My heart thundered, and my lips parted as I tried to breathe, to think. “Jagger? What are you—”
“Look up.”
I turned my eyes skyward over his shoulder and gasped, my fingers flexing into his skin. Where the pier had been empty a moment before, a giant banner hung from the same place I’d been thrown from last year. I read it three times before I could suck air into my lungs, or even notice that our friends and family, even Anna, stood smiling behind it. Tears built in my eyes as I looked into his.
“Paisley Lynn Donovan, I can’t imagine my life without you. You are my sunshine, my oxygen, and the captain of my soul. Will you marry me?”
My pounding heart leaped into my throat, and I took in everything about the moment, wanting to file it away so I would never forget.
“I could get down on one knee, but I don’t think you could hear me underwater,” he added, uncertainty springing to his eyes.
“Oh, no,” I replied.
“No?” he whispered, every muscle in his body tensing.
“What? No, don’t go underwater.” I smiled. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Jagger.”
“Oh, thank God.” He leaned his head back and shouted, “She said yes!”
The pier erupted in cheers, and the sky turned momentarily white over our heads as he kissed me breathless. The flap of wings caught my attention. “Are those—?”
“Doves.” He watched my reaction like a kid on Christmas hoping he’d bought the right presents.
“Little birds.” I laughed, needing to let some of my joy out before it burst me apart. “You’re crazy!” I’d never felt stronger, happier, more loved in my entire life. He lowered me gently until I felt the sand beneath my feet.
“Well, I figured I’m only doing this once.” Then he lifted my left hand and kissed my finger before slipping a classic, perfect engagement ring onto it.
I blinked the tears from my eyes and kissed him, tasting salt on his lips. “It’s perfect. Wait. Where were you hiding a ring?”
He grinned. “You don’t want to know. It was complicated.”
I shook my head but couldn’t stop smiling. “I will love you my entire life.”
“I’m counting on it.” He carried me onto the beach to the cheers of our little crowd—our family, both biological and chosen.
I looked up at him, my chest on fire with how much I loved him, and how little that word seemed to encompass this burning. “This is where you saved me.”
“No. This is where you saved me.”
He kissed me, and my heart took flight all over again.