“I’m sorry I didn’t respond.” He swiped his thumbs over her cheeks where earlier tears had tracked. “I didn’t want to do this by phone, and I had a few things I needed to work out first.”
Her breath had quickened, every cell straining to touch him. “Work out?”
“My job, my duty… I take it seriously.”
She rolled her lips inward. “I know that. I told you…I’m willing to wait for you. What you do is important. I reacted selfishly the first time. I didn’t mean—”
He pressed his fingers over her mouth, quieting h
er attempt at an apology. “You reacted honestly. I should’ve, too.” He slid his hand down to her shoulder, regret on his face. “I didn’t want to leave you either. I should’ve told you that. Every day of this summer has been better than the next. I’ve never felt so…content. And that scared the hell out of me because there’s this part of me that tells me I’m not worth anything if I’m not out there fighting the fight. That I’m giving up. A coward.”
She frowned and shook her head. “Finn…”
“But it hit me on the plane that the only cowardly thing I was doing was running from the very thing that would make me happy.”
She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against his shoulder, the words falling over her like warm rain.
“I don’t need this mission to get revenge or to prove my worth.” His hand coasted over the back of her head, his fingers sifting through her hair. “I already have the best revenge I could ask for. Trevor and Joseph wanted to take out the people who they thought were happy. They figured the rest of us would mess up our lives on our own.”
She lifted her head.
“I’ve done a pretty good job of it. I’ve done their bidding. And I was about to do it again. Turning away from something great and spending another few years of my life focused on them, on their legacy.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “But that’s not what revenge would be. Revenge would be happiness.”
She swallowed past the apple-sized lump in her throat.
“And you, Olivia Arias”—he stepped back and took her hand in his—“are my happiness.”
She’d been trying not to cry, but he wasn’t playing fair. Her eyes filled, and she choked out the words she couldn’t keep in any longer. “You’re staying.”
“I’m staying,” he confirmed. “If you’ll have me.”
Before she could process what he was doing or say anything else, he lowered himself in front of her. On one knee.
Oh God. All of the starch left her, and she nearly dissolved into a puddle on the porch. She reached out for a column to steady herself.
He held her other hand. “I love you. I did back then. And I love you even more today. I don’t need a mission to get me up every morning. I already have my mission right here—to wake up every day and spend my life with you.” He pulled a gold ring from his pocket, one she recognized, one she’d secretly coveted all those years ago but could’ve never worn publicly. His high school ring. He held it up. “I know it hasn’t been long, but in some ways it feels like we’ve waited a lifetime. Will you marry me, Liv?”
Liv slid down to her knees, no longer able to hold herself up. All those years she’d told herself she wasn’t looking for this. Relationships weren’t for her. Marriage wasn’t for her. That day by the lake, she’d told him she couldn’t wait for him. But that was a lie.
She’d been waiting for him all along—twelve years of trying to find what she’d only gotten a taste of in high school. She’d found the one on her first try and had spent all the years afterward with an empty place in her heart that she didn’t know how to fill. A place fit just for this man. That part overflowed now. Hot tears tracked down her cheeks as she nodded. “Yes. Sí. Ja. All the yeses.”
The dimpled smile that broke out on Finn’s face could’ve lit the whole front yard with its brilliance. His hands trembled as he unfastened her necklace and slid the too-big ring onto the chain, proving that at least one thing could shake his nerves of steel. “This will have to hold a temporary spot until I can get you a real one. I didn’t think you’d want the airport jewelry special.” He kissed her ring finger. “Plus, I always wanted you to wear my class ring.”
She smiled, her heart almost too full for her to form words. But instead of some brilliant declaration of love, a non sequitur burst out. “They sell engagement rings at the airport?”
“Yep.” He smirked. “Next to the Cinnabon.”
A laugh tumbled from her, and she launched herself at him, toppling him and kissing him on the way down. I love you, I love you, I love you. The words poured out of her in between kisses, and he said the same thing back. She ran her hands through his hair, over his stubbled chin, mapping him, proving to herself that he was really here, that this was actually happening.
His hands went into her hair, and soon the kisses turned from sweet to heated. Every part of her craved him. This week, she’d thought she’d lost him forever. Tonight, he was here, safe, hers, loving her, offering her forever. She didn’t want to let him go.
But they were on the porch, it was hot, and the mosquitos in Texas were no joke. He groaned into her kiss. “Maybe we should take this inside. Getting arrested for public indecency will really put a cramp in my celebrating-our-engagement-by-giving-my-girl-multiple-orgasms plan.”
His girl. A hard shiver of happy, yummy things went through her. “Yes, let’s not interfere with that plan. That sounds like an excellent plan.”
Finn helped her to her feet and quickly gathered the things she’d left in the walkway. The scent of her food drifted between them. “You were about to eat dinner. Do you want to eat?”
The appetite she’d had earlier had shifted into an entirely different hunger. “Food can wait.”