AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you really fall in love with me?” Pressing a hand to her chest, Arien raised her chin. “Or a dream?”
“Both.” And that was the truth. “You are the dream, pretty girl. Always have been.”
“Loving someone isn’t an accident, it’s a choice. You don’t fall. You choose it.” Kellan took her by the arms, his face only inches from hers. “And I chose to open my heart and love you.”
She nodded with a sniffle, tears sliding down her cheeks. “One more thing. Did Matthew know what was going to happen to my mom? Did he dream that, too?”
“Baby, no, I swear it.” Holding her tight against him, his brother kissed her hair.
“If he did, and I don’t think he did, he didn’t tell us, pretty girl.” His thumb tracing along her jaw, Tanner caught her tears. “And I don’t believe our father would’ve taken the chance knowin’ that.”
“Or put himself through that again.” Kellan made a fist, pounding it on his chest. “Dad’s all tore up inside. He loved your mama.”
“I know he did.”
Tanner knew it too.
As surely as he and his brother loved her daughter.
So they took away her tears and took her to the lake for a swim. Not for long, though. Up here, the water never got very warm, and with the sun setting, the temperature on the mountain was quickly dropping.
Tanner wrapped a shivering Arien in a blanket. “Maybe we should go back or start a fire. It’s cold.”
“Nope.” Kellan passed her a flask of Fireball. “Can’t or we’ll miss it.”
“Miss what?”
His arm around her, he pointed up at the sky. “See that hazy band of light there?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“That’s the Milky Way,” he said, and falling back onto his elbows, Kellan took her with him. “The edge of the galaxy in our little corner of the universe. A bunch of stars we can’t see individually with the naked eye. Gas. Dust. That’s why it looks like that.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“They say there’s maybe two trillion other galaxies out there. We’re just a tiny speck in one of ’em. Ain’t that some crazy shit?” Kellan slowly turned to look at her.
“It’s surreal if you think about it.”
“Too fantastic to be true and yet it is.”
Fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist, Arien snickered. “Is that supposed to be an analogy?”
“Maybe.” Exchanging a glance with him, his brother winked.
Tanner took her hand. He kissed her palm. “I love you, pretty girl.”
“We love you.” Kellan took and kissed the other. “And more love is just that. More.”
“I love you too,” she said, palming their cheeks. “Both of you.”
Puffing out his chest, his brother grinned. “Then bein’ it’s the middle of August, and you ain’t hightailed it back to Denver yet, I’m thinkin’ you’re plannin’ on stayin’.”
“Plans change. Dreams do too.” Arien’s head bobbed side to side. “So, I thought I might.”
Tanner grinned too. “In that case, we’ve got somethin’ we’ve been wantin’ to ask ya.”
They said it together, “Will you be our wife?”
