“Take a look around you, baby,” he eventually says. “Do you recognize where you are?”
With the soft grass underneath my feet, I take a few strides forwards, looking to my left, looking to the right—
And then I see it.
It’s far away in the distance, but it’s silhouette is unmistakable.
A villa. The one I spent all my summers in.
“We’re at my father’s vineyard,” I manage. Emotion brims at my eyeballs, it’s almost too much to bear.
“No,” Donnacha says, wiping a stray tear from my eyes with his knuckle. “We’re at your vineyard.”
“Huh?” It’s all I can manage to say.
“I bought it back, baby. It’s all yours.”
“I…”
“Don’t worry, it came with a full suite of staff. You don’t have to drop out of school or anything to run it. Unless you want to, of course,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.
“Donnacha,” I gasp, placing my palms on his chest. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Then don’t. Just kiss me.”
And so I do. I push my lips against his with all the intensity I can muster. With all the love my body will allow me to display. “I love you, Don,” I whisper. And I mean it.
“I love you more.”
In the distance I hear another engine, this time belonging to a car. I crane my neck and see an open-top Jeep trucking towards us through the rows of grapevines.
When I turn back around, Donnacha isn’t in my line of vision anymore.
He’s on the ground.
On one knee.
“Donnacha—”
“Violet,” he interrupts, his dazzling white teeth on show as he grins. He produces a small velvet box from his palm and opens it to reveal a familiar diamond ring. “The first time I asked you to marry me wasn’t the most romantic. But you deserve so much more, and I want to give you the world. So, Violet Washington, will you marry me? Again?”
I squeal with the delight, the joy flooding every inch of my body until I’m tingling with adrenaline. “Of course I’ll marry you — again!” I gasp, pulling Donnacha to his feet so I can wrap myself around him.
“Good,” he laughs, “it’d be a little awkward if you’d have said no.”
“Why?”
That mischievous smile is dancing on his lips again. He nods in the direction of the villa. “Because it’s all set up.”
“What do you mean?”
“The wedding. The guests. Everyone is waiting for us — Daisy, Felix, Lianne.”
“We’re getting married today?!”
“We are indeed, baby.” He offers me his arm and leads me towards the Jeep. “Your carriage awaits.”
My father always said, if you keep your face to the sun, you can’t see the shadows.
I look up Donnacha’s handsome face, his blue eyes filled with warmth and love.
Donnacha is my sun.
And he shines so brightly that there aren’t any shadows left in my life.
THE END