“I asked you to marry me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and you have to answer me. You have to tell me if you want to spend the rest of your life with me and then we’re engaged. Sorry about your luck, but that’s how it is.”
A muscle in Noah’s jaw tics and I continue, “You have seen me through some of the worst moments of my life. Remembering what happened to me, the scars on my arms, my parents’ involvement, working through my grief over Aries, learning how to be a big sister, and you’ve been there through so many highs. Selling my paintings, figuring out who I am, leaving the insecure girl behind, and becoming the woman who is strong enough to stand in front of you and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.
“I love you, I have loved you since we sat in the hallway at Eastwick and studied math, and I will love you for the rest of my life. The question on the table is, do you love me enough to spend forever with me?”
Noah briefly closes his eyes in defeat and takes both of my hands. The small box half in my palm, half in his. “Yes.”
Happiness. The fluttering in my stomach is happiness.
“Is it my turn to talk?” he asks, but even I know that really wasn’t a question as much as him explaining he’s going to say what he needs to say regardless.
I nod, and Noah steps closer to me. “My entire life changed the day you dropped into that chair beside me in the guidance counselor’s office. You were the hot girl who I thought had it all. Two seconds with me and you were handing me shit.”
“You made fun of my name,” I remind him.
Noah chuckles. “If I remember correctly, you called me a stoner.”
“You were a stoner.”
His wicked grin is just as seductive and dangerous as the night he backed me up against the wall outside a party and came close to kissing me for the first time. And just like the night of the school Valentine’s Day dance, he walks me backward into the wall. My back hits, his body presses to mine and all I can think about is kissing him.
“You challenge me, Echo,” he continues. “You pushed me to use my brain, to believe I could have a future again. You taught me to trust again and you taught me it was okay to love. Since you entered my life, I have thought about you day and night. The way you smile, the way your body feels against mine and the way I feel empty whenever you aren’t near.
“The next year without you is going to be hell, but we’re going to make it. You and I, we’re stronger than distance. We’re strong enough to make this work. You want to spend forever with me, Echo, and I want to spend forever with you. You asked me to marry you and the answer is yes, but I have a question for you.”
My heart beats faster when Noah drops down to one knee and opens up the small box in his hand. “Someday I’m going to be able to offer you a diamond ring, but until then, will you grant me the honor of wearing this ring? Someday, after we graduate, will you walk down the aisle and promise in front of our family and friends to be with me for the rest of our lives?”
It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. Tears burn my eyes and my hands tremble. My knees give, and I lower myself down to the floor along with Noah. “I don’t want a diamond ring. I want this ring and this ring alone. I love it.”
“It’s engraved,” he says and holds it so I can see the words. I love you ~ Noah. “Will you wear it?”
“Yes.”
Noah eases the ring onto my finger, the heart toward my fingertips. He then presses his lips to the ring. “I love you, Echo Emerson. Every day for the rest of my life.”
He raises his head and his dark eyes are so full of love that a tear escapes from my eye.
“You better kiss me, Noah Hutchins.” Before I crawl into him and start to sob.
“I’m all about kissing you.”
And I’m all about kissing him.
Noah cups my face with his hand, leans in and kisses me for the first time as my fiancé.
The First Loves Collection:
The First Day of School
In Crash into You, Isaiah Walker, a foster kid and drag racer, meets and falls in love with Rachel Young, the youngest daughter of the wealthiest man in the state. Their love story captured the hearts of many, and I’ll admit they are a favorite couple of mine. Isaiah had a rough childhood, but he found love and acceptance in Rachel. “The First Day of School” shows a glimpse of the future life Rachel and Isaiah found with each other.
Chapter 8
Isaiah
The smoke alarm goes off, and I curse under my breath. I turn away from the pancakes cooking on the electric griddle on the island, and my eyes burn from the smoke rising from the beginning grease fire. I snatch the handle of the pan, and another curse word Rachel has begged me not to say in the house falls from my mouth as I burn the hell out of my hand. I drop the pan, grab a towel, and push the same pan full of bacon off the burner. A few slaps of the towel on the stove top and the fire is extinguished.
A squeal from upstairs causes me to lower my head. Rachel is going to kill me.
“Fire!” my five-year-old daughter yells. “We have to run! Stop! Drop! And Roll!”
Getting Ariel to stay still long enough to get her hair brushed on a normal day is like herding stray cats who have rabies. The fire alarm going off is only going to make life for my beautiful wife more complicated.
I head over to the fire alarm, reach up and push the button. The ear-piercing beeping ends and in its place are Ariel’s complaints that having her hair brushed is killing her. No kidding here—she makes moaning noises and declares she’s about to die. The edges of my mouth tilt up as Rachel says, “You’ll live.”
Patient. Rachel is always patient. Not a day goes by I don’t count my blessings that she and Ariel are in my life. Before the pancakes can burn, I race back over, use the spatula to slip them onto a plate and then set the plate on the kitchen table.
Footsteps echo along the hallway that leads to the front of the house, and I look up in time to see Rachel turn the corner. When I first met Rachel fourteen years ago, I thought I would never see anything as beautiful. I was wrong. Yes, Rachel was a dream at seventeen, but she’s redefined beauty in her thirties.
Her blond hair is thicker, more golden, and she’s filled out. Since Ariel’s birth, there are more curves to her body, and I worship each and every one. She’s in her work clothes of jeans and a nice button-down shirt. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail and the ends are curled.
Rachel manages the business side of our automotive shop and occasionally still works on cars. I’m in charge of the shop, making the schedule, handling the customers and managing our employees. One of my favorite parts of the day is when she leaves her desk, shares a sandwich with me for lunch and then helps me out with a car. Rachel has always been and remains magic.
My angel pauses at the table and takes in the sight. I’ve made pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, cut-up watermelon and two types of juice. Her eyebrows disappear beyond her bangs. “You remember Ariel’s five, and that lately her favorite food is air?”
“It’s her first day of school.” Of Kindergarten. “I want her to have a good start.”