When Jules finds me sitting on a tractor, her eyes are gleaming, and I know she’s been crying again.

I want to tell her the tears will stop soon, but I can’t guarantee that.

Seeing her in pain this past week has told me everything I need to know about the woman I love.

She is soft in all the right ways. She knows who she is, where she comes from, and she knows what it means to stick by the sides of those you love.

And I also know I need her to be my wife.

“Cal,” she says, pulling herself up onto the tractor, sitting beside me. “What on God’s green earth are you doing out here?”

“Trying to think why people stopped being farmers. It’s fucking gorgeous here.”

“I’m guessing people stopped being farmers because the work is hard as hell,” she tells me, laughing. “But you’re right, it is gorgeous.”

She leans back in the seat beside me, and my hand slips through hers. Not meeting my eyes, she says, “Dad says you paid off the farm.”

“Are you mad?” I ask softly.

She shakes her head. “No. But it was more than you needed to—”

I cut her off. “Jules, it’s the least I could do. I brought his daughter into a fucking sex scandal. I owe your dad. Especially considering the question I asked him.”

Jules raises a brow. “What did you ask him.”

“A big question. The big one.”

Her eyebrows raise, and she bites back a smile.

“Look, Jules,” I say, pulling her toward me, squaring our shoulders so we face one another. The cornfields are before us, and it’s like a sea of possibility and it is fucking beautiful, this place and this life and this possibility—especially in light of the last few months. Losing so damn much—but still, we found one another.

I clear my throat and start again, “Look, I don’t want to offend you, but I want to say something.”

She nods telling me to go ahead.

“It took awhile to understand what kept bringing you back to this land, but now I think I know. You haven’t found your thing. And coming back to what you know is easier than stepping out and finding something new.”

Instead of pushing back, like she did before when her dad tried to talk with her about this she just smirks and hands me a letter. “Seems like everyone who loves me, figured out the same thing.” When I narrow my eyes in confusion she hands me an envelope and says, “Read this.”

I unfold the paper and read a handwritten letter.

I feel myself welling up with emotion as I read her Grandma’s last words to her. It was dated the day before she died.

“That’s beautiful,” I tell her.

She nods. “I never thought of it like that, I just thought, I love it here. This is home. Where I belong. And when I got to LA, I so quickly knew that was not where I belong. But the truth is, I’ve never been anywhere else. Seen anything else. And maybe there is more. And maybe there isn’t, but if I don’t try again, if I run back home after the first fall, what sort of woman will I be?”

“The truth is, Jules, I haven’t stepped out either. I’ve lived a safe life just like you. Just had more money while I lived it. But since the day my parents died, I started hiding. Let my world get smaller until it was a cocoon that nearly killed me. A cocoon that did kill Sawyer. I need more. We need more.”

“You better not be breaking up with me.”

I shake my head. “I’m too much of a romantic for that.”

“You know that the idea that the man who ran a fuck club considers himself a romantic is pretty messed up?”

“See,” I say, grinning. “That’s what I mean. We need to go to Paris. Tuscany. We need to expand our romantic horizons.”

“Leaving my dad seems scary. He’s the only family I have left.”

I run my hand over my jaw, wanting to be her family too. Maybe she isn’t ready for this, for a leap with me.

“But,” she continues, “I think that me giving him space to live his life might be a good thing. He’s not even fifty, has never had a house without another woman living in it. Moving in with him might cramp his style. I mean, maybe he wants to get married again.”

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “Could you handle that?”

“I think so,” she says slowly. “Honestly, after reading Grandma’s letter I feel freer than I have in a long time. Maybe forever.”

“Then I guess there’s no time like the present.” I reach into my pocket and pull out my mother’s diamond engagement ring. “I love you, Jules. And I want to take a chance and see what might happen next. I want to be your partner. Your best friend. You lover. Your protector. I want to be your husband.”

She covers her mouth. “This was the big question?”

I nod.

“And paying for the farm, was it like a modern day dowry?”

I shake my head. “I think dowries go the other way. And this wasn’t that. This was a way to give us all that we want.” I take her hand in mine, kissing her knuckles, her fingers, her wrist. “Marry me, Jules. Be my wife.”

And then she says yes.

She wraps her arms around me. Pulling herself onto my lap. She covers my face in kisses and grinds against me, instantly revving me up.

“Yes, Levi Callahan Mallone. I will marry you.”

I grin, starting to slip the ring on her finger, but she pulls back.

“On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ve still never taken me on a proper, pick me up at eight, bring flowers, make reservations, date.”

“Is there a restaurant we can make reservations at in Resting Hollow?”

She shakes her head. “In Paris. The Eiffel Tower.”

I smile at the woman I love, who has changed my sorry life for the better, knowing I no longer need a fuck club—all I need is her.

“Damn, you’re ready to take a leap, all right.”

“With you? Yes, Cal, I am.”