Relinquishing Liberty (41 page)

“As a matter of fact…” Okay, so I wasn’t exactly expecting him to be prepared for my rebuttal. He reached into his other back pocket and pulled out a small, red, velvet box. My hands immediately flew up to my mouth as I gasped in surprise.

Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! Was he seriously going to…okay, now he’s bending down on one knee! Oh. My. God. He is!

“Now let me explain something first. I don’t want you to jump to conclusions and think that I bought this just because of what happened.” I could tell his nerves were kicking in as he wiped the back of his hand across his brow, feverishly sweeping away the beads of sweat.

“Liberty, sweetheart, we’ve been together for about three months now. Three of the best months of my life.” He paused and swallowed hard, his hand noticeably shaking. “I know this might seem a bit sudden, but it didn’t take three months for me to fall in love with you. It didn’t take three weeks, or three days, or three hours. I knew within the first three seconds, when this beautiful angel fell into my arms, that I had met the woman that I was going to spend the rest of my life with. The woman I want to carry my children and raise a family with. The woman that I want to grow old with. Liberty, I love you more than I could ever put into words, and I will love you until I take my last breath. Will you please make me the happiest man alive by becoming my wife?”

Yes! Yes! Yes!
I stood there with my mouth gaping as I repeated my answer over and over in my head.

“Uh, Liberty? You’re killing me here. Please say yes.” Oh, shit. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t answered him yet.

“YES!” I shouted so loud it echoed throughout the cemetery. “Always, yes.” My arms flew around his neck, and I crashed my lips against his.

I felt him smile against my lips. “Can I put this on your finger now?”

I smiled back at him, biting my bottom lip and nodded. The ring was beyond stunning; it was a marquis-cut diamond with a row of smaller diamonds accenting a platinum band. It was absolutely perfect.

“Do you like it?”

“Shayne, I love it. It’s so beautiful!”

He brushed his thumb over the ring and smiled proudly. “It belonged to my mother.”

I gasped in surprise, knowing how much this ring meant to him. “Oh Shayne…”

“I know this isn’t exactly the ideal place for a proposal—”

I cut him off before he could finish. “It’s perfect. It’s funny; I actually never realized how beautiful it was here until now.”

“I have to agree. I was here yesterday, and I had to take a moment just to soak it all in.”

“Wait, you…you were here yesterday? Why?” I looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Well, I had to have a man-to-man talk with someone special.” He nodded his head towards my brother’s headstone. “I couldn’t very well ask you without getting his blessing first.”

Oh, this man.
My heart was filled with so much love for him that it was about ready to burst. Tears began to cloud my vision, but I wasn’t going to let anything ruin this beautiful moment that I would remember for the rest of my life.

“Thank you, Shayne. You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“Anything for you, sweetheart. I love you.” He smiled down at me lovingly, gently brushing his thumbs over my cheeks to wipe away my happy tears.

“I love you so much. Always.”

He bent down and captured my lips, pouring all of his love into that one, single kiss. “Always.”

Shayne stayed for an additional two weeks, allowing my parents to get to know their future son-in-law. My mother gushed over the gorgeous ring that had belonged to his mother, but not before she broke down in tears over the news of our engagement. I could tell she was completely in love with my husband-to-be, and I kept reminding Dad to keep a leash on his woman. He just laughed it off, but I was totally serious. There was not a woman out there that was immune to his charming ways.
I was proof of that.

Dad especially loved having Shayne around. I’m sure it was a nice change after being stuck in a house full of women for the past four years. He finally had someone to talk to about sports, cars and whatever other manly topics. Dad told him he would show him the art of brewing his own beer, and Shayne promised to take him out on the boat when my parents planned to come down to visit. Dad’s eyes lit up at the mention of deep-sea fishing, and I knew that they would have no trouble getting along.

When I was sure that dad was healed enough to manage without any extra help from Shayne or me, we booked the first flight back to Savannah. Stepping off the plane with my fiancé by my side, I knew I was finally home.

We made a pit stop at “AJ’s” before heading home so I could talk to Bob and let him know that I’d be staying in Savannah indefinitely. I felt bad leaving so abruptly three weeks ago, and I had to make sure I still had a job because I definitely planned on working my way through college. I knew Shayne and I could survive on his paycheck alone, but student loans were going to be a bitch, so I might as well start saving now.

The first person I saw when we walked through the restaurant doors was Brittany, who was busy manning the bar. Her eyes immediately flew to my ring, and she squealed over the news of our engagement. I noticed Maddie from the corner of my eye, and her eyes lit up as a smile gradually spread across her face. I grinned back, but her excitement was short-lived when she noticed Brittany holding my hand up, gazing at the rock now displayed on my ring finger. I never even considered how Maddie would take the news of our engagement, but it was clear she was less than thrilled when she stormed off in the other direction.

After a short talk with Bob, ensuring that I would always have a job there as long as I wanted one, I was ready to head home. But not before someone placed their hand over my mouth and pinned me against the lockers, nearly causing me jump out of my skin. The fire in his eyes was raging, and I can only assume he heard the news, as well.

“Jesus, Brett! Do you have to sneak up on me like that?” My left hand flew up to my chest as I tried to catch my breath, but he pulled it away and brought it up to his eye level.

“So it’s true?” He snarled. “You actually said yes to him?”

I tore my hand from his grasp. “It would appear so.”

“You know, I thought you moving in with him was the stupidest thing you could’ve done, but I guess I was wrong.”

I shook my head because honestly, I wouldn’t expect any less from him.

“I get that you’re not happy about this. After everything we now know, I wouldn’t expect you to be, but you can’t continue to put all of the blame on Shayne. Maddie wasn’t an innocent bystander in all of this. It takes two to make a baby, you know.”

Brett leaned against the lockers opposite me, with his arms crossed over his chest. “Thank you for that lovely abridged version of the birds and the bees.”

“I’m serious, Brett. Look we can’t change the past. What happened, happened. They both made a mistake. A huge, stupid, drunken mistake. I’m not happy about it either, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. I love Shayne, and because I love him, I’m willing to move past this.” My mother’s advice reverberated through my mind as I spoke. “Because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering ‘what if’.”

Brett’s chin dipped down towards his chest, and I could just barely make out that he was nodding his head.
Was Brett actually agreeing with me on something? There’s a first!

“You’re right. I’m not happy about this, but I love you, Liberty, and I just want you to be happy. The same goes for my sister.”

“Thank you, Brett. That really means a lot to me.”

Brett looked up at me through hooded lashed. “So are you? Happy, that is?”

I smiled and looked down at the ring sparkling back at me. “Yes. I can honestly say I’ve never been happier.”

Brett let out a long, breathy sigh. “Well then I’m happy for you…but I still think you have shitty taste in guys.”

“Shut up.” I giggled and shoved him back into the lockers. He wrapped his arm around my neck and kissed the top of my head before leading me back out to the dining area. Shayne was leaning against the bar, but when his eyes landed on the pair of us, with Brett’s arm around me, his posture immediately straightened up. When Brett loosened his hold on me, he did the very last thing on earth I would ever imagine him doing.

He extended his hand out to Shayne.

If I wasn’t still leaning into Brett, I probably would have fallen over, but nothing could stop my jaw from quickly plunging to the floor. I watched everything play out in front of me as though it were happening in slow motion. The corner of Shayne’s mouth curled up, and he took Brett’s hand in his giving him a firm shake. Brett gave him a quick pat on the back and congratulated us, but not before threatening Shayne’s life if he ever hurt me again. Now that was more like the Brett I knew and loved.

Brett turned towards me and lifted my jaw until my mouth closed. “Don’t want to get any flies getting in there, darlin’.”

I shook my head in disbelief and threw my arms around his neck. I gave him one last tight hug and a kiss on the cheek before we left, mouthing thank you to him as I pulled away.

“Ready to head home, fiancée?”

I loved hearing him call me that, but I looked even more forward to the day I’d hear him call me his bride. “Yeah. Take me home, fiancé.”

A few minutes later, we pulled up to our house, but before heading inside, I slipped around the side of the house and walked down to the beach. I plopped down in the sand, and Shayne came up behind me, placing a leg on either side of mine and wrapping his arms around my chest.
This
was where I felt most at home. Sitting here, gazing out at the waves in front of us and wrapped up in the arms of the man I love. The man I will spend the rest of my life with.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”

I sighed. “Yeah. I just wasn’t expecting Maddie to react the way she did, but I guess I should have. I’m pretty sure you’ll forever be on her shit list.”

“Well, you can’t please them all.” He placed a soft kiss on my neck. “And all I care about is pleasing you.” I turned back to look at him and with the smirk painted on his face, I knew there was a double meaning there.
Cheeky man.

“Are you happy?” He looked down at me with a twinge of concern in his eyes.

I smiled back at him. “Yes. I’ve never been happier.”

“Have you put any thought into where you’d like to get married?”

I looked around and knew exactly where I wanted us to get married. “Right here.”

“Right here? On the beach?”

“Yeah. I can’t think of a more perfect setting for our wedding.”

He pulled me in tighter and whispered in my ear. “All right, sweetheart. We’ll get married right here.”

I turned in his lap so that I was facing him and wrapped my legs around his waist. “I love you, Shayne. Thank you.”

“For what, baby?”

“For everything. For showing me what was missing in my life. For healing my heart. For…loving me.”

He let out a soft laugh as he took my chin between his finger and thumb and brought my gaze up to his. God, those beautiful emerald eyes of his will forever captivate me. “It wasn’t hard, sweetheart. Loving you was the easy part.”

“And what was the hard part?”

He pressed a slow, lingering kiss against my lips that nearly took my breath away, and then softly whispered, “Nothing.” He trailed his finger over the tattoo on my wrist that matched his own. “Once I knew I loved you, everything else fell into place. I knew that I had finally found my other half, my better half…my missing puzzle piece.”

Look for Maddie’s Story, Unforeseen Heartbeat, in early 2014!

Suicide Prevention

It can be scary when a friend or loved one is thinking about suicide, but you are not alone. If you or someone you know is showing any warning signs, you are encouraged to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) or 1-800-SUICIDE so that you can find out what resources are available in your area.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org