All's Fair in Love and Las Vegas

Chapter Eighty-Four

        I missed the cool feeling of sand between my toes as soon as I stepped onto the rickety planks of the dock. Grayson held my hand a little tighter, and part of me wondered if he was worried about me falling in. We walked out to the end, which was thankfully a short distance from shore.

        At the end of the dock, there was a cluster of small, electric candles. The rose trail ended in a pool of deep red, the petals soft under my feet. The water lapped at the boards, not close to washing over the planks but still creating a soothing sound. The wind lightly played with the ends of my hair, always present but never too strong. It was slightly scary, yet slightly thrilling to look out and see nothing. To stand above the ocean, above the waves.     

        "What did you need to talk to me about?" I asked Grayson, still holding his hand. For once, I had trouble reading the expression written in his hazel eyes.

        He exhaled slowly, saying, "I need to tell you the truth."

        For a second, I felt like my heart stopped. "The truth?"

        "Yeah. Because I am sick of the lies, and the half-truths, and the maybe-truths," he said, gently taking my other hand as well. "I can lie to the world. I can hide my feelings, I can say things and they'll hear what they want to hear."

        "What are you saying?" I asked, not able to believe my ears. Was he going back on it all? Was he going to reveal the truth to the entire world?

        Grayson noticed my face because he quickly said, "No, no, Jackie, I'm not breaking our deal. At least, not yet. That's not what I'm trying to get at."

        "Then what are you trying to get at?" I asked, even more confused. 

        "I'm trying to say that it's not fake," he said quietly. "That when I show you affection, I mean it. That I care about you more than anything. Maybe in the beginning, it wasn't like this, but since then you've become my everything. I don't even know when it really happened, but I fell for you–actually, it's more like I jumped off a cliff. So I need to tell you the truth, because I can't keep stuffing down these feelings, or hiding them in the fake romance that we show the world."

        He held onto my hands a little tighter, trying to hold onto me when all I felt was lost. "Jacks, I love you," he said softly. "I have for months now. You've made me find love in places I didn't even know existed, like when I'm just sitting next to you or eating a snack with you or listening to you sing. All of it makes me love you more. Some days I feel like I'm going to explode with how much I love you. Loving you for fake has been great, but loving you for real is better than anything I could've ever imagined."

        At a loss for words, I numbly watched as Grayson took a small box from his pocket. My eyes went wide; even after everything he'd just said, I couldn't believe that the little diamond ring he was holding was actually there.

        "I know we haven't even dated," he said, his gaze totally serious. "But we've been married so long, been such a team for so long that I don't think being your boyfriend is enough. I want a future with you, Jacks. I want to be married for real, with real plans and dreams between us. I want to be there for you on the long days, to go on crazy adventures with you for the rest of my life. I want to take you on a real honeymoon, someplace you pick. I want you to have a wedding you actually want, with people you care about and a cake you like and root beer floats. I want to be at your side as we take on life, as we grow old together."

        He gets down on one knee, saying quietly, "Jackie, if you'll have me, with all of my flaws and problems that you know better than anyone else, would you marry me?"