Page 273 of Josephine and Clay

Our sons between us.

Our whole world.

“I had a whole speech,” I say.

Her eyes fill. “Did you?”

“Several versions.”

I open the box.

The ring catches the low hospital light. Simple, beautiful, and unmistakably hers.

Josie covers her mouth with one hand.

I take a breath, but it shakes on the way in. “I spent most of my life thinking home was a place I could leave.” Her tears spill over. “I thought if I kept moving, I’d eventually find whatever it was everyone else seemed to have. Something that made them steady. Something that made them sure.” I glance down at Henry, then at Theodore. Then back at her. “I found it with you.”

Her face crumples.

“You gave me a reason to stay before I even knew how to do it. You gave me sons. You gave me a future. And you gave me a chance to become the man I always wanted to be but never believed I could.”

My voice breaks.

I let it.

“I love your stubborn streak. I love the way you keep going when you're scared. I even love that look you get when you're pretending you're fine and fooling absolutely nobody.”

She laughs through tears.

“I love the life we’re building. I love our boys. I love our house. I love that I get to wake up every morning and know exactly where I belong.”

I take the ring from the box.

“So marry me, Josie.”

Her lips part.

I smile through the tears blurring my vision.

“Not because of the boys. Not because it’s expected. Not because it makes sense on paper, although I know you love when things make sense on paper.”

She cries harder.

“Marry me because I’m yours. Because you’re mine. Because I don’t want to spend one more day pretending there’s any future for me that doesn’t have you in it.”

The room is silent except for the tiny sound Theodore makes against her chest.

Josie looks at me.

“Yes,” she whispers.

My heart stops. Then kicks back to life in a way that feels brand new. “Yeah?”

She laughs, breathless and wrecked and beautiful. “Yes, you idiot.”

I slide the ring onto her finger with shaking hands.

It fits.