“You’re being ridiculous. I know what it looks like, you know.”

Next to me, Cooper laughed and pulled me tighter to his side. We were back in Carlton after an almost three-month absence and while I loved spending the fall in Los Angeles, I could honestly never return and never miss it. I was dying to get to my home. Our home. But approximately two miles down the road, he’d pulled to the side of the road and handed me a blindfold, insisting I put it on.

“You only know it from pictures,” he said and guided me over the now cement slab he’d insisted we do for the drive. Parts of the long drive were still gravel, but closer to the house he’d had cement laid.

We built the house together, every single plan was agreed on by both of us, and if I’d had any doubts, we worked well together, the stress of building a house with a man with very different opinions than mine would have been what broke us apart.

I’d wanted to rebuild the farmhouse exactly as it’d always been, with maybe a few updates, a little bit more space, and definitely a basement.

He’d wanted it built with steel beams, fortified with cement and iron and every other material that would make it impossible to ever be leveled by an F-4 tornado again. My safety was important to him, so I’d compromised once we started sifting through plans from a contractor he’d hired out of Kansas City, Missouri.

I agreed on brick, and from the plans, it was just over four thousand square feet of what I knew would be sheer beauty. The master bedroom was downstairs, where we’d have sweeping views of the land and French doors to walk out to the patio. We’d be able to see both the cattle in the pastures when they were close as well as the goats when they were out in their pen. Cooper had insisted on being able to see what he now called his animals, from the moment he woke up to the moment he closed his eyes. Even the window above our large, corner-soaking tub in the bathroom would allow him that option.

It was safe to say over the last several months I’d fallen deeper and deeper in love with this man, even with the fact he was hiding our home from me.

Everything took longer than we’d planned, from the clean up to the insurance to the building and even his filming. We’d wanted to have everything done by Thanksgiving so we could celebrate with his parents like we’d previously planned. Instead, we ended up flying to Buffalo and celebrating with them there.

I loved his family almost as much as I loved him. His sister was hilarious. His mom and dad even better. They had wrapped me in their arms from the moment they met me and treated me like their daughter before the hugs were finished and we were inside their home. And, since they weren’t able to come to Kansas for Thanksgiving, they were coming for Christmas.

I had two weeks to prepare.

My palms itched to remove the blindfold. The scent of dried grass and home tickled my nose and the chilly late fall air made me curl farther into him.

“Can I peek yet?”

“Almost.” He settled his hands on my shoulders and turned me, just so. His breath skated across my cheeks and I tensed, waiting for his lips to brush against mine. “You know I love you, right?”

“Of course I do.”

“And you know I can’t wait to walk into this house with you and start our life together, right?”

His voice was thick, trembled a little bit. My excitement flipped to nerves and I touched the blindfold. “What is it?”

He’d been acting strange all day. Fidgety. I thought it was just excitement but the tension in his voice made me second guess myself.

“Answer the question, woman.”

It took me a moment to remember it. “Of course. I can’t wait to start our life together too.”

“Good.” He removed the blindfold and the bright sun in my eyes made me squeeze them closed. I flinched, and when I opened them, I gasped at the house in front of me. Tan, beautiful brick, red door, red shutters. A sweeping front porch along with a swing.

He’d built me my swing. I’d mentioned it once in passing, how I’d wanted a swinging bench on the patio.

Tears immediately swam in my eyes and it took me a moment to realize Cooper wasn’t standing in front of me like he had been.

He was on one knee in front of me. A black box propped open in his palm as he took my hand in his.

“Will you start our life together, in this house, agreeing to be my wife?”

Oh damn. I’d prepared myself for the home and the onslaught of emotions I knew I’d face coming back to Kansas and having everything I knew be different.

I hadn’t prepared myself for this.

My knees wobbled and tears streamed down my cheeks. “What?” The house. Cooper. The ring.

It was all so beautiful. Too much.

So perfect.

“Marry me, Rebecca. Spend the rest of your life with me as Rebecca Hawke, working side by side to create a family. Make me the happiest man in the world and say yes.”

“God. Yes,” I cried and collapsed, unable to stay standing. He caught me like he always did and we were on the ground, kissing, hands grappling onto each other. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

The front door opened and a crowd of people streamed out onto the porch, shouting, “Congratulations!”

“Oh my God.” I buried my face into his chest, my entire body shook. “They’re all here.”

“Every single person you love is here,” he said. “Including my parents. They didn’t want to miss it.”

“Have I mentioned today that I love you, Cooper Hawke?”

He took the ring out of the box, a beautiful, modest diamond wrapped in smaller diamonds and more diamonds covered the entire band. It was obscenely bright, more beautiful than the sun, and perfect. “Have I told you yet today, I love you soon-to-be Mrs. Cooper Hawke?”

A warmth rolled through, spread through my veins and down to the tips of my toes. Inside, there were no longer any missing or broken parts of me.

Cooper swept into my life when I never thought I could trust a man again, much less fall in love with one, but he was everything I needed, taking me by surprise, and filled me with me stability and passion I’d never lose.

“No,” I teased, kissing him. “Actually, you haven’t said that yet today.”

“My mistake.” He kissed me slowly, pulling me to my feet with us still connected and swept me into his arms. Behind us, his family and all of our friends cheered. “I love you, Mrs. soon-to-be Cooper Hawke.”

“I love you too, future husband. Now take me inside and show me our home.”

“With pleasure.”

He carried me up the stairs, through the large grouping of our friends, my friends that had become his, and his family that had become mine. We toasted with champagne and wine and whiskey, and I toured my home, seeing it finished for the very first time, and as we swept through each room, Cooper held my hand, at my side…where he’d stay forever.