Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
I don’t exactly blame her for thinking this is all a dream. I’d feel the same if it wasn’t for the fact there’s no way in hell my dreams could ever come close to the absolute bliss of my life now. When I left for my dad’s place for my break, I never in a million years predicted how much my life was about to change.
And fuck, I’m beyond grateful for it.
I thought I was decently happy before. I liked my job, I had good friends. But now? Now I know nothing I’ve ever experienced before could ever match the light Talia brings to my life.
She’s everything to me.
And I hope that soon, she’ll be my wife too.
Talia hums a tune under her breath and drops a few drips of pink food coloring into the bowl of frosting she’s mixing up. I obviously introduced Talia to everyone when we came back and bragged about how talented my girl was. As a result, she has three orders this week—two birthday cakes and one huge batch of double chocolate chip cookies. She’s still working on getting her marketing and socials all set up to share her skills more widely, but at the rate she’s going, she’ll be overrun with orders before long.
I can’t wait to see her get all the praise and success she deserves. God, she’s fucking amazing, just as sweet as the icing she’s making, talented and beautiful, and all mine.
While she’s distracted, I head out the French doors to the back garden. It needs work done. I’ve mowed the grass, but the flower beds need tending, and Talia has plans for a firepit like Graham’s.
Still, it’s green and lush, if a little untidy, and the perfect private place for what I need. I add the finishing touches to the display I’d spent all morning setting up while she was focused on baking, stepping back to admire my work.
It’s just starting to get dark, making the neon letters and fairy lights stand out more. There are chocolate-covered strawberries, champagne, and macarons set out on a white picnic blanket, and I’ve set up a hammock towards the back of the garden between the two decently large trees that’s big enough for both of us.
“Hey, Trey, what’s—” Talia’s voice calls out.
I whirl on my heel, finding her paused in the doorway, an icing-coated spatula in her hand and a shocked expression on her face. Her hair is tied up away from her face, but some golden strands have escaped, framing her flushed cheeks.
“Come outside, cupcake,” I say softly, grinning.
The spatula drops to the floor, and she rushes out, barefoot and stumbling as she runs towards me.
“Trey, what’s all this?” she whispers, voice a little shaky, eyes wide, taking it all in. She turns and reads the glowing letters framing the picnic blanket, and her breath hitches.
MARRY ME?
By the time she spins back to me, I’m down on one knee, careful not to disrupt any of the food or drink on the blanket around me. In my hand is a pink velvet box that Talia’s eyes are locked on, the beautiful green depths wide and glassy with unshed tears.
As she watches, I open the soft box to reveal the sparkling white gold ring inside. Her bottom lip wobbles, and she gasps, her hands flying to her heart.
“Talia,” I begin, emotion filling my voice. She’s turned me from the gruff, stony man the Navy taught me to be into a man who would do anything to see her smile. Strangely, I don’t resent the softness she’s brought out in me. I can’t, it’s hers. I’m hers, and she’s mine in every single way.
“Trey…” she breathes, then pauses, letting me continue.
“From the second I walked into that steam-filled bathroom and found a beautiful stranger in my shower, you changed my life,” I say with a laugh, echoed by her breathless giggle. “You swept me up in a whirlwind of powdered sugar and cherry shampoo and that gorgeous blush.” I grin as she rewards me with that pink flush of her cheeks I love so much. “And I knew from the start that you were meant to be mine. You are mine. I thought I was happy with my routine, but now I realize how wrong I was. Because I didn’t even know the meaning of happy until I found you. And now that I have, I can’t ever let you go.”
I reach my free hand out to her, and she steps forward, putting her left hand in mine and smiling down at me.
“Talia, my sweet girl. Will you marry me?” I pull the ring free of the box and hold it over her hand, waiting to slip it onto her finger.
“Of course, I will,” she says without hesitation, her voice thick with emotion that’s echoed by the frantic thud of my heart. “Yes, Trey. I’ll marry you.”