“A symbolic gesture as it were,” he said, feeling his eyes prickling a bit with emotion. She thought she was so tough, but she was so damn sweet.
“Indeed,” she said. Then she laughed and let out a shaky sigh. “So, Wyatt Samuel Reed, formerly of our life on the circuit, and now with dual citizenship in Reed Planet and Lavender Blue, I hope you already know that I love you with all of my heart. And you’ll be taking that with you, everywhere you go, whether I’m with you or not.”
He slid carefully to his knees in the center of the boat between the benches, so he was right in front of her. He picked up her hand and looked into her eyes. “I do, Cheyenne Rosemary McCafferty. I do.”
She let out a shaky breath when he kissed her hand, specifically her ring finger. He was already planning to make sure he put a ring on it before leaving for Canada. Then he leaned in, tipped her hat up, and slid his hand into her hair. Smiling into her pretty eyes, he kissed her.
“I’m all in,” she whispered, then opened her eyes when the boat wobbled. “With you. Not the lake.”
He laughed. “No, I’d rather we stay all in the boat, too.”
She held on to the front of his shirt, tugged him in for another kiss. Her hat fell off and landed in the open basket.
He started to take the kiss deeper, but the boat wobbled again, and they broke apart, laughing, as he slid back to his seat. He retrieved his meal and nodded to her. “Okay, now you fill up a plate.”
“Yes,” she said with a relieved laugh. “Now I can eat. I’m starving.”
“You take care of that, and I’ll tell you my news.”
Her eyebrows lifted as she settled in with her plate. “News? Did you hear from Dom on the paperwork from—I can’t pronounce the name without mangling it—the village you all are going to?”
“No, not yet. We’ve hit a snag there, which is par for the course, but we’re working on it. No, this is actually much, much bigger news.” He smiled. “Maybe the second-best news I’ve gotten ever. That thing you just said being the first.”
“You mean the ‘I love you’ part?”
He placed a hand to his heart, and she giggled. “Yeah, that. Please say that as often as you want.” He hadn’t repeated those words to her since his declaration that day, because he didn’t want to pressure her in any way. He knew how she felt and wanted her to work through things at her own pace, her own way. He should have known she’d make it memorable. “And it’s doubly great, because I love you, too, so now we can both be super sappy about it and it’ll be okay.”
“Oh, well, that’s good to hear, because otherwise, I would have held back on the sap.” She grinned. “No, I wouldn’t,” she admitted, laughing. “Oh my God, if Tory could see us right now, she’d be smug into the next century.”
He chuckled and lifted the tea thermos in a toast. “Earned, though.”
“True,” Chey agreed. “So, what’s the second-best news you got today?”
“A call from Grant Harper.”
Her eyes widened. “Like, ‘the call’ call?”
She’d told him about what Vivi had said, about how she and Grant had had some conversation about Wyatt, but as the days had gone by without word from him, they’d started to joke about it, not really thinking anything would come of it.
“He didn’t say a word to me when I asked him to help get this boat out here.”
Wyatt looked around. “You know, I just now realized that with the park closed now, there would be no boats. He’s turning out to be a pretty stand-up guy all around.”
“Well, he’s Vivi’s drop-everything guy, but he loans out,” she added dryly. “So that’s nice.”
“Oh, nice doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Chey’s eyes widened at that. She set her plate aside and leaned forward, hands clasped under her chin. “Okay, okay. Tell me, tell me. Did he miraculously solve all of our problems and make things in fairy-tale land last forever and ever?”
That had been part of the joke, too. So Wyatt took great joy in simply saying, “Yes.”
She laughed and had already started to say something, then caught the look in his eyes. “Wait. You’re serious.”
“About as serious as it gets.”
She looked stunned. “How? I mean, what could he possibly have done to do that? Is there even—”
“He set up a foundation with a global initiative to take on projects like the ones I’ve been streaming. So, I won’t have to stream to find help or financing, or any of it. The foundation will fund what’s needed. He’s financing it, along with a whole team of folks he’s put together. Fellow philanthropists.” Wyatt took her hands in his. “He wants to accept all of the proposals on our short list, Cheyenne. Do all of the things.” Saying it out loud brought a rush of gratitude that had his eyes prickling again, just thinking of what they could accomplish. It was overwhelming, in the very best of ways.
She blinked, then blinked again. “But . . . how? There is only one of you, so how could you do all—”
“I will write up proposals for the projects we choose, then the foundation will underwrite them. I will assemble a team—hopefully Dom and Jon, and even Peli will stay on, but I haven’t even gotten to that yet. I wanted to tell you first. We will do the same research, work on finding the solutions, all the things we did before.”
“But you won’t have to travel all the time,” she said, sounding a bit breathless with shock. “And you can do all of them? That’s just . . .” She stared at him, speechless.
“There will be some travel. I will have the flexibility to send people to the various locales to work with the locals and set things up, oversee them, and hopefully in this case, those would be the actual folks who can solve the problems, not just me, trying to drum up awareness and support.”
“Wait, so you’re like . . . HR for the foundation, and the face of the brand, or—”
“No. I’m running the foundation, Chey. All of it. Grant heads up the board along with the other trustees who are helping to fund it but . . . it will be my baby.”
“That’s . . . incredible. But what about all your followers, what about Reed Planet?”
“I haven’t thought all of that through yet, but the streaming we do now will end once the foundation is up and running. I’ll find a way to bring everyone who has been so supportive along somehow, though, with new content. I’ll create some new directions, new goals, and who knows what doors will open. I won’t walk away from my followers, though, not ever.” He grinned. “And I know for certain that Reed Planet won’t die, because that’s the name of the foundation.” He shared her look of amazement. “I know, right? I’m feeling pretty optimistic about the whole thing.”
“You know what? So am I. And it feels really good.” She nodded toward the blue folder he’d picked up again. “So, does this mean no stamps on my fake passport?”
“I’ll still want to go see the places, meet the people, to fully understand what’s happening. More like in an ambassador role, though, for the foundation. Before or during, maybe after. I can’t be in all places at once, but each trip would be fairly short.” He held her hand. “And much, much easier for you to come along. We can put real stamps on your real passport.” He dropped his head and held their joined hands up. “Would you consider being my, uh, ambassadress?”