She took my hand. “You’re quiet today. Anything you want to talk about?”
My fucking chest felt tight as I looked at her. I had her total attention because she was convinced that something wasn’t right with me.
With her fiery hair being lifted gently by the wind, and her gorgeous hazel eyes fixated on me, it was hard to keep my head straight.
“Actually, yeah,” I answered. “There’s been something on my mind all damn day.”
I fished into the pocket of my jeans with my free hand and pulled out the item that had been solidly in my pocket since I’d made the purchase.
I popped it open with no fanfare. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask you to marry me without being worried that you’d say no.”
Her face looked stunned as she stared from me to the diamond ring inside the box.
The ring was only a few carats, but the diamond was flawless. I’d been tempted to get an enormous rock that nobody could miss, but that wouldn’t have been Riley. I would have done it because I wanted everyone to know she was mine.
“Oh, my God. Seth,” she said as she reached out to gingerly touch the diamond. “It’s beautiful.”
I didn’t like the way she was just admiring the piece of jewelry like it wasn’t hers. “For fuck’s sake, say yes, Riley. You’re killing me here,” I said tightly.
She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Did you, for even one moment, think that I’d say no? I told you that you were stuck with me. So, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Riley threw herself into my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck with so much enthusiasm that I nearly dropped her ring over the side of the dock.
I grabbed it and tossed the box aside. “Let me put it on.”
When she put her hand out, it was visibly shaking. “You’re nervous,” I said unhappily as I pushed the ring onto her finger.
She shook her head hard. “Not nervous. Excited. Touched. Happy. Right now, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.”
I kissed the ring on her finger and then her gorgeous lips.
I lost track of how much time we stayed like that, entwined together, touching, kissing. I didn’t give a shit. I was determined to celebrate the fact that Riley, the only woman I’d ever loved, was finally fucking mine.
She was willing to take me on for life. I was sure that I was a hell of a lot more ecstatic than she was at the moment.
“I was hoping you’d ask me,” she murmured into my ear. “I guess I just didn’t expect it so soon.”
“Baby, I’ve had this ring in my pocket for weeks.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“I wanted to make sure it was the right time. I didn’t want to push. You needed to trust me before you could agree to marry me,” I said huskily.
“I did. I do.” Her voice was hushed and serious. “Any of those trust issues I had were about me, not about you, Seth.”
“All gone now?” I asked hoarsely.
She nodded. “Since the day I realized that I was hurting you.”
I was over that. Had been since she’d explained why she was running away. “Don’t make me wait long for the ceremony.”
“I’m ready whenever you are,” she answered as she beamed at me, her entire face lit up with excitement and happiness.
“Today?” I said hopefully.
She laughed, a sound I knew I’d never get tired of hearing.
“I love you,” she said breathlessly. “We’ll do it as soon as humanly possible. I’d like a small, private ceremony.”
“I love you, too, baby. Whatever you want,” I agreed happily as I tightened my arms around her deliciously curvy body.
I didn’t give a damn how she wanted to seal the deal. I just wanted to make sure she was mine.
“January?” I asked.
“Seth, that’s next month. We can’t possibly get things together that fast, and it’s the holidays. March or April?”
“February,” I insisted.
Riley dropped a kiss on my forehead. “We’ll see. I’ll talk to Skye and Jade to see if they can help. But it might not be possible.”
I grinned at her, but I didn’t say anything else.
It would be February. No matter what my siblings said, I’d make it happen.
Maybe this was one of those times when being stubborn was actually a very good asset.
EPILOGUE
RILEY
A few months later . . .
I was a February bride.
Once Seth had decided when the ceremony was going to happen, his family had all fallen in line to help him.
My wedding was small, but incredibly romantic and beautiful.
Hudson had offered to walk me down the aisle, but I’d decided to take that joyful stroll alone.
I’d known exactly what I was doing, and I didn’t have an ounce of hesitation.
It hadn’t been necessary for anyone to give me away since my heart already belonged to Seth.
I looked down at my left hand, smiling as I saw the thin band that Seth had placed on my hand just an hour or so ago. He’d pushed it right next to my beautiful engagement ring.
I lifted my head to look around the ballroom that we’d rented from the Citrus Beach Country Club.
The ceremony had been small, but Seth had insisted on inviting a lot more people to the reception.
The Sinclairs had grown up here in Citrus Beach, and there were plenty of people he’d wanted to include in the festivities.
The large room was steadily filling up, and I smiled when Jade, Brooke, and Skye pushed their way through the people entering the venue to stand beside me.
“Oh, my God. You look so beautiful, Riley,” Jade said, like she hadn’t seen me earlier, before the ceremony.
The three women, my bridesmaids, looked pretty amazing themselves.
I’d settled on a chiffon, A-line, scoop-neck wedding gown with a minimal amount of beading so the dress wasn’t incredibly fussy.
Jade, Brooke, and Skye looked gorgeous in their slate-blue gowns that we’d chosen. They were formal without too much fluff.
Because I was a woman who loved color, I’d carried a large bouquet with a huge assortment of flowers.
“Thank you all,” I said sincerely as I hugged each one of them. “There’s no way I could have pulled this together without you.”
“I kind of think Seth would have single-handedly arranged it if we hadn’t,” Jade said teasingly.
I smiled at her. “You might be right.” My new husband had been adamant about getting married in February.
He’d wanted the first Saturday in February.
I’d pushed until he agreed to make it the last week of the month.
“You have to love the fact that he was that eager to officially make you a Sinclair,” Skye said with a sigh.
Riley Sinclair. It might take some time to get used to my new name, but it had a nice ring to it.
“I’m kind of glad he got his way,” I confessed. “I’m more than ready to start our life together. Not that we haven’t done that already, but it’s nice to have it official.”
“Are you excited about your honeymoon?” Skye asked.
“Three weeks in Costa Rica? Definitely,” I answered with a sigh.