“Well, it just so happens that I love telling you, so we’re a good fit.”

“I never thought I could love someone this way,” I tell him, dragging my finger along his full bottom lip.

“I’m glad you picked me,” he says gruffly, kissing my fingertip.

“I don’t think I had much choice.”

“No, but I’m glad you didn’t put up too much of a fight.”

“Me, too.”

“I’ve got a question for you,” he says, setting me on my feet and taking my hand. We start to walk, but he doesn’t say anything else.

“What’s your question?” I finally ask.

He acts as though he doesn’t even hear me. We keep walking and he keeps holding my hand. About three minutes later, he steps in front of me and takes me by the shoulders.

“Close your eyes.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

I do as he asks and he starts to walk again, slowly this time, with his hands still on my shoulders, him going backward I assume. When we stop again, he turns me slightly and then releases my shoulders.

“You can open them.”

I open my eyes to find Cole kneeling in front of me. Behind him, etched in the packed sand, are the words MARRY ME. My heart stutters and stumbles and I gasp. I had begun to wonder if Cole would ever marry again. He’s always talked about us being together forever, but he’s never once mentioned marriage.

He takes a black, velvet box from his pocket, brushing the sand off it. He kept it in the same pocket as the sand for his daughter, almost as though we really are all together in his heart now.

“Will you, Eden? Will you give me all of your tomorrows? Mine are already yours. Everything I am, everything I have, everything I’ll ever be is yours. Whether you say yes or not, I’m all yours. All the broken pieces. Please say yes. Please make my life mean something again.”

When I fall down onto my knees in front of him, he takes the ring from the box and holds it out to me. There is a big solitaire in the center and, on either side, four smaller diamonds that trail along the band. The platinum wraps around them in such a way that it looks like two hourglasses on their side, framing the center stone.

“I said yes before you even asked. I’ve been saying yes every day since I met you. I knew then…somehow, I knew that you’d be the one to fix me.”

“And you fixed me.”

“Together, we aren’t broken at all.”

“Our pieces fit. Perfectly. As perfectly as you fit in my soul. I love you, baby. So, so much,” he says sincerely.

As I watch, heart in my throat, Cole takes my hand in his and slips the ring on. It feels warm and a little heavy and so, so right. I lift my finger to study it more closely.

“Where did you get this? Not at Bailey’s, I’m sure.” The one thing you can’t get at Bailey’s is a diamond ring.

He grins. “No, not at Bailey’s. I drew it up and called a jeweler up in Portland. Said he could do it. Even drove it down here himself when he was finished.”

“That was nice of him.”

“I think he was curious after I asked him for the second one.”

“The second one?”

Cole pulls up the velvet cushion from the bottom of the box and removes a tiny ring that looks like a pink version of mine. Perfect for a little girl.

“Let’s go get Emmy,” he says.

I’m smiling so brightly, I think the sun might seem dimmer by comparison. I feel it shining from my face like a million-watt bulb.

Cole stands and sweeps me up into his arms to carry me back. As he walks, he seals our deal with a kiss. A kiss that melds together all of our different pieces into the most beautiful whole this world has ever seen.

The End