We hadn’t been back to Cape May since Chase first brought me here to see the sunrise. But with it being such a special place for him and now me as well, it was the perfect place to take the next step.

I’d checked the weather report last night before we left. It called for clear, sunny skies in the mid-seventies, which meant we would have a perfect sunrise.

It didn’t matter. Even if it had predicted rain, I would have hauled Chase out here, gotten down on my knees, and begged him to marry me. But this way was much better. Rain makes my hair frizz, and I wanted to look my best.

“I still can’t believe you talked me into this,” Chase said, grumbling as he helped me waddle over the dunes near the lighthouse. I had a towel tucked into my bag, as well as a bottle of Heineken. The stores had already closed when we left last night, so I couldn’t get any champagne, which would have been festive. Of course, Chase wouldn’t have let me have any, and honestly, he probably preferred the beer.

I planned to propose as soon as the sun broke the horizon. I wanted it to be perfect. I couldn’t have come up with a better plan even if I’d had more than two hours to come up with one.

Trudging through the sand was wearing me out, and I was already winded. My flip-flops were slowing me down, and we should have been in place already.

“Stop,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Let me take my shoes off.”

I could see the first threads of orange and pink stretching across the horizon and reflecting on the water. I kicked off my shoes and tried to pick them up, but my belly wouldn’t allow me to bend.

Holding on to me with one hand, Chase snatched them up, and we kept walking.

I scanned the beach until I found the perfect spot, and we trudged toward it. I dropped my bag, which was a big mistake, because now I couldn’t bend to pull out the towel.

“Could you hand me the bag?”

“You just put it down.”

“I know, but I forgot I needed something.”

He picked up the bag and peered inside. I snatched it from his hands before he saw the bottle of Heineken. “Hey! I have personal stuff in there.”

Even in the dim light, which was growing brighter by the second, I could tell he wasn’t too happy with me. This might all blow up spectacularly in my face.

“I just want everything perfect. And I don’t want to miss the sunrise.”

“We could’ve been here a lot earlier if you hadn’t needed to put on a full face of makeup. It’s the beach. No one cares.”

“Don’t be grumpy. I want this to be a special day for us.”

He looked out over the ocean, then back at me.

“I do too. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little stressed out.”

“Why? This is your favorite place, right? You should be unstressing.”

“I’m not sure that’s a word.”

“Well, it should be.”

The first rays of brilliant orange broke the horizon. I grabbed hold of his arms and tried to lower myself to my knees, which wasn’t easy, especially with Chase trying to pull me back up.

“Stop,” I said. Struggling against him was useless; he was insanely strong. He pulled me back to my feet.

The sun continued to rise.

“I want to get down on the sand.”

“Let me get the towel.”

“Forget the towel. Just help me get down!”

Ignoring me, he pulled the towel closer and smoothed it out. Then he sat and held his arms out to help me down.

“No. You get up. I need to go down.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “I can’t sit on your towel?”

“No. You stand.”

Grumbling and cursing under his breath, he stood. Not expecting much help from him at this point, I grabbed onto his belt loops and began lowering myself, tugging his pants down along with me.

“What the hell are you doing?” He grabbed my wrist just as my knees hit the towel. So much for a lifetime of squats. Where were they when I needed them?

Apparently my little exercise had given him the completely wrong impression.

“Are you kidding? We can’t do that here. Someone might see us. If you wanted to do that on the beach, we should have gotten here while it was still dark.”

Oh, for crying out loud. Did he think that was the only reason a woman would be on her knees? Although, other than scrubbing the floor, I couldn’t think of any.

“That’s not what I was about to do.”

“Well, then what are you doing besides missing the sunrise?”

A strange, uncomfortable feeling came over me, and I held onto his leg a little tighter. He was so tall I was having trouble seeing his face, given how close I was to him.

“Can you come down here?”

“You just yelled at me to stand up.”

“I know. Could you just humor me?”

He dropped down onto his knees in front of me. “What?”

This could go down as one of the worst proposals of all time. I tried to regain my focus.

“Chase, I love you very much. I should’ve known the first night we met when we shook hands, but I was too stubborn. And I should’ve known the night of my birthday when you kissed me, because I had never in my life been kissed like that. And I should’ve known the first time you brought me here to see the sunrise.

“But that’s when I started to know. And from then on, it just kept growing. Each day, I think I can’t possibly love you more, but I’m always wrong, because with each new day, my love for you gro—oh, shit.”

Panic flashed across his face. He gripped my shoulders. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m just uncomfortable.”

“Then sit. Why are you kneeling?”

I shifted my weight a bit, trying to relieve some of the pressure on my legs.

“I’m fine. Where was I?”

“I have no idea. I think you were telling me how much you love me.”

“Right. I do. More than I ever believed it was possible to love someone.”

“You’re squeezing my hand really hard. Are you all right?”

I sucked in a lungful of ocean air and nodded vigorously. “Yep. Fine. I just need a moment.”

“Okay. While you’re catching your breath, can I say something?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

He settled a hand on my hip, and when his eyes met mine, they were shiny. “I’m not sure where you were going with all that a moment ago, but I’ve been in love with you for just as long.”

He opened his hand, and in it lay a diamond ring. A simple round solitaire that had to be far too expensive. The most perfect ring I’d ever seen.

“Will you marry me?”

I gave him a shove and blinked back the tears that had sprung to my eyes. “Damn it, Chase. I was trying to propose.”

He looked dubious. “Seriously? That was what you were doing?”

Nodding, I wiped at the stray tears that tracked down my cheeks and held my arms up for him to help me to my feet. Then I held out a shaky hand, and he slipped the ring on my finger, which hummed and sparked at his touch.

And then he kissed me, and the electricity coursing through me a moment earlier was nothing compared to what his lips were doing to me now.

When we stopped to take a breath, I told him I’d brought him a Heineken to celebrate.

“It’s not even six o’clock in the morning.” He kissed me again. “How about we go back to the room, celebrate another way, and then I’ll drink that Heineken?”

“We can’t.”

“Sure we can.”

“No, we can’t. We have to go.”

“Why?”

“Because my water just broke.”