Declan
“Let’s get married,” I whisper early one morning in May.
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Quinn opens her eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the light peeking in through the cracked blinds. “What did you say?”
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I can’t help it, a smile breaks out across my face. Everything about our relationship has been spur of the moment, and it feels right that this is too.
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“It’s insane to me how much I love you.” My arms snake around her, pulling her into me. “I know it’s crazy. We’ve been together less than a year, but I’ve done the whole marriage thing before, with someone I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with.”
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“This is a great start to a proposal,” Quinn mutters, rolling her eyes, but I know she’s joking when I see the tears forming.
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“I never felt an ounce of the love I feel for you now back then.” My arms pulse around her and I drop my forehead to rest against hers. She’s blurry this close to me, but I don’t care. “I want this—you—for the rest of my life. I don’t need to wait and see if that’s still true in a year. I know it will be.”
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“You’re seriously asking me to marry you?”
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“Yeah.” I press a quick kiss to her lips, pulling away before she can really respond. She whimpers slightly when I roll away from her, but I’m only gone for a moment before I turn back to her, sitting up and propping myself against the headboard, a small box gripped in my hand. “I know it sounds like this is completely out of nowhere…” My words trail off as her eyes land on the box. It’s almost funny how quickly her eyes come back to mine, but the tear that falls down her cheek stops my laugh.
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“Declan,” she whispers as she sits up in bed, her body turned toward mine.
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“I bought this shortly after the new year. I had no idea when I was going to ask you, but I saw it and I knew it was the perfect ring for you.”
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I shift so we face each other sitting cross-legged on the bed and open the box. It’s a simple ring, but the way the band weaves around the oval diamond, almost as if they’re branches with little leaves sprinkled throughout, I couldn’t walk away from it.
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“Yes,” she breathes, her eyes entirely focused on the ring.
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I take her hand in mine and lean forward to press a kiss to her bare ring finger before removing the ring from the box and slipping it onto the finger I just kissed. Quinn immediately reaches for me, her hands landing on my cheeks as she pulls me toward her, her lips landing on mine in a deep kiss.
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She pulls away almost as quickly as she started. “I don’t want a long engagement.” Her eyes fall closed, and when she opens them, the tears are back. I know exactly what she’s going to say before she opens her mouth. “I want my dad to walk me down the aisle, and I just don’t know how much longer he has.”
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I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her to straddle my legs. “We can get married tomorrow if that’s what you want.”
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“No.” She shifts, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist. “Let Emily and Caleb enjoy all the spotlight for a bit. Little baby Fiona only just arrived.”
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“I’ll marry you whenever you want, Quinn Lainey Marks. I just want you to be my wife.”
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A shiver runs up her spine and the coy smile that grows across her lips has my dick twitching.
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“Let’s worry about those details later,” she murmurs against my lips. “We’ve got a few hours till everyone will be here for the barbecue.”
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“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I fall back on the bed, pulling Quinn with me. The cool metal of her ring presses against my bare chest and I know I’m the luckiest man on the planet that she said yes to me.