Chapter Twenty-Four: The Fast and Fierce and Forever-8

to spend it— with you and for you. The twenty-fourth candle lantern stopped right in front of the old hotel where I first ran into Luke and where, I would say so myself, our lives and love story started. He stood there by the entrance, bathed in the sultry lamplight—fully clothed this time and quite dashing—holding what looked like my old trench coat. Yes, the same one he ‘borrowed’ from me that first day we met. My heart, already heavy and tender with a cluster of emotions, squeezed a gasp out of me. He stepped forward, smiling, and wordlessly slipped my coat around my shoulders, the warmth of his body still absorbed in the fabric that it quickly chased away the chill. Then his arms wrapped around me, pulling me close. “Happy Birthday, baby,” he whispered before searing my cold lips with a hot kiss. I clung to him, kissing him wildly, wishing the imprints of my lips would tell him just how much he told me. With a low chuckle, he pulled back, cupping one side of my face with his hand. “I shouldn’t have kissed you right away. Now I can’t think straight and there’s still something else I need to do.” “Like what?” He took a step back and I stood, as still as a statue except for my restless heart, as I watched him go down on one knee, his hand lifting small box out of his coat’s pocket. “Your life started twenty-four years ago, on this day, making it possible for me to discover what it’s like to be happy, to know that I could love like this, and to want everything I was so afraid of,” he said softly, his smile warm, his eyes a bright, shimmery blue. He opened the box, revealing a solitaire square diamond nestled in an intricate lace-patterned frame that twisted into rest of the slim platinum band. It glinted against the light, much like a star in the sky but the kind that asked a wish from you instead of the other way around. “I love you, Max,” Luke said, taking my left hand with his. “I brought you here, in the same spot where my life started that one fateful and crazy morning, to ask you to become a part of it.” His eyes, so blue, so earnest, smiled up at me. “Spend the rest of your life with me, Max. Marry me.” No sound came out of my mouth as I stood gazing at the ring and the man on his knee asking for my heart. I felt a little light-headed and out of breath—like I’d been spinning for a while and I came to an abrupt stop and I was staggering forward. I waited for the fear to hit—to send me backing up and away from Luke because while I knew, deep inside, that I loved him, this was moving too fast and speed always felt reckless to me. And reckless got people hurt. “Please, Max?” Luke’s whisper was husky, nervous now and completely humbled. The fear never came. His voice broke through the tempest and wrapped around me like a sweet embrace, pulling me close, taking me home. I found myself smiling. “I love you, Luke. I thought you would break my heart. Instead you just made it braver than it could ever be. So yes, I’ll marry you.” The large diamond sparkled but it paled in comparison to the big, bright grin on Luke’s face when he slipped the ring onto my finger. I threw my arms around his neck before he could pull himself up to his feet, hugging him so fiercely and not caring that my coat slipped off to the ground. He laughed, swept the coat back up and wrapped it around me along with his arms, hauling us both up to our feet. “Thank you, Max,” he murmured against my ear, pressing a kiss on my temple. I lifted my face to him and pushed myself up on my toes just as he bent low to kiss me sweetly. I didn’t care if it was cold or that it was an ungodly hour in the morning or that people might be peeking at us from their windows, knowing full well that some romantic fool (Luke, in this case) had the entire block shut down to propose to some silly girl (me). “I guess you’re too old to be grounded. And I suppose if it’s only once and it’s for the purposes of getting engaged to a man who wears his heart for you on his sleeve, I could make an exception.” I glanced up the sidewalk and saw my grandfather standing there in his pajamas with his coat on, his arms crossed, a wry smirk on his face. I grinned at him and waved with my left hand, showing off my ring. “Thank you, sir, for giving me your blessing,” Luke said to Gramps, giving him a rough salute with one hand while keeping me secure against him with his other. “I’ll be a good husband to her and do everything I can to make her happy.” I didn’t tell him I was already quite happy. I just pulled his face down for another kiss before closing my eyes and sinking into his embrace. I stayed there, letting the world spin back into balance around me, knowing well that it had been altered, much like me, yet having no regrets because I now understood the difference. It’s funny how you can be alive for so long and only start living now. Life is nothing more than a series of motions until you start living for something. ***