He said that he wanted me to finish college first. But he did comply on one thing. He did move me into his house as soon as we reached California. And he kept his promise and took me everywhere. He showed me all the things in L.A. and around it.
Not only that, for the past three years, he’s been coming with me to visit my family – our family – for all the holidays.
My dad still doesn’t like me living all the way on the west coast, so far away from everyone, but he’s gotten a little relaxed about it. Mostly because Dean is with me, and I’m with him. Which mean, I make sure he calls my mom every week no matter what.
They even visited us last year, Dad, Mom and Brendan.
Speaking of Brendan, he’s grown so much in the past three years. Like, he’s as tall as Dad and Dean. But that’s not the important part.
The important part is that he’s dating Rosie.
Yes, they’re dating!
Oh my God, I completely freaked out when Mom told me. They’ve been dating for a couple of years now. Ever since the Christmas three years ago.
Although, everyone only came to know about it last year. Apparently, there was a huge drama because Uncle Graham was mad and my dad was a little upset too because everything was happening in secret.
But thank God for my mom and Auntie Vi. Things are sorted. Even though, Uncle Graham has a tight leash on Rosie’s schedule and how often she talks to my brother on the phone since it’s all long distance right now.
All in all, I’m so very happy for my idiot brother and sweet Rose.
See? That road trip and that Christmas was magic.
But anyway, back to Dean. He never changed his answer about marrying me.
Not until now.
“Y—your wife?”
My arms are trembling around him and so is my body. I can’t seem to believe that he really said that.
“Yeah. I promised I would once you’re done with college,” he says, his eyes boring into mine, his arms tightening around me, keeping me balanced. “And that’s why you worked so hard, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“For me.”
I nod. “For you.”
By working hard, he means that I’m on track to graduate a semester early. My finals start in a couple of weeks and today was going to be our last outing before that.
“So now it’s time to fulfill the promise.”
“But you said the first day of finals. I won’t be graduating then.”
He smiles. “Yeah, but I realized that I didn’t want to make her wait any longer. The girl who worked so hard for me.”
I watch him, watch his beautiful face, my body and breaths shaking.
“So I’m going to be your wife in two weeks,” I whisper slowly, the knowledge starting to sink into my bones like warm honey.
“Yeah.” He swallows. “I… I’m sorry I made you wait, Tiny. I’m sorry for all the things I put you through in the past. All the things that I still put you through. My work and the way I can’t express myself sometimes. I… But I promise I’ll do everything to make you happy. Anything and everything to keep you loving me.”
He’s right.
Just because we’re together doesn’t mean he’s become an easy man. He’s a workaholic. He’s a control freak. He can be emotionally detached sometimes and I have to get in there and break his walls.
He’s very much like my father in that sense.
But I never once doubted that he loves me. I know he does. I see it every day in his eyes when he wakes up beside me or when he comes home from a long day of work and his face relaxes just at the sight of me on our couch with my textbooks around.
I know he loves me and he definitely makes me happy.
“You know, I thought you were going to come up with a nice proposal,” I tease.
Some tension drains out of him. “I tried. But the one a three-year-old girl came up with was pretty fucking amazing.”
I smile. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“Fuck yeah.”
I’m about to say yes and kiss him when he tells me something else. “And we’ll move back to the east coast once you’re done. I’ve been looking into it and I have a job offer—”
“But you just got promoted here.”
Last year, Dean was made the Assistant DA and I don’t know anything about this lawyer stuff but I’ve seen enough movies and I’ve seen Dean really happy to know that it is a big fucking deal.
“Yeah, but I don’t care.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I don’t wanna move to the east coast.”
He frowns, blinking. “But that was the plan, right? You said you wanted to finish college before you moved and now you’re done.”
I did say that.
I never liked California. I never liked the sunshine, the beaches, the one-season kind of weather. And I knew I had the option of moving back with Dean, if I wanted to.
But then I thought maybe I should wait and see.
Besides, once I found out that Dean actually likes it here, he likes his job, his office—he even has a couple of friends here—I decided that for him, I could at least stay here until I finished college.
But I think it’s starting to grow on me.
The very things that I didn’t like, I think I like them now.
I like the wide roads, the straw hats, my surfboard that I will never use, drinks by the pool, flip flops, bikini tops, palm trees, open blue skies.
Blue oceans and my boyfriend—well, soon-to-be husband—emerging out of them with his velvety skin and dripping muscles.
I smile at him. “I know what I said but I like it here now.”
“You like L.A.”
“Yes.” I rub my nose against his. “You showed me so many things here. So many new sights. You had me tolerating the sun. The beach. I even tried to surf. Hello? How awesome am I? I guess I was just waiting for you to make me fall in love with it all.”
He studies me to see if I’m kidding. “You sure about this?”
“Yup. I always dreamed about you, you know. About being with you, spending my life with you. But now you also got me dreaming about California.”
“I did, huh?”
I nod, placing a soft kiss on his warm, touched by the ocean and the sun lips. “You’ve got me California dreamin’.”
THE END