Trust your teammate to have your back even when you’re scared.
Expand horizons at a gentle pace.
When traveling, take lots of naps (some naughty, some sleeping).
She ran to the next tree, hope and happiness swelling inside her, tears falling like rivers down her cheeks.
Talk everything out.
Wake your teammate if you leave the bed at night.
Love our babies (a lot of them) born by surrogate or adoption.
She ran to the bookstore door, yanking the last star from the handle and reading it.
Open the door before I lose my mind.
She threw the door open, and Reno darted past her, sprinting down another path of lights to Dash, who stood by the couch in the back amid dozens of bouquets of Amber’s favorite flowers, each one in a vase full of acorns. Reno went paws-up on Dash, tail wagging. Dash loved him up, his eyes never leaving Amber’s as she ran to him, hands full of their rewritten stars, eyes blurry with tears. “Dash!”
He gathered her in his arms.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried.
“You were scared.” He slid his hand down her back. “I am, too, baby.” He drew back, gazing into her eyes. “Scared of losing you because you have this warped belief that my tour, or anything else, could possibly be more important than you are. I know you’re afraid we can’t do things together outside of Oak Falls because you might have a seizure and that I’ll resent you for it. I understand your fears, baby, but they don’t hold water. I came to Oak Falls looking for a break, and I found the truest, deepest love imaginable with you, my wild thing, the girl who outshines everyone and everything around her.”
Her breathing hitched, her face wet with tears.
“If you think I’m walking away because we’ll face a few challenges in our lifetime, then you’ve got another thing coming, Amber Montgomery. I messed up by not waking up when you got up to use the bathroom, but I’ll never make that mistake again, because now we have rules, our own playbook. You need to wake me up before you leave the bed, and if you drop the ball, we’ll punt it to your mother to train a second dog whose only job is to wake me when you get out of bed at night.”
She nodded, too choked up to speak.
“There’s nothing we can’t figure out together.” He picked up a handful of stars from the coffee table and handed them to her.
She looked down at them. “They’re blank.”
“We’re a team, baby. Those are for you to fill out. That’s how love works. You can write any rules you want, but I have veto rights, so don’t get any ideas about a hall pass for Zac Efron.”
Overwhelmed with love for this incredible man, she could do little more than try to remember how to breathe.
“I want to go with you to talk to your doctor and figure out what we can do to further manage your seizures. If he says we can never travel again, then that’s what we’ll do. But I hope he doesn’t, because you deserve to see the world. I want to show you those famous bookstores and everything else you want to see, in low-key trips that include lots of rest. I don’t care if it takes us thirty years to see nine bookstores, as long as we’re together, and if I need to follow you like a shadow to keep you safe while we do it, I’m there, baby. I’m your man.”
“Dash,” she choked out.
“Let me finish, please. You got a penalty, remember? Now I have the ball.” He took all of the stars and set them on the table. Then he took her left hand in his and dropped to one knee.
She tried to swallow past the lump forming in her throat, fresh tears raining down her cheeks.
“Amber Montgomery, I thought I fell in love with you right here in your bookstore the first night we packaged your dirty books, but I was wrong. I think I fell the first second I saw you at the jam session, and I have fallen deeper in love with you every day since. I want to build a life with you here in Oak Falls where we shared our first kiss and made out under the bleachers. I love your big life in this small town, baby, where everyone knows your name and the dirty grandmas take me to breakfast.” He laughed a little. “I want babies any way we can get them, because how they get here isn’t nearly as important as how we love them. We’ll teach them about acorns and football and keep them away from your naughty book club novels.”
She laughed.
“I want to take moonlight walks and collect so many acorns we have to build a second house to hold them all. I gave you the wrong jewelry box last night, sweetheart. I should have given you this one.” He grabbed a ring box from behind a vase and opened it, revealing the most gorgeous sparkling diamond engagement ring Amber had ever seen. A stunning square canary diamond sat up high, with several smaller diamonds running down the sides of the band. “My sweet, secret sexy reader, I love you with all that I have and all that I am. Will you make me the happiest man on earth and marry me, so no matter where we are, you’ll always be with family?”
With wet cheeks and a giddy heart, she exclaimed, “Yes!”
“Yes?” Dash pushed to his feet, and she threw her arms around him, repeating, “Yes!” as he pressed his lips to hers.
Her office door flew open, and cheers rang out as her entire family, save for Axsel, who was still on tour, and all three of her sisters’ husbands ran into the room, clapping and shouting “Congratulations” as Dash twirled her around, kissing her, both of them laughing.
“You brought Pepper and Grace home! What if I said no?”
Dash cocked an arrogant grin. “Have you seen the way you look at me? Baby, we were made for each other.” He sealed that truth with a kiss as sweet and everlasting as their love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
THE MANSION AT Hilltop Vineyards had been transformed into a winter wonderland for Zev and Carly’s wedding reception. Elegant chandeliers hung from cathedral ceilings, and miles of white silk, sparkling lights, and greenery trailed along exposed wooden rafters. A fire roared in the two-story stone fireplace, flanked with floor-to-ceiling windows offering picturesque views of the snowy vineyard and, just beyond, the small town of Pleasant Hill, Maryland. But those views didn’t compare to the woman standing a few feet away from Dash.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Amber, feminine and beautiful in a sexy peach lace dress. He pictured her fifty years from now, with gray hair, her face mapped with wrinkles, still outshining everyone else. He knew he’d be even more captivated by her, because their home would be full of acorns and scrawled sentiments, and their hearts would be full of a lifetime of loving memories.
She stood by the dance floor with Pepper and Trixie, but he could tell she was only half listening to them. She had that dreamy look in her eyes that he adored as she watched Zev and Carly slow dancing, surrounded by couples grooving to the fast beat. Was his girl thinking about Christmas night, when it had snowed and they’d gone outside to dance in the moonlight? Or was she dreaming of their wedding day next summer? Dash would marry her tomorrow, but he wanted to give her the most magical wedding that had ever taken place, and that took planning. They’d already enlisted Lindsay’s help. Amber had raved about Carly’s formfitting gown that Jillian’s twin, Jax, an elite wedding-gown designer, had made for her, and he had a feeling a wedding dress took some planning, too.