Page 255 of Wait for Him

I walk over and reach for the tiny pocket, carefully unfastening the button. My fingers aren't nearly as steady as I'd like them to be when I pull out the ring.

And suddenly none of this is funny anymore. Not because I'm afraid she'll say no. I'm not. I meant what I told her earlier. I know this woman. I know us. I know exactly where we're going. But knowing the answer doesn't make asking her mean any less. If anything, it makes this feel even fucking bigger.

I reach for Jaxon first, carefully lifting her from Rose's arms and placing her back against Blaire's chest. Blaire takes her without a word, but when I glance at her, her eyes are full and she's wearing the biggest smile I've ever seen.

“Go get her,” she whispers.

Yeah. That's the plan.

I turn back to Rose, and she's already shaking her head at me.

"Don't," she says, laughing as she wipes at her cheeks. "Don't look at me like that."

“Like what?”

“You know exactly what you’re doing.”

I do.

For once in my fucking life, I know exactly what I’m doing.

I step in front of her and lower myself onto one knee. Her hand flies to her mouth, and I take the other one between both of mine, looking up at the woman I’ve loved in one way or another for most of my adult life.

“Rosalie Bennett.”

She makes a tiny sound behind her hand.

“Meeting you for the first time rewired my DNA. There hasn’t been a day since that some part of me hasn’t belonged to you.”

Her face crumples.

I squeeze her hand. “I didn’t know that was what happened at the time. I was too young and way too fucking stupid to understand it. I just knew there was this girl who got under my skin and stayed there. No matter how much time passed, no matter where we were or who we were with, somehow there you were.”

A tear slips down her cheek.

“I spent years thinking I needed to get over you. Then I spent even more years convincing myself I had, which, in hindsight, was a spectacular waste of everybody’s fucking time. Because through all of it, you were still the person I looked for first. The person I wanted to tell things to. The person I compared everyone else to without even realizing I was doing it.”

Her fingers tighten around mine.

“I loved you when you were my best friend’s little sister. I loved you when you became my friend. I loved you when we were both too stupid to admit what we were doing to each other, and I loved you when you spent a year away pretending you didn’t miss me just as much as I missed you.”

“I did miss you,” she whispers.

“I know that now.”

She laughs through her tears.

“I wish we’d figured this shit out sooner. I wish I could go back and save us some of the years we wasted being stubborn and scared and making every possible wrong decision available to two otherwise intelligent people.”

I shake my head.

“But I wouldn’t change what brought us here, because I don’t want some different version of you. I want this one. The woman standing in front of me right now. The pain in my ass who argues with me about everything, steals my clothes, calls me on my bullshit and somehow still thinks she’s subtle when she’s trying to get her way.”

“I am subtle.”

A laugh moves through the room.

I grin up at her. “You’re really fucking not.”