Page 24 of Echoes

“El, we’re not spies. We’re not exactly equipped to know what to do about this.”

“I think we need to get rid of it, Lydia.” She pressed her forehead to her girlfriend’s. “If something happened to you because of me, I’d never forgive myself. I reallywouldturn into my mom.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay. We’re okay.” Lydia cupped her cheek. “Let’s go on a cruise.”

“What? A cruise? Where did that come from?”

“Hear me out. We take a road trip, so baggage doesn’t need togo through the rigorous security, and we drive to a port where a cruise ship is leaving from. Pick a coast. Then, we put the thing into your purse and bring that damn metal box with us. Maybe we find something that’s watertight for it; I don’t know. We don’t want it destroyed for some reason I don’t understand, but we can throw it off the ship when we’re in deep enough water.”

“Oh,” Eliza said.

“I’d suggest just renting a boat, but I don’t know how to handle one, and neither do you. We don’t want to have someone else drive it because they’ll ask what the hell we’re dropping over the side of their boat. A cruise makes us one in hundreds. No one will pay attention to us. We can also wait until it’s the middle of the night to do it, just in case. We can be rid of the thing, watch this asshole get convicted of killing your dad, and then, maybe you can finally put this thing behind you.”

“That all sounds really nice.”

“Still scared?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Then, I might as well do this now,” Lydia said.

“Do what?”

Lydia stepped back and knelt in front of her. She pulled something out of her front pocket and held it up.

“El, I bought this about two weeks ago, and it’s been burning a hole in every pocket since. I’ve wanted to ask you this question maybe since we were teenagers. I know it’s fast because we only got back together a month ago and I moved in at the same time, but you have to know that you are the absolute love of my life. We can wait as long as you need, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

Eliza smiled down at her and shook her head.

“No?”

“What?” Eliza asked.

“You’re saying no,” Lydia pointed out.

“Oh, no, I’m not. Sorry.” Eliza laughed a little. “It was a disbelief thing. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“So, you’renotsaying no?”

“No, I’m saying yes,” she replied.

“You’re confusing me.”

“Stand up, my love,” Eliza requested, laughing again. “Kiss me and put the ring on my finger already.”

“Yeah?” Lydia stood up. “Really?”

“Really,” she replied and held out her hand.

Lydia placed the ring on Eliza’s finger and lifted her hand to her lips, kissing the ring finger before she pulled Eliza into her and kissed her slowly. Eliza kissed her back and felt all the tension leave her body again. That was part of her new normal with Lydia now. Just being in this woman’s arms, waking up next to her this past month, and realizing that she could finally let herself be happy meant that the tension could go away and leave her with the joy of being in love with the only person who was meant to hold her heart.

“We should take the cruise soon,” she added as she pulled out of the kiss. “But that’s not our honeymoon, Lydia. I want a real wedding with you and an actual honeymoon that doesn’t have anything to do with whatever the hell is going on here. I want it to be only about us. I want everything from the moment we dump that thing into the water to be about you and me and our life together.”

“You and me,” Lydia repeated. “Deal. Well, until there are little ones running around the house.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“One thing at a time, my love,” Eliza told her.

“Should we use it one more time before we toss it?” Lydia asked. “Like I said, it’s only done good for us.”