My mouth was on hers before she could finish getting the last word out, and a high-pitched sound of surprise turned into a giggle as she wrapped her arms around me.

“When you say things like that, it makes me want to forget why I’m giving you this time,” I informed her, and she laughed again as she pulled away from me.

“You say that, but I know you. I know you wouldn’t follow through with that.” Her blue eyes searched mine, and I found myself caught in them when I noticed that a part of Harlow was finally winning—my Harlow. “I want to ask you when you think we’ll be ready to move on from all this, but I have no doubt you’ll let me know.”

I smiled knowingly. “As I said, Low, you won’t be allowed out of bed—that will be your first clue.”

She rolled her eyes, but her smile offset the action. Her eyelids slowly grew heavy, and just before she let them shut, she murmured, “Knox?”

My lips twitched. “Yeah, Low.”

“I’m sorry for wasting time.”

My face twisted and my chest ached. I swallowed past the tightness in my throat, and whispered honestly, “Never.”

Epilogue

Knox

Six months later—Thatch

“WHERE ARE YOU?” I asked, and shifted my weight nervously from foot to foot.

“I just pulled up to the house,” Harlow said excitedly, and tried, but failed, to suppress a giggle. “I love this house!”

I smiled to myself. I knew she did. Harlow had decided a few months ago that she wanted to be in Thatch so she could be closer to Grey and the baby, and since I’d moved into her apartment a month before, Graham and Deacon were glad that I was coming back to town. They’d acted like Harlow and I had betrayed them by living in Richland, since I’d lived with them for almost seven years, even though I was there half the time anyway for work.

And even though I no longer needed to give Harlow space now, I’d let her pick out our house. She’d hated her last house. I knew this one needed to be perfect for her—and it ended up being perfect for us.

We’d finished moving in over the weekend, and I was still supposed to be at work until tomorrow morning, but I’d taken off the entire shift. After spending the day with her parents in Seattle yesterday, I’d made sure Harlow would be busy out of the house today while I transformed the entire entryway to look like a meadow of red poppies.

I heard Harlow’s car door shut as she told me about her day, and my eyes snapped up to the front door as I listened to her voice get closer and closer.

“Harlow?”

“Yeah?” she asked when she put the key in the lock.

“Why would anyone waste their time only loving someone to the moon when they could love them to the stars?”

She’d finished the last few words with me as she opened the door, then said in confusion, “You’re not at—” Harlow’s eyes widened and her gasp filled the entryway as she dropped her arm holding the phone up to her ear. “Knox,” she whispered in awe. “You remembered.”

Like I could’ve forgotten.

I fingered the ring in my pocket, and swallowed roughly as I waited for her to look back at me. “I thought of buying you a new one, but I knew it belonged to you the instant I saw it five years ago, and every time I see it now, I know that’s still true.”

Harlow covered her mouth when it fell open, and her blue eyes brightened with unshed tears when I pulled the ring out and closed the distance between us. It had a white gold band that looked like twisted rope, with a round diamond solitaire resting on top.

Once I was in front of her, I took her left hand in mine and dropped down to one knee. “When I met you seven and a half years ago, I knew one day I would make you mine. It’s taken us a little longer to get there than I’d originally planned, but I can’t complain when I get you for the next fifty-nine and a half years.”

She laughed behind her hand, and her left hand squeezed mine.

“No matter what happens in our lives, I will love you with everything that I am for the rest of mine, and I will make sure you know every day what it’s like to be loved to the stars,” I vowed. “Harlow Evans, will you marry me?”

“Yes!” she choked out, and barely gave me long enough to slide the ring on her finger before she launched herself into my arms and crushed her mouth to mine. She pulled back enough to look into my eyes and whispered, “Thank you for waiting for me.”

“Always.”