“And that’s why I love you.” He slipped the ring onto the third finger of my left hand and gazed at it for a moment before kissing my hand. His eyes drifted up to mine, and the love in them took my breath away. “You’d be happy if I’d given you a Ring Pop.”
“Because I could lick it and admire it at the same time.” I laughed and then placed my hand on his cheek, caressing it. He was so good to me. “Seriously, Nic, I don’t need something like this when I already have your heart.
“That’s why I’m giving this to you. This ring has been passed down for generations. Mother gave this to me when I got out of the hospital. She knows it belongs to the woman who has my heart, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”
Tears pricked my eyes as I thought of the significance of Nic’s mother giving him the ring.
“I was trying to create this big romantic evening and have you find the ring. I wanted this to be a moment that we’d never forget. I didn’t think you were going to eat it.”
“Oh, I’ll never forget this moment. That’s for sure.” I smiled, rubbing my jaw.
He pulled me into his arms. “You know, this was the spot that I knew I was falling in love with you.”
“It was the same for me too.”
“The moment when you said you watched The Love Boat and your lips touched mine, I knew you were the one for me.”
I splayed my fingers across his muscular chest, admiring the ring. “Yeah, but what you did was really stupid.”
“Mandi, I’d do stupid for you any day.”
“That’s sooo romantic. Really, Nic, my heart can’t take it anymore. Stop all the wooing.” I threw back my head, laughing. My Nic was back. Somehow, after all this time and all the struggles and hardships we’d gone through, he was still here, loving me.
Then he pulled out a ruby rhinestone bobby pin from his pocket.
“You still have it?” I asked as he reached for a wildflower. He swept my hair up and secured the flower into my hair with the pin.
“It’s never left my pocket. You’re always with me.”
“Oh, Nic.”
“Shhh.” He kissed my lips gently. “I always knew that somehow, someway, you were going to be in my life. You saved me that night when I jumped off the bridge. I was drowning in a life that wasn’t real. I even hid from my real self. You demanded the real me. You love the real me.”
He ducked under the table and took out a guitar. Pulling me back to the edge of the river, he sat me down. He strummed the guitar, testing and tuning it as he spoke.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I learned two things from Julian.”
“Ugh! Are you serious?”
“Yes. He taught me that our love could survive anything.”
I leaned over the guitar and kissed Nic. “Okay, that’s one. What’s the other?”
“This.”
My hand flew to my mouth as he played the first notes to our song. The same Phil Collins song we’d danced to at our prom. Hazel eyes held mine. His face and voice were raw with emotion as he sang.
When he strummed the last note, we sat staring at each other in silence. It’d grown dark and the only light came from the full moon above and the flickering candles. Sounds of the bubbling water and crickets mixed with the beating of my heart. I wanted to take time and lock it away with me in my heart. I’d never loved him so much as I did in this moment.
“I love you, Nic.”
“Te amo, Mandi.” Placing the guitar aside, he reached out and took my face into his hands. “I’ll never get tired of telling you how much I love you. I promise that you’ll hear me tell you that every day. And be ready, because you’ll be hearing it for a long time.”
When I opened my mouth to tell him that I would do the same thing too, he placed a finger over my lips.
“Let me finish, mi amor. I want to grow old with you. I want to be the one who puts a smile on your face in the morning. I want to be your last thought when you close those pretty eyes of yours and drift off to sleep. And I definitely want to be the one by your side when we’re old and smelly and sitting out on the front porch and you’re waving your cane at everyone who passes by our house.” I laughed at the picture he painted of us. It was perfect.
His face then turned serious and he swallowed thickly. “I want it all with you because,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “Eres el amor de mi vida.”
“You are the love of my life too.” I kissed him long and hard. This was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and words were not enough to express how much I loved him. So when we finally pulled back, I blurted, “Marry me!”
“I thought I already asked you to marry me.” He grinned, lips brushing against mine.
“You gave me a ring, but you didn’t ask.”
“Well how can I ask now if you already asked me?”
“Then let’s ask each other.”
“Okay, on three. One...two...will you marry me?”
“You cheated.” I pouted.
“Well, it’s not every day I get to ask the woman I love to be mine. Manuela Florentina Ruiz, will you be mine forever? Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
As he took me in him arms, I gave him my heart and soul, and I surrendered to him completely.
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Secrets & Surrender 3 Page 8
