Broken Course (Wrecked and Ruined #3)(76)

"Sarah." He interrupts my inner panic attack by grabbing my arm from behind. "Stop overthinking this. Let me explain."

I let out a relieved breath. "Oh thank God. I thought you were about to propose." I laugh and wipe away the tears that started to form in my eyes.

"No, I am proposing. I’m just not okay with letting Google do it for me."

"Oh my God," I squeak, throwing my hands up to cover my mouth. "Leo, I, um…" I begin to stutter.

"Shh. It’s my turn to talk." He grabs my hand, and my vision begins to swim. Dropping to a knee, he pulls out a ring I can barely make out among the unshed tears.

Apparently, marry me does mean the same thing in Spanish.

"I’m going to be sick," I say from behind my hands.

Leo lets out a chuckle but stands back up and pulls me into his chest. "No puking," he breathes against my ear while rubbing his scruff against my cheek. "Here. Just let me hold you. Maybe that will be easier." He silently holds me for a few minutes as I try to compress the emotions into something more manageable but fail miserably. "You okay?" he whispers, and I shake my head. "Well I’m going to start talking. You let me know if you need to puke so I can at least get out of the way."

I can feel the smile on his lips as he kisses my neck.

"Sarah, I love you. I know I told you once that you saved my life, but oddly enough, that isn’t even the most spectacular thing you’ve ever done for me. I’ve lived a lot of years, and none of them have been as fulfilling as the last few months with you. You’ve given me back a life that I had long since given up on."

My hands begin to tremble between us. Leo only acknowledges it by squeezing me tighter before continuing to talk quietly into my ear.

"We have a long road ahead of us because of our pasts. We both still struggle on a daily basis, and I can’t swear to you that will ever stop. But it doesn’t feel impossible when I’m with you. You make me smile and laugh. You make things right even when the world feels completely wrong. Sarah, it’s easy to remember why I should open my eyes every morning when the first thing they see is you."

I hiccup a breath and lift a hand to cover my mouth again.

"You need to throw up or can I keep going?" he asks in the most romantic way one can ask such a question.

"Keep going," I whimper.

"I love that I’m able to be your rock even though, sometimes, I feel like I can barely support my own weight. But more than that, I love knowing that, even on my weakest days, you understand enough about how I’m feeling to be my rock also. We can do this, Sarah. I know you’re going to worry about jumping into a marriage, but you have to know I have never been more confident about something in my life. Individually, we’ve been through hell and lived to tell about it. Together, there isn’t a force in the world that could bring us down."

"Leo, I…" I start, but I’m afraid to even finish the sentence.



I DECIDED weeks ago that I was going to propose to Sarah. It never included a beach or her getting sick, but I knew I was going to do it. I’ve proposed in Spanish no less than twenty times since I made the decision. I proposed over breakfast when the light from the window twinkled in her ocean-blue eyes. I proposed on a random night after dinner when she got frustrated and began cussing because she couldn’t find the words to make me understand how we might benefit from time spent apart. I proposed in the middle of a heated game of Trivial Pursuit right before she cheated so I couldn’t get my final pie piece. I even once proposed in the middle of sex as I emptied myself inside her. But up until now, I’ve never had the balls to say it in English.

"Sarah Kate Erickson, will you marry me?"

She sucks in a deep breath but remains silent in my arms.

Asking a woman to marry you is terrifying, but I didn’t exactly go into this with visions of her screaming yes from the mountaintops. I knew this was going to be a hard sell. I also knew that I wouldn’t take no for an answer. We might be taking up residence on this square foot of the beach because I’m not budging until she agrees to be my wife.

"We’re right together. You know it just as much as I do," I say, hoping to convince her, but she only continues to cry. "ángel, say something."

"I don’t know what to say," she tells my chest.

"Start with what part of this has you all worked up. Are you excited, nervous, scared?" I prompt as she begins to wiggle out of my arms

"What if I break you like I did Brett? What if that’s, like, my curse—I ruin men."

"And you think not marrying me will make me any less ruined? Sarah, if something happened to us, I would never be the same again, ring or not."

"This is a big commitment," she says, looking down at her feet.

"No. This is just us showing our friends and family how committed we already are. Tell me you can imagine a day where you don’t love me. If you can envision that, then I’ll let this go. Otherwise, I’m not leaving this beach without a yes."

Her eyes bounce around the night sky. I know she’s trying to work this out in her head, but Sarah doesn’t exactly have the best track record in that department. She’s going to make this into something dramatic and work herself into an over-the-top frenzy.