“I can’t believe it’s been a year.” I tilt my head back from its place on Adam’s lap, so I can look up at him.
We’re on the beach by my rock—well, our rock now. We’re celebrating our one-year anniversary with a picnic—well, pizza and sparkling water, like we had on our first date, so it’s a less fancy type of picnic. But it’s perfect for me, just like he is.
It’s a year to the day when we first talked on the beach. I did wonder if our anniversary should have been tomorrow, the day we had our first date, but Adam said it was today. He said the day we first talked was the start of us.
He can say the sweetest things at times.
“I hope you’re not saying that like it’s a bad thing.” He grins down at me.
“Of course not, silly.” I tap his chest with the back of my hand. “It’s a good thing, a really good thing. Just…time sure does go by quickly.”
“Especially when you’re having fun.” He winks.
He’s totally referring to sex, the huge amount of sex we have.
Since we slept together for that first time, not a day has passed when we haven’t had sex.
I’ve had a lot of fun with Adam teaching me all kinds of new things and positions. And I know for sure he’s had a lot of fun, too, because he tells me so often.
I stare back out over the water, thinking about time. We don’t have much of it left.
Time is creeping up on us. Adam will have to leave for Harvard in just a little over a month.
I’m not ready to let him go. I don’t feel like we’ve had enough time together.
And I worry that he’s going to go to Boston, and make a whole new life for himself that doesn’t include me, and I’ll lose him.
I let out a small sigh.
“What’s up?” He taps my forehead with his fingertip.
“Nothing.” I look up at him. “Just thinking about when you have to leave for Boston. Stupid really. I shouldn’t be thinking of it on our special day.”
“Come on. Let’s go for a walk.”
This is what he always does whenever I bring up Boston—changes the subject or distracts me with something else.
I don’t know why he won’t talk to me about it. Maybe it’s because he feels as sad as I do about him leaving.
But he can’t ignore it forever.
Lifting off him, I get to my feet and brush sand off my butt, which somehow managed to sneak onto our blanket.
“What about our stuff? Should we take it back to the house first?” I ask him.
“Nah. Leave it. It’ll be fine.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder, so I put my arm around his waist and snuggle into his side.
We walk along the shore for a while in blissful silence. The beach is clear of people, except for a few random joggers.
The only sound is the splash of water washing over our feet as we walk.
“Oh, I can’t believe I’m only just asking, but how did Casey do at her scan?” Adam asks.
Earlier today, Casey went to the hospital to have a brain scan done. I couldn’t go as I was working, but Dad went with her.
She’s nearing the end of chemotherapy, and she had to have the scan done, so they can determine how effective the treatment has been.
Can’t say I’m not nervous about it, but I’m trying to remain positive.
“Dad said it went fine, but we won’t find out anything until she has her appointment with her doctor, which is next week.”
“Sucks you have to wait a week for the results. Can’t they see her sooner?”
I shake my head. “It was the only appointment he had. He has other patients, too, I guess.” Not that I care about those other patients. I care about only Casey.
Some voices off in the distance catch my attention. At the sound of cheers, I lift my eyes in the direction of them and see there’s a wedding happening out on the terrace of one of the hotels along the beach.
“Aw, look at that.” I pat my hand on Adam’s hard stomach, getting his attention. “A couple is getting married on our one-year anniversary.”
I stare at the couple. They look so happy.
I have a thought in my mind, a picture, that the couple could be Adam and me one day.
It makes my insides feel all warm and gooey.
I smile up at Adam, only to see his eyes fixed on the soon-to-be newlyweds.
He’s not smiling. He just has this really serious look in his eyes.
Then, he stops walking.
“Hey, you okay?” I ask him.
He turns to face me. “Marry me.”
“What?” I stare back at him, unblinking.
I couldn’t have heard that correctly. I mean, I know I was just having a mini daydream about future Adam and Evie becoming Mr. and Mrs. Adam Gunner, but he couldn’t have said that for real.
He moves closer, taking my face in his hands. “I love you, Evie. I look into the future, and the only thing I see clearly is you. Marry me.”
Yep, he definitely did say that.
Holy. Shit.
I part my suddenly dry lips, but nothing comes out of my mouth but air.
What am I supposed to say to that?
I mean, I know it’s either usually a yes or no answer, but—
Holy crap!
We’re so young…but he’s…he’s Adam. And I love him so much. I don’t see myself ever being with anyone but him.
But we’re so young.
“You think we’re too young.” It isn’t a question, and apparently, he can also read minds as well as throw out-of-the-blue marriage proposals out there.
“Aren’t we?” I manage to say.
“I don’t think we are. I love you, Evie, and that’s not changing…well, ever. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Everything else is just semantics.”
“I just…I don’t know. I guess I’m just feeling a little blindsided by this. I definitely did not see that one coming. You sure know how to surprise a girl.”
“So, is that a yes?” He gives me a smile, but I can see that it’s laced with worry.
He’s worried that I’ll say no.
Do I want to say no?
I close my eyes and try to think about this good and hard—well, as hard as I can in the short time frame I have.
I love Adam more than anything. And I do see myself with him, building a life with him, forever. He’s all I see.
But he’s leaving to go to Harvard.
I open my eyes. “Harvard,” I say. “If we did this, I couldn’t go with you. I can’t leave Casey and Dad, especially not while Casey’s still so sick.”
He grasps my face again. “I’m not going to Harvard. I’m staying here with you.”
“Adam, you can’t. It’s a great opportunity—”
“That I don’t want. I never wanted to go to Harvard. Ava and Eric told me I had to go. Then, I’ll have to go work for Eric. I don’t want that. You know I don’t. All this time, I thought that I was trapped, that I had to do what they said, join the family business, but I don’t. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to. So, I’m not going to. I’m finally doing what I want, and what I want is to marry you.”
He looks so alive in this moment, more alive than I have ever seen him.
And I love it. I love him.
“Can we really do this? Get married?”
“We can do anything we want, babe. You’ve made me realize that. Being with you has made me realize a lot of things…that I can do anything I want. I don’t know exactly what I want to do yet”—he chuckles—“but what I am certain of is that whatever I do, I want you by my side.”
“Where would we live?” I’m trying to look at this from all angles before I give him an answer. I’m being practical, one of us has to be.
“The beach house. It’s paid up until the end of August. We can stay there until we find another place.”
“My dad and Casey need me with them though.”
“Then, we’ll all live together. We don’t have to plan everything. We can work the rest out later. All I need right now from you is a yes.”
For a long moment, I stare up into his eyes, those turquoise eyes that I adore so much. From the instant I saw those eyes, I knew that I could spend a lifetime staring into them.
“This is crazy. You know that, right?”
“Maybe it is. But I don’t fucking care. Just…just say yes, Evie.”
My heart is thudding against my ribcage. My thoughts are running a mile a minute. But each time, they circle back to one word.
“Yes.”
The look on his face…I’ll remember it forever.
“Yes?”
“Yes”—I smile so big that it feels like my face might split in two—“I will marry you, Adam Gunner.”
He lets out a sound of total happiness, and then he swoops me up into his arms, his lips crashing to mine. He kisses me so fiercely that I can practically feel his love for me pouring in through his kiss.
My palms are pressed up against this chest, and I can feel his heart racing beneath them.
He lowers me to my feet, but his lips seem reluctant to leave mine as he continues sweeping soft kisses over my mouth.
“I love you so much,” he murmurs, his fingers threading into my hair.
“I love you, too.” I run my fingers over his cheek. “So, we’re really doing this, huh?”
He presses his forehead to mine, our noses touching. “Yeah, we’re really doing this.”
“And how will we do this? I mean, how and when will we get married?”
A grin appears on those lips of his that I love so much. “How does tomorrow sound?”
“Tomorrow?” I gasp. “So soon?”
“What’s the point of waiting? I want to make you mine as soon as possible.”
“I’m already yours.”
“But I want to make you mine officially, so no one can ever take you away from me.”
“No one’s taking me away, Adam. The only way I’ll leave is if I want to. And there’s no way I’ll ever want to leave you.” I push his hair back from his face. “You really want to do this tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I do. I want you to be my wife sooner rather than later.”
His wife.
His words touch deep inside of me. “Well then, tomorrow it is.” I swallow. “But where in the hell can we get married on such short notice?”
A grin spreads across his face. “Vegas, babe.”
“Vegas?” A strangled laugh escapes me.
“Yeah. Have you ever been before?”
“No. I’ve never had a reason to go.”
“Well, now, you do.”
“But…Casey’s appointment is next week…”
“We’ll be back before that with time to spare. I only need a few days of your time, and with you being off work for the next three days, it’s perfect. Meant to be. So, what do you say?”
I let my emotions take me over, allowing myself to feel the happiness he’s offering me. I wrap my arms around his neck, levering up onto my tiptoes so that we’re almost face-to-face. “I say, take me to Vegas, Adam Gunner, and make me your wife!”
He laughs deeply, his smile so big that it almost breaks my heart.
His hands find my ass, and he lifts me off the ground. I wrap my legs around his waist.
“You’re my family now, Evie. This is it—you and me forever.”
I rest my nose against his, staring into his ocean eyes. “Forever,” I echo.