Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)(88)

I blinked. I inspired him? He was the one who loved others selflessly. He was the one who’d taken over the care of a child at eighteen. He was the one who’d seen past my bad list. He was my inspiration.

“What did you find out during your research?” I asked.

He pointed up at one of the constellations. “That group of stars over to the left is called Orion the Hunter. It was named after a fierce warrior in Greek mythology.”

I looked up and nodded, recognizing the familiar group of stars in the winter sky.

He continued. “The two stars at the top are his shoulders, the two toward the bottom are his legs. In the middle, you have the three stars that make the belt and then...and here’s the important part...there’s several stars going down from the belt. Those are his sword and that’s what I want you to see...that like Orion’s sword, you’re a star too.”

“I’m not a star,” I whispered, turning to look at him, blinking at the sudden dampness in my eyes.

“You’re better than a star.”

I bit my lip and peered back up at the heavens. “How?”

“Look at the sword. Hard,” he said. “Can you tell that one of the stars is fuzzier than the rest?”

I squinted and then nodded. Sure enough the stars going down from the belt were not as clear as the others. Not as bright.

He said, “It’s blurry because one of those isn’t really a star at all. It’s something much more beautiful.” He turned me to face him. “It’s a nebula...a real nebula...where new stars are being born every day, every minute, becoming part of our universe. That fuzzy star actually creates life. That star, just like you, is a beginning. It’s life, it’s truth, it’s hope, it’s what we are made of.” He paused and shook his head as if in amazement. “That star is creation at its best, and just like those new stars being born, so are you. You are starting all over, with a fresh slate, and the night sky is all yours, Nora.”

He kissed my hands with reverence. “Inside you right now is the life you’ve always deserved, a soulmate, a family, happiness.”

Tears streamed down my face at the conviction I heard in his voice.

God, how he looked at me. How he loved me. How I loved him.

His thumbs gently rubbed my tears away. “Did I make you cry? I didn’t mean to.”

“Happy tears, Leo,” I said. “It’s been such a long road, but here I am, in your arms. Life doesn’t get any better than this.”

He slid to his knees in front of me.

I stared down at him in confusion. What?

He spoke quietly, yet with assurance. “A hundred years from now nebulas will still be creating the universe. A hundred years from now...if we are still around...I will still love you. I want to be with you for as long as we both have left in this world. I want to be the one to wipe your tears, soothe your heartaches, rejoice in your successes. I want to help you destroy the demons that haunt you. Someday, the bitterness and hurt you carry will fade. I can see it already, and I yearn, and I mean physically yearn to be there with you.”

His hands tightened around my hips. Like I was his lifeline. “Let me be part of your beautiful chaos.”

He tugged something from his jeans and opened it.

The world held its breath.

With quivering hands I lightly touched the diamond solitaire ring resting inside the teal box, half afraid it would suddenly disappear.

“Nora Grace Blakely, will you marry me? I want it now, but it doesn’t have to be tomorrow or next year, but I need to know you’re mine. I promise I will never waver again, never be unsure. I was half a man until I met you. I thought I had it all together, but I was dead wrong. I want to be committed to you...long term.” He sucked in a deep breath and exhaled. “Be my star, Nora.”

I cupped his face, slid down to my knees and nodded, mute.

With shaking hands, he slid the ring on my finger.

This was our new beginning, the creation of our future.

“I belong to you,” I said softly.

His mouth tipped up in a grin. “That’s a yes, then?”

I looked into his opal eyes, the ones that had captured me in that parking lot months ago. That fateful day, his gaze had given me strength and hope. Destiny had intertwined our lives, had thrown us together time and time again.

Some people say that true love is a myth, that soulmates don’t exist. I feel sadness for those cynical souls. They’ll never know the high that comes from being with the one you’re meant to be with. They’ll never experience the absolute rightness of finding their true mate.

“Hey, you gonna answer me?” he murmured, lifting my chin up.

“Yes, Leo. Yes, yes, yes. I want to marry you. I will follow you wherever you go. I want to have little Tate babies who play the guitar and piano. I am yours.”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. His eyes misted as he rested his forehead against mine, as if in relief. “Best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten,” he said.

We stared at each other for a long time, our bodies fitting like pieces of a puzzle, our hearts beating as one. This was one of those extraordinary moments I would never forget; this was a moment that would sustain me in times of strife; this was the universe aligning; this was perfection.

This was love.

He breathed me in. Minutes passed, perhaps hours. I don’t know. All I knew was him and the way he made me feel. Exquisite and precious. Like I was the queen of his world. As the constellations watched from above, as the night sounds of the city buzzed in the background, as people went about their normal lives, we combusted. Like the most delicious white-hot fire.