The Man Who Has No Sight - Victoria Quinn Page 0,86

wanted to rinse off first.

Deacon smiled at me before he picked up his son. “I’ll meet you upstairs.”

After rinsing off, I lay beside him in bed, the windows open and revealing the lake outside. I was in just my panties because it’d been such a warm day. Neither one of us seemed interested in sex because we were both so tired. I knocked out pretty quickly.

When I woke up, it was dark outside, only a little bit of light remaining on the horizon.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand and saw it was a little past five.

Deacon wasn’t there, so he’d probably gone downstairs to get dinner ready.

I walked into the bathroom and fixed my hair and makeup before I pulled on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved blouse. It’d been warm during the day, but with the sun gone, it probably would be chilly.

I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen, but Deacon wasn’t cooking. Maybe he hadn’t started yet. Or maybe he would celebrate our last night here by ordering a pizza like Derek and I wanted.

I moved to the back door, and that was when I noticed lit white candles on the patio. There were dozens of them, spread out on different surfaces, and the fireplace had a large fire inside. It took me a second to process what I was looking at. I didn’t know he had so many candles here, and if he hadn’t, he must have packed them, but I didn’t know that either.

I opened the door and stepped outside.

The air was definitely cooler than it had been earlier, and I was immediately surrounded by the sounds of wildlife, the crickets in the grass, the bullfrogs by the water, the fire in the hearth. It felt like summer, even though that was months away.

Derek got out of his chair and walked to me, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, holding a small box in his hand.

I narrowed my eyes.

“My dad was too scared to ask, so he wanted me to do it…”

Time suddenly moved differently because my brain needed to pause to absorb those words. The candles were odd, but I didn’t make any assumptions. But now, the box in his hand looked like a ring box, and there was only one question that could be asked when holding a box like that. It made me feel twenty things at once, excitement, anxiety, fear, joy…everything.

My eyes lifted, and I saw Deacon step out of the darkness, wearing the same outfit, jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. His hands were in his pockets, and he stared at me, his expression subtle, but full of that intensity he always gave me when I walked through the door, like he was moved by my presence every single time.

“I talk to girls for my friends all the time, so I’m not scared.”

My eyes moved back down to Derek.

“Dad said that he wants you to be part of our family, but if you want to marry him, you have to marry me too…”

My hand moved over my lips, my eyes immediately watering once I knew this was real, that the unexpected was happening. I wanted to be his wife, but I wasn’t sure if he would ever ask me. I’d expected it to take years, but I would wait as long as he wanted me to. But it was happening…right now.

“You make my dad happy, and you make me happy too. So…” He looked over his shoulder at his father.

Deacon moved forward and stood beside his son, pulling his hands out of his pockets.

Derek got on one knee and opened the box. “Will you marry me?”

“Oh my god…” I kept my lips covered because they started to tremble.

Deacon then lowered himself to one knee, looking up at me, his brown eyes alive from all the lit candles around us. He’d just shaved, so his jaw was clean, the slight smile on his lips noticeable. His eyes were so soft but hard at the same time, looking at me just the way he did when we made love, when I said something that made him smile, when I told him I was pregnant. “And will you marry me?”

I lowered myself to my knees because I didn’t want to stand anymore. I wanted to be level with the two people I loved more than anything in the world. I didn’t even look at the ring because I cared more about them. It was so sweet, so perfect, but there