squint as though she’s not sure about something. “What are you up to?”
“Me?” I avoid her eyes. “Nothing.”
“Jacob McIntyre.” She calls me by my full name, and now I know she’s going to get it out of me.
“Okay, fine,” I say, turning and grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door.
“Wait,” she says, trying to keep up with me. “You didn’t lock the door.”
“I’m the sheriff,” I say over my shoulder. “No one will actually break into my house.” I open the door and pick her up, putting her in it and grabbing the seat belt. “You are going to have to do me a favor and not ask me anything and just go with it.”
“What in the heck?” she says, and I make her stop talking by kissing her.
“Please,” I whisper, and she looks at me.
“Okay,” she says softly, and I kiss her one more time before closing the door and getting in the truck. The whole way toward the creek, I go over my speech in my head. When I pull up to the clearing, she looks over at me, and I just shake my head. When I get out of the truck and walk around to her side, I grab her hand. My hand suddenly starts to get sweaty, my heart starts to speed up just a touch, and I’m suddenly so nervous, which is crazy since this is Kallie. It’s me and Kallie; it’s always been me and Kallie.
We walk hand in hand while the sun starts to set, and when we get to the rock, she looks up and sees everything I’ve prepared. “What in the …?” The lights that I strung up on the trees hang at different lengths, and the lace hanging looks like a canopy. I look at her and look back at the lanterns around the tree illuminating the tree.
I walk her to the tree and turn to look at her, and all she does is look around while tears fall down her cheeks. “Jacob,” she says to me when I get down on one knee.
“I had this whole thing prepared,” I start to tell her. “I went over the speech for the last week. I even rehearsed it with Ethan.”
“Oh my gosh.” She laughs. “He didn’t even tell me.”
“Well, he knew how important it was.” I smile. “Kallie, you don’t know this, but I was going to propose to you on prom night.” I say the last secret I have kept to myself. She rolls her lips together and tries not to sob. “I had this ring,” I say, taking out the brown ring box that has been with me ever since I bought it, “inside my jacket pocket. I was going to bring you up here and ask you to be mine. To marry me and make me the luckiest man alive.”
“I would have said yes,” she says. “A hundred times, I would have said yes.”
“Kallie Barnes, I fell in love with you when I was probably in diapers. I loved you even when I didn’t know I did and having you beside me makes me the man I am. I want to have more babies with you,” I say. “I want to fill the house with toys, and I want to watch your stomach grow with my baby. I want to hold your hand when you get scared. I want to kiss you when you go to sleep and when you get up. I want to wake up and see my ring on your finger every single day. I want to grow old with you and share all your tomorrows with you. I love you so much more than any words can say.”
“Yes,” she says, stopping me. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” She bends down, taking my face in her hands. “I’ve loved you forever. I will love you always.”
Epilogue Two
Kallie
Three years later
“I hear you.” I put my hand on my ever-growing belly. Opening the fridge, I grab a piece of pie while my little one kicks me as if he’s in kung fu training.
“Kallie.” I hear Ethan call me, and he runs into the kitchen. “Gramps is here.” I look over at him and smile. He’s grown a foot in the last six months. He runs over to me, kissing my cheek, and he doesn’t even have to get on his tippy toes to do it. He bends and kisses my belly, something that he started when I was pregnant with Amelia two years ago.
“Did you pack