He drops to his knee and my mouth falls open. Everyone screams even louder as he takes my hand.
“Marry me,” he begs. “Please. I thought this belt was all I wanted, but I was wrong. You’re all I want. You’re everything to me. Please be my wife.”
I have tears streaming down my cheeks as I look down at him. My life has been nothing but perfect since he walked into it.
Of course I want to marry him.
“Yes!” I shout over the noise but I don’t think he can hear me.
So instead, I drop to my knees and kiss him hard.
Hard enough to tell him and all twenty-five thousand people that hell yes I’ll marry him.
And we’ll be together forever.
Epilogue
Nate
One year later…
“Will the bride and groom please head to the dance floor for the first dance of the night?” the DJ says through the speakers.
Hope looks through the crowd of new and old friends and spots me. I was already looking at her. My eyes haven’t left my gorgeous bride all day.
She looks stunning as she excuses herself from the couple she’s speaking with and heads toward the empty dance floor.
That dress…
I hope I can remember her in this moment for the rest of my life. My heart hurts to think that the cruel years will dull the clarity of it. I’ll forget the small details. Like rocks in the ocean, they’ll be rounded and smoothed out with the waves of time. The way one strand of her blonde hair has come loose and is tickling her cheek. The way the sequins on her white dress are shimmering with the lights above, making her look like an angel. The way those sweet luscious lips are curled up and smiling shyly at me with every step. I want to remember everything. I want to keep it all.
I take a deep breath and start walking through the crowd on my way to the dance floor.
Hand after hand slaps my back, sending words of encouragement and congratulations. I’ve met so many people over the past year while I’ve been the GPC Welterweight champion. Many of them are friends and are here tonight, but no one comes close to comparing to the beautiful angel who’s waiting for me on the dance floor.
I love Hope more than anything and I can’t believe she’s my wife.
“I thought you might stand me up,” she says with a grin as I wrap my arms around her and pull her in close. The intoxicating smell of her perfume makes my heart pound. “I thought I might have to dance all by myself.”
“I’d never stand you up,” I say as I hold her as close as I can without hurting her. “I’d chain you to my side if you’d let me.”
“Maybe on our honeymoon,” she whispers with a sly grin.
I nearly get hard just from thinking about it.
The President of the GPC was kind enough to lend us his stunning beachfront villa in Kaui for a week. Not only that, he loaned us his private jet too.
Taylor Swift’s Lover starts playing over the speakers and all eyes are on us as we have our first dance as husband and wife.
I start to tense up and Hope puts a hand on my flexed forearm. “Relax,” she whispers.
I huff out a breath as I look around at the crowd. “They’re all looking at you,” I whisper back. “It’s killing me.”
“They’re supposed to look at the bride,” she says with a smile. “Otherwise, it’s insulting.”
“They don’t have to stare at your ass.”
“My ass looks amazing in this dress. Let them look.”
I groan.
“Are you going to take on the whole room?” she asks. “Because half of them are professional fighters.”
“I could take them if it meant protecting you.”
Her arms tighten around me and she puts her cheek against my chest. “I know,” she whispers.
It’s enough to soothe me. To calm my nerves.
I just close my eyes and focus on my new wife and the incredible way she feels.
We dance to the beautiful music and I let the gratitude sink in. It doesn’t matter if I forget every detail of today. I’m going to have this beauty with me for the rest of my life.
Every day there will be new details to study, to marvel at. The way she holds her coffee cup in the morning with her hair all wild, the way she taps her chin as she tries to decide which cereal to buy in the grocery store, the way she curls up around a pillow whenever she falls asleep on the couch—there will always be moments to be amazed by Hope because she’ll never stop amazing me. I’ll never get used to that feeling of being the luckiest man on the planet.
And I’ll never take her for granted.
She smiles at Scott who is watching proudly from the side. He’s my best man today and he’s starting to feel like my own brother.
I’m going to give him my old house when we move out. Which reminds me…
“Hey,” I whisper. She looks up at me and those blue eyes make me swallow hard. “I have a present for you.”
“You already gave me one,” she says as she glances down at the shiny new wedding ring on her finger.
“This one is better.”
“I doubt that.”
“I bought us a house. A big one.”
Her face lights up. “You did?”
I signed an eight-figure contract with the GPC and it came with a very generous signing bonus. I used it to pay for a downpayment on a gorgeous house with a waterfront view. Hope is going to love it.
“Does it have a lot of bedrooms?”
I nod with a hungry grin. “For all of the babies I’m going to stuff into you.”
Her cheeks go pink as she looks around to see if anyone heard. It doesn’t matter. It’s just us here. We’re the only two that matter in this moment.
“I have a present for you too,” she whispers as her cheeks get pinker.
“Is it under this dress? Because I’ll carry you into the closet and rip it off right now.”
She giggles. “Nathan… I’m pregnant.”
My face drops. My body stops moving even though the song keeps playing.
“You’re… pregnant?”
She’s giving me the most beautiful smile as she nods up and down.
I hold her even tighter and kiss the top of her head.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“For what?”
“For everything,” I tell her. “For being you. For giving me something to fight for. But most of all, for giving me something to live for.”
She looks up at me and I give her a deep passionate kiss.
Our friends and family cheer and clap around us and for once I want them to see.
I want them to see how lucky I am. How amazing Hope is.
And I want them to see that she’s all mine.
Epilogue
Hope
Ten years later…
“Go, Jake!” I shout as Nathan puts him in a headlock.
My firstborn is only ten years old and his adorable little head is being swallowed up by my man’s huge tattooed arm. They’re wrestling on the mats downstairs. They’re always wrestling on the mats downstairs. Jake can’t get enough of it.