Page 109 of Love… It's Wild
I love that man.
Yes, it took me six months to move in here since we made us official, and it’s been six months since then.
I love this home. I love the family we have in this home. I love everything about my life.
Walking around the house, I see remnants of our year as an official couple. A photo of us from our vacation to Paris. I got Rob to agree to a long European weekend for my birthday. He had a hard time navigating a country where he didn’t know the language, and he wasn’t too keen on the endless museums, but he did all right when he asked me to dance in front of the Eiffel Tower one night and said it was his favorite part of the trip. Just us. Under the moon.
There’s another photo of me, Rob, Molly, and Jesse, taken in Aruba. We traveled there for Jillian and Luke’s wedding. Like Melissa, Jillian was pregnant when she walked down the aisle. We’d waited for Olivia to be old enough to travel internationally and then headed to the happy island. Since Luke and Jillian have little to no family, it was really just us friends that filled the seats, and the two looked like they wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Luke’s dad was his best man while Melissa and I were her matron and maid of honor. Jillian gave herself away, and Ainsley was the flower girl. Soon after the wedding, their son, Grady Mitchel Incendio, was born.
Next to that picture is another of us from the gala at Wolfson Manor, taken by the professional photographer the night of my award. It’s my favorite because that’s the night we officially became us.
The house is quiet. Molly and Jesse are nowhere to be found. The basement door is open, and the light is on downstairs. I walk downstairs, through the empty game room, and head to the back, where Rob’s art studio is. I peek inside and find an empty room. On the wall, directly across from where he usually works, is the other painting of me he did last year. The one where I sat topless and fought the desire to kiss him. The finished product is more than I could ever have dreamed, and if I didn’t already feel beautiful, one look at that image, and I’d be flying high on confidence.
To see me through Rob’s eyes is exhilarating.
Oh, and that flash mob video—I finally saw it! Rob’s brother, Jack, was saving it for a special occasion. That occasion was my first official dinner at the Bronson household. I got to meet the whole clan over Thanksgiving. I won over his mother’s full acceptance by baking three pies and Melissa telling her the story of how I disgraced Rob’s ex-wife in a restaurant. If she had any concerns about my intentions with her son, all was good after that. I was rewarded with the video and I was beyond thankful to watch a young Rob gyrating to nineties pop music while wearing baggy jeans and a backward hat.
In fact, I still watch it whenever I need a pick me up.
I exit the basement, turning off the light, and take out my cell phone, texting to ask Rob where everyone is.
We’re at the castle.
I smile at his use of the namethe castleinstead of the secret garden. I’ve always liked my and the kids’ name for it better.
Rob and the kids must have taken the four-wheeler, so I walk out on foot. It’s a decent walk—a solid fifteen minutes at least. I don’t mind it. The mountains in the distance are a gorgeous cascade of brown and green against the lush grass. Rob spent a good portion of last fall reseeding the land, turning what had once been dead into gorgeous turf. It was a labor of love with all hands on deck, but we did it.
I’m in the clearing when I see the ivory tower peeking through the trees. I walk up to it and around the bend. My smile is bright when I pass the flower beds, full and vibrant. I stop by to smell a rose, and a butterfly zooms by. The koi fish are swimming happily, thanks to a filter Rob added, using a solar-powered generator. Again, it’s good to love a handyman.
My feet are padding down the cobblestone when Rob steps out from the wooden door. I stop at the sight of him, a bit amused.
He’s not wearing his typical jeans and a tee—a look I crave seeing. No, today, he’s wearing his gray groomsman suit from Will and Melissa’s wedding. I stop and give him the stink-eye, wondering what the hell he’s doing.
He just smiles. His dark brows arch mischievously, and he grins in a way that makes my heart race. My man doesn’t do suits in the summer. He doesn’t dress up for non-special occasions. If he is, that can only mean one thing.
I close my eyes, not wanting to get my hopes up, but fuck it.
“Are you proposing?” I ask and then smash my lips together because I just can’t help myself when it comes to speaking.
His perfect teeth make an appearance as he smiles, and his entire face lights up. “There’s only one reason I’d wear this thing in the dead of summer, and it’s for you.”
“How long have you been out here? What would you have done if I hadn’t texted?”
“I know you can’t go too long without wondering where we are, so we just figured if we waited, you’d come to us.”
“We?” I ask and then hear Molly’s giggle.
She and Jesse are hanging out the window on the second story of the castle, looking down at their father and me on the cobblestone.
“Now,” Rob says, taking a step forward and holding out his hands in offering, “if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a very important question.”
I simply nod and inhale the deepest breath that’s possible.
Rob drops to one knee. His hand goes into his pocket and takes out a velvet box. When I see it, I nearly faint at the sight of the most beautiful ring imaginable—a round diamond set against two smaller ones.
“Tara Parsons, you literally fell into my life, and I will forever be a happy man that I was there to catch you. In my wildest dreams, I never would have pictured such a fun, crazy, stunning woman who is fiercely stubborn, insanely smart, and the most exciting person I know, to call my own. I made a vow to love you already, so today, I’m not pledging another promise I haven’t said already, other than this: Will you, Tara, not only marry me, but also be a Bronson? Be a mother to my children, a wife to me, and let me honor you and cherish you forever because the state says I’m really bound to you whether you piss me off or not?”
I laugh at his totally insane yet beautiful proposal. “Only if you say please.”