Page 76 of Critical Strike
“I’m happy right now. I’m happy with you.” She leaned over to kiss him, but the kiss was cut short by a tug on her line.
“Again?” Luke laughed, grabbing the net in case she needed help. She was much better at reeling her catch than she was at first, so there was no need for him to splash around in the water for her sake.
“What can I say?” She held up a sizable, shining, wriggling trout with a proud smile. There was no helping it.
“Are you putting something special on the hook? Are you bribing these fish?”
She laughed as he took the hook from the trout’s mouth. That was something she still couldn’t bring herself to do, even averting her eyes when he did it. Catching and cleaning and eating them was one thing.
There were limits, though.
“Yeah, I’m bribing them in some weird way so they’ll bite. You figured out my trick.”
“Are you sure you aren’t, though?”
“What?” She looked his way when curiosity won out over squeamishness. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s...something...else on the hook.” Luke plopped the fish into the basket between them, then bent to rinse something off in the water.
“What is it? I didn’t put anything special on there... You’re right here with me, you see what I’m doing.” Curious, she leaned over his shoulder.
He stood and turned to her.
And held out a ring.
She dropped her pole in favor of crossing her hands over her chest, where her heart had suddenly started pounding. “What...? How...? What...?”
Luke offered the sweetest smile. “Should I bother answering those questions?”
She couldn’t answer. Somebody had stolen her words. All Claire could do was shake her head while her eyes remained glued to the ring. White gold. Diamond solitaire. Sparkling in the sunlight.
He lowered himself to one knee. “I didn’t intend to do this here and now, but with the direction the conversation took, it seemed like a natural time to ask you to marry me.”
She gulped. “Oh. My gosh.”
“I’ll take your reaction as surprise and not horror.”
“Oh, no! Not horror. Definitely surprise.” Her head felt like it was about to fall right off, she was so surprised.
“You didn’t know I was planning to propose?”
“I hoped...” she admitted, trembling, “but I didn’t know. I didn’t want to assume anything.”
“Which is one reason of many for me to ask you to marry me, Claire Wallace.” There was so much love shining on his face, looking up at her the way he was, holding out the ring. “You’ve been the one for me all our lives. The one person I could never forget. You’ve always been part of my soul.”
Her breath caught and her eyes filled with tears.
“You always will be,” he murmured. “And I fully intend to spend the rest of my life reminding you of how lovable you are. Because you are. You’re worthy of adoration and support and protection and everything I could ever offer. More than that, but I’m nothing special. I’m not a superhero, I swear. Though I’ll do everything in my power to be that for you. I’ll be anything and everything you need.”
She shook her head as tears spilled over. “You’re already everything I need and more than I ever dreamed I’d have. I don’t think I could be happier than I am right now at this moment.”
“Is that a yes?”
She giggled and nodded. “It’s an absolute yes.”
There was no time to say anything else before he was on his feet again and she was in his arms. He kissed her, filling her heart with so much love. And joy. And hope.
Finally, she had hope for her future.