I kissed her. “Just stay here while I grab a few things, please?”
She nodded and bit her lip. She was drowning in my clothes. I loved it. Her hair was a wild mess, and I fought the urge to wind my hand around it and pull her to my lips.
I raced inside, bought some champagne and a few other things, and tossed them in the backseat before she had a chance to take a peek in the bag.
It was another forty minutes before we made it to the beach. She dozed in and out of sleep and I was thankful for the quiet. It gave me time to berate myself and try to talk myself out of it.
But when I parked, and she wiped the sleep from her eyes and her face split into a grin, I knew I was a goner.
“The beach?” She beamed. “Some late night stargazing. Tell me you brought champagne.”
“Why do you think I stopped my Walmart?”
“They carry that at Walmart?”
“Dangerous, I know.” I pulled the bag and blankets from the back and we walked out to the beach, hiking up a small dune. We spread the blankets out and laid across them, staring at the clear sky.
After a few moments I sat up and popped the champagne. There was no way I could stay still. She sat up and took a swig from the bottle since I’d forgotten cups.
“You know I love you, right?”
She laughed. “Yes. I love you too.”
“We have a lot of options now that you’re done with school.”
She nodded. “Is that what’s got you wound so tight? I am seriously fine with anywhere. Please don’t stress about it. I just don’t want to be in Nebraska or Oklahoma, okay?”
“I love you. And I don’t care where we live either.”
She laughed, taking another swig of the champagne. “I mean, you ought to care a little. No buildings or bridges means no work for Trask. Could you imagine living in Oklahoma though?” She shuddered.
I kissed her, rough and hard and I swallowed whatever else she was planning to say because when I pulled away, she looked dazed and confused.
I took advantage of her silence. “Marry me.”
“What?” she whispered.
“Marry me, Eliza Walsh. Marry me. Become tied to me forever.” I pulled out a small box that had been holding a ring for the last year and a half. “I am not above begging. Marry me. Today, tomorrow, next week, next year, I don’t care when, just say you will.”
She looked stunned, mouth hanging slightly open, the wind whipping her wild hair around her face. “You haven’t actually asked me. Only demanded it.”
“Marry me?”
“Yes.”
I kissed her again, attacking her lips with mine, pushing her back on the blanket and hovering over her. She wrapped her legs around my waist. I pulled back just enough to slip the ring on her finger. It was simple. Just a single diamond surrounded a halo of smaller ones.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“You’re going to be Mrs. Eliza Davis.”
“I’m more than ready to leave the Walsh name behind.”
“God, I love you.”
She tore at my joggers, ripping them down over my hips and I was just as eager to pull her own pants off.
I slid into her wet heat easily, groaning. “You’re so wet, love.”