At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

Tears came to my eyes. Just when I’d thought I had none left. “I want that too, Derek. But what about Atlanta? I can’t leave my job.”

“And I’d never ask you to. What you’re doing is important, and you’re fucking brilliant at it. We might have to be long distance for a while, but we can make it work while I figure out my situation.”

“Figure out what?”

“Dad has always wanted to expand,” he said with a shrug. “I floated the idea for me to open Ballentine Law in Atlanta.”

I blinked. I couldn’t process those words. “You’d move to Atlanta? But your life is in Savannah…”

“You’re here,” he said, drawing me closer. “You’re my life.”

“Oh my God, Derek.”

“Would you want that?”

“Yes,” I gasped. “Of course I want that!”

He grinned. “Good.”

“This is real?”

He laughed softly. “It’s real, Mars. A hundred percent real. Any other objections to us being together? Please allow me to disabuse you of any other notions.”

I bit my lip, shook my head, and then threw my arms around him. “No objections.”

“Then, you’re mine?”

“Yes, Derek. God, I’ve always been yours.”

He spun me in a circle before slowly dropping me back to my feet. His hands cupped my jaw, and his mouth dipped down to mine. Our lips slanted together, tasting each other, as if all of this were completely new and wonderful. My heart was full to bursting. I could hardly breathe, knowing what he’d done to be with me. That he’d actually chosen me above all else. I’d thought that this was our last and final good-bye, but in reality, it was our next beginning.

“Minivan?” he teased against my lips.

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

I shivered all over. “I love you too.”

Our eyes locked as those words sealed our future forever. No more barriers between us. Nothing left to pull us apart. This was real. It was real.

“I love you to Mars and back.”

I kissed him again, breathlessly. We were still tangled together when the door cracked back open again.

“Did it work out?” Josie asked with a giggle.

I broke away from Derek, laughing as Lila and Cole tumbled into the apartment after her. “Were you all listening?”

Derek just shook his head at my friends as they all spoke at once, trying to explain the situation.

“Can you blame us?” Lila asked. “We want you to be happy.”

“I guess not,” I said.

“You’re maybe ruining the moment,” Derek said with a laugh.

“Ruining the moment is kind of their specialty,” Cole said. He offered his hand to Derek, who looked at it for a moment and then shook. “Congrats, man.”

“Thanks. You too.”

Lila and Josie wrapped me in a hug, jumping up and down with excitement. They insisted on going out with us tomorrow, and then Derek was carefully herding them out of the apartment.

“Okay, I admit it.”

“What?” I asked, taking his hand and drawing him toward my bedroom.

“Lila isn’t that bad.”

I cackled. “I accept this.”

“But we have one problem.”

I arched an eyebrow as I toed the door to my room open. “I don’t see a problem. I see a king-size bed.”

“That is definitely not the problem.”

“Oh?” My hands were already fiddling with his belt buckle. Eager for us to make up properly.

“We’re going to have to elope.”

I stalled at those words and looked up at him in confusion. “What?”

“I had one more thing to do before I left Savannah.”

Then, he dropped to a knee before me. My mind went completely and totally blank as he produced a small blue box.

“Derek,” I whispered in shock.

“I don’t want to wait another day for you to be my wife. I don’t want to live in a world where you aren’t my everything. I want to be tied to you in every way possible.” He cracked the box open to reveal a simple cushion cut ring with a tiny band of diamonds around it. It was elegant and gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my entire life. “Marry me.”

“Oh my God,” I gasped.

“Is that a yes?” he asked with a laugh.

“Yes!” I said, my entire body shaking with disbelief.

He plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. It fit like it had always been meant to be there. As if it had been made for my finger, just as Derek Ballentine had been made for me.

I kissed him, and we spilled onto the bed with delirious energy. We made love late into the evening, reuniting over and over again and forgetting everything in the world around us. Then, as the sun rose over our new joining, we made plans that I’d never thought we’d get to make together. And I’d never been happier making them with him.

Just him. Always him.

40

Savannah

Six Weeks Later

A diamond was wrapped around my left ring finger.

A matching wedding ring sat on the inside of the engagement ring.