Blackout After Dark (Gansett Island #21) - Marie Force Page 0,45

be right here, I wouldn’t be. It’s really that simple, sweetheart.”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, Finn, I’ll marry you.”

He let out a shout that woke Ranger from a sound sleep to growl at him.

Chloe’s smile lit up her face and made him so glad he’d asked her now, when she was feeling poorly and worried that she was a burden. In hindsight, it was the perfect time to ask her.

“Stay right there.” He kissed her hand and placed it gently on the bed. “I’ll be right back.”

He went out to his truck to retrieve the necklace he’d bought for her weeks ago in anticipation of the right moment to ask the question that’d been on his mind for months. Back in the bedroom, he got down on his knees next to the bed and opened the black velvet box so she could see what was inside.

Chloe gasped and covered her mouth. “That’s beautiful.”

“I bought this a while ago, hoping I’d find the right time to ask you to spend forever with me.”

“And you thought this was the right time?” she asked, raising a brow with amusement. “When I can barely move?”

“I thought this was the perfect time, because more than anything, I want you to believe me when I tell you I’m here for the good times and the tough times.” He took the necklace from the box, put it on her and then sat back to admire how it looked on her. The two-carat diamond was surrounded by amethyst, representing her favorite color of purple. “That no matter how tough it gets, I’m not going anywhere.”

“It means a lot to me that you put so much thought into this, knowing it wouldn’t be possible for me to wear a ring.”

“I wanted something that would tell the world how much you mean to me.”

She patted the other side of the bed. “Come here.”

Finn went around the bed, stepping over Ranger, who’d gone back to sleep, and stretched out next to her, turning onto his side so he could see her. “You beckoned?”

“Thank you for the beautiful necklace and for everything you said. You have no idea how much it means to me to know I’m not alone anymore, that I have you and your amazing family taking this journey with me. What your brother did with the generator… No one has ever done things like that for me before, and it’s all because you love me.”

“It’s because you’re easy to love. Riley loves you, too, and can’t bear that you’re suffering like this.”

“I’ve never had a brother.”

“Now you do.”

“When I told you I’d never get married, I meant it.”

“I know you did.”

“You’ve shown me something different, something I’ve never seen before, and not just what’s happened between us, but your aunt and uncle, your cousins, your dad and Chelsea, your brother and Nikki. I haven’t been around a lot of happy couples in my life, and to see what’s possible… The McCarthys made me a believer, but more than anyone else, you made me a believer.”

“Thank you for taking a chance on me. I promise you’ll never be sorry.”

“I already know that.”

Finn pulled his phone from his back pocket. “Let’s take a picture and tell everyone we’re engaged.” He sat up next to her while she held up her new necklace, the two of them smiling like crazy loons. When he showed the pictures to her, she agreed that any of them would be perfect to share the news with their loved ones.

He cued up a text to the McCarthy family group chat. Sharing the huge news that the amazing, beautiful Ms. Chloe Dennis has agreed to marry Finn McCarthy!

Congratulations came flooding in, lighting up his phone with texts that he shared with Chloe.

“Well,” she said, “there’s no getting out of it now.”

“Thank God for that.”

Chapter 15

Riley arrived back at Eastward Look and was thrilled to find Nikki home from a morning shift at the Wayfarer. They’d both been working so much this summer that they sometimes went a full day without seeing each other. Those days absolutely sucked. They’d agreed to take this afternoon off so they could go to Charlie and Sarah’s party, but those agreements were always contingent upon no crises arising at the Wayfarer that required the general manager’s attention.

And there’d been a lot of crises in the first summer since the iconic island hot spot reopened. She’d dealt with everything from alcohol poisoning to drug overdoses to people trashing hotel rooms, day-trippers passing out in