Sam and Colby: The House

59

"Good, you're here!" Colby said excitedly.

"Yeah, look, baby, I—,"

"Hold on, we can talk in a second. Just, come here for me," Colby said. He took my hand in his and led me past the pool to the small garden we had in the backyard. Devyn and Kat loved gardening, so we had a bunch of gorgeous flowers just starting to bloom since it was spring. "Here, sit on the bench."

"Okay, but Colby, really, I have to—,"

"Just one minute, okay? I need to say something first," he said. I sighed and sat down on the small bench in the back of the garden and Colby crouched down in front of me, holding both of my hands.

"Do you remember the first time we made eye contact? In your car?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "You wouldn't look away."

"I couldn't look away. That second I saw you, I knew you were something special," he said.

"Did you just bring me out here to be all sappy?" I teased.

"Kind of, yeah," he said. "Look, Nessa. I love you. I love you so much. And if the past year—,"

"Ten months," I interjected.

"Okay, ten months. If the past ten months have taught me anything, it's that life is short and fragile and dangerous. And like you said in the graveyard, we get to do whatever we want and we can be whatever we want," he continued.

"Yeah...," I said. Where was he going with this?

"I almost lost you five months ago. Those three weeks in between you getting taken to the hospital and you waking up were the most difficult days of my life. It felt like years were going by without you in my life, even though you were only unconscious for three weeks," he said.

"Baby, I know all of this. Why are you telling it to me again?" I asked.

"Because I want to remind you," he said.

"Remind me? Of what?" I asked.

"I want to remind you how fast and hard we fell for each other. Remind you that I need you. Forever," he said.

Oh no. Oh fucking no. Please, not right now. For once, can I please be wrong?

"Vanessa Irene Atkins, will you marry me?"

the end

(don't worry i promise there will be a third book, i'll post the read/vote/comment goal soon)