My eyes fill with tears instantly. Every member of the Rough family is standing there holding candles in their hands.
There are flashlights pointing upwards to the sky surrounding Leila's house.
Rye is in the center of the family, and he steps toward me.
My heart fills with wonder, with want.
“Thing is,” Rye says, “the moment you stepped out of that clearing, asking for help, I knew it was you who were saving me. There's this quote by Rumi,If light is in your heart, You will find your way home.And Prairie,that's what's happened for you.
You found your way home. Home here not just with me, but with all of us.”
I look back at Leila, who nods. Tears are in her eyes too.
And I walk down her front steps toward Rye, the man I love, whom I was dreaming of before we ever even met.
“I know you've seen so much darkness in your life, Prairie. Somehow, you're nothing but light, and this last year, hell, I haven't been the man I once was. And then I met you and you cracked open this dark, gruff mountain man's heart and made me a new man. Made meyourman. I told you that first night I wanted to marry you, to make you my wife. You thought I was joking. That I was crazy. And sure, I am crazy. Crazy for you. I love you. I love the woman you are and the woman I know you'll become, and I want to be your man. Your husband, your partner, your forever.”
And then Rye is down on one knee, looking up at me with those tear-stained cheeks, holding a diamond ring that glitters like gold.
“I went up to the cabin to get my head on straight.” Rye looks over at his Dad. “That was the deal. And a Rough deal is meant to be taken seriously. So I am asking you to make a deal with me, Prairie Jones. I know I don't deserve you,” he says, “your sunshine and your light, but God, I'm going to spend my life trying. Have me, take me, make me yours.”
“You told them everything?” I ask him, my heart pounding, my eyes swimming with tears of devotion.
He nods, reaching for my hand, slipping that diamond on my ring finger, and of course it fits because Rye and I, we go together.
I pull him up to stand, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“I love you, Rye, and of course I will marry you. I have no idea how I'm gonna be a Rough. Your family is wild in ways I've never been. But I want to be your wife. I want to learn to love you all. I want to be your family more than anything.”
I look around at the family standing here supporting us.
They're not perfect.
But their intent through all of this was to support their son, making sure he was taken care of.
That's why they sent him up to that cabin in the first place.
So he could come home centered and straight.
I smile, thinking he did. He came home with me.
Rye picks me up off the ground, and I wrap my legs around him, not caring that it is a ridiculous display of public affection. I hold that man close and I am not letting him go.
Not now. Not ever.
He's mine.
His mouth presses against my lips and I kiss him deeply, our bodies entwined just like our hearts. “I love you, Rye Rough.”
“So we're getting married?” he asks with a smile.
“It's a deal.”
* * *
Back at Rye’scabin we move to his bed, because that is where we belong.
I look at the ring on my finger. “It’s a yellow diamond,” I say. The light in the room is brighter than the light outside at Leila's front yard, and I take in the glittering gemstone more completely now.