did! Now what else is in here?” she asks. “Can I open it?”

“Mmm-hmm,” I murmur, trying to focus on pouring the wine and not spilling it while I keep watching her pull things from the bag.

“Wow, you really made sure this was authentic,” she says as she takes out cheese and chocolate, and then a soft sigh of pleasure falls from her mouth as she pulls out the last item in the bag. “Bubbles,” she murmurs, her fingers toying with the lid and her eyes finding mine.

“Bubbles.”

“Don’t you think there are enough of them floating around us?” she teases as she leans forward and brushes her mouth against mine. I close my eyes and flick my tongue between her lips, drinking her in before I pull back and look in her eyes.

“I think we should add to them. Don’t you? Match the moment and then we can add a different ending to it, don’t you think?”

“I like that idea,” she murmurs against my lips before leaning back, granting me a coy little smile as she twists open the top of the bottle.

My heart lodges in my throat and it takes everything I have to not fidget or tell her to hurry up or anything else of the sort because this is all I’ve thought about since the blast that rocked our world took her from me and then brought her back. This moment. How I’d do it if I got a second chance. I got one, so I’m not looking back.

When she twists the cap off, I watch her brow furrow when she notices there isn’t any bubble liquid inside the container. She ever so slowly pulls the wand out, her breath hitching when she notices the platinum and diamond engagement ring attached to the end of it. Her eyes flash up to mine as she looks back at the ring and then at me again.

“Tanner…,” she says cautiously although her eyes light up with happiness.

“How’d that get there?” I tease as I reach out and take the wand from her.

“No. Mine!” she says as she pulls her hand back so that I can’t take it from her before throwing her head back and laughing. And that laugh… It’s one I’ll carry with me to my death because it embodies the personality of the woman I love, how carefree and happy she is now. How I’ve helped her to achieve that. How we’ve found it together.

I press my lips to hers, my nerves skittering out of control but my heart never steadier. “Yes, it is yours, but I’m kind of old-fashioned and want to do this the right way if you’ll let me.”

Her smile softens as she brings a hand up to my face and mouths, “I love you,” before reaching out the bubble wand to me, tears welling in her eyes.

“I wanted to make tonight perfect for you. So many things I need to say, want to say, but I thought this” – I gesture to the setting around us – “would say a lot of it for me.” I take a moment and breathe in before I continue. “I loved you before I even knew the real you. I loved you that night when you told me you loved me up on the rooftop and I hesitated to say it back to you… because one, I wanted it to mean something, and two, because I couldn’t. When you told me, you knocked me on my ass, jump-started my heart, proved to me how real love was supposed to feel. So I hesitated, didn’t say it back, and then I cursed myself for so many days and weeks afterward because then I was too late and couldn’t say it to you.”

I take her hands in mine before looking back up to the green of her eyes. “So tonight I want to tell you there is no hesitation on my part. I learned my lesson. I love you, Beaux BJ Blair Rookie.” Her laugh rings out, and I love that even though her hands are steady, a tinge of nerves edges the sound because that shows this means something to her too. “And I don’t want to waste another moment hesitating on starting our life together. You’re it for me. You and this baby are all I’ve ever wanted when I never thought I wanted this life. You give me the hum, the buzz, the adrenaline rush I’ve spent my life chasing every time I think of you, each time I kiss you, and just knowing you came back to me. You’re all I need, all I want, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” My question hangs in the air, hope weighing it down and bubbles lifting it back up as she just stares at me and a ghost of a smile curls up the corners of her mouth.

“I guess that means I’d better withdraw the restraining order, then, huh?”

Relief surges through me with the nervous laughter that falls from my lips, because even though I was sure of the answer, that’s a pretty steep cliff for a man to be teetering on. “So, that’s a yes?”

“On one condition.”

“Anything,” I say without hesitation.

“That you put that blindfold back on me later.” She raises her eyebrows and laughs.

“I’ll do whatever you want with it as long as I know you’re tied to me for life.”