Page 110 of Silver Linings

“Let’s not get our hopes up.” I pat his thigh in a placating gesture, and he tosses his head back on a laugh. “Do you want any?” I point at the baked goods.

How I ended up with a man who doesn’t like sweets is beyond me, but he doesn’t decline like I think he will. Instead, he leans forward and hooks his knuckles under my chin, bringing my face up to meet him in a kiss. His tongue coaxes my lips open, and I moan into his mouth as his tongue tangles with mine.

He pulls back slightly, breaking the kiss, eyes dark, staring down at my swollen mouth. “Delicious.”

“I think I’ve been a bad influence on you,” I mutter, turning slightly to face him.

“Mhmm, probably.”

I scoff in mock affront and playfully swat at his arm. He stops me before I make contact, wrapping his hand around my wrist, bringing it to his mouth, and placing a kiss there.

“This one looks new,” Hendrix notes.

“Hmmm?” I hum in question, having just taken a sip of my coffee.

“This plaque… It looks new.”

He always reads them with me now, knowing how much they’ve meant to me over the years.

I turn to read the one attached to the bench we’re sitting on.

Twenty questions will never be enough for us, Sunshine. How about a lifetime?

Tears well in my eyes, and when I turn to look at Hendrix, he’s in front of me, down on one knee.

“Oh my God.” I bring a hand to my mouth.

“Silver James, from the moment you barreled into me like a bat out of hell, spilling coffee on my shoes, I knew I was done for,” I choke around a laugh. “You have shown me the sun and brought me back to life when I didn’t realize I was withering away in the dark. You are the most miraculous, resilient,outrageousperson I’ve ever met, and I’ve loved you from the moment I saw your eyes light up at a store calledGet Nailed. You make every room brighter and every day with you is an adventure I want to go on for the rest of my life. People write about the love I feel for you, the type of love I hope I show you every day.”

A silent tear tracks down his face, and I brush it away with my thumb. “I’ve called you a lot of names over the past year, but the one I dream of calling you is wife.” He reaches into his coat now, pulling out a small, pink velvet box, opening it to reveal themost ethereal ring I’ve ever seen. “Will you marry me? Spend the rest of our lives writing the best love story of all?”

I launch myself off the bench, throwing my donuts to the pigeons, and wrap my arms around Hendrix. I start peppering him with kisses—so many, he probably can’t breathe. In between each one, there’s a word:yes, yes, yes.

I’m sitting on his bent knee when I pull back, staring into eyes that look like the sun breaking through redwood trees. I cup his jaw in my palm. “I never dared to dream for you. I thought love had abandoned me a long time ago, but you made me hope. I grew up thinking love was a burden, too heavy for me to want to carry, but loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. So, yes. In every lifetime, in every universe, yes.”

I don’t know who moves first, him or me, but our lips connect in a soul melding kiss. It’s not wild or fervent. It’s ineffable. It’s devotion, raw and beautiful and us.

We pull apart, only an inch of space remaining between us as Hendrix slips the ring onto my finger, a perfect fit.

“You launched your precious donuts to the sky, Sunshine,” he laughs, grabbing my hand and settling us back on the bench.

I look at where they connect, the ring sparkling on my finger bracketed by his, and sigh a breath of pure contentment at the rightness of this moment, of us.

“That’s okay. We can get more the next time we come to sit onourbench.”