Noah and Griffin made their way through the confused crowd until they stood in front of what looked like a delightedly silent Jordan and a horrified Maggie.
Here she thought she was being ridiculous, worrying when there was nothing she could place her finger on to worry about. Turns out she didn’t need to wait for the other shoe to drop. They were both dropping at the same damned time.
“What?” Noah asked. Jordan’s eyes were brimming with tears.
“Why…” Jordan hiccupped again, and Maggie remembered the ouzo. Maybe she misunderstood what Duncan said. Maybe it was just her low tolerance for liquor. “Why…” Jordan continued, “did Duncan just congratulate me on my engagement?”
“Jesus, Duncan,” Noah said, running a hand through his hair. “This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen.”
“Shit,” Griffin mumbled under his breath. His eyes locked on Maggie’s, and she knew he wanted to say something, to answer the dread he must have seen in her eyes, but neither of them would interrupt Noah and Jordan’s unexpected moment.
“Brooks,” Noah said, his voice soft and low, but it didn’t matter. The room went silent as he dropped to one knee and fumbled in his bag until he produced a small velvet box.
Jordan hiccupped again, but this time it wasn’t the alcohol. It was a small sob, and Maggie’s gut twisted. Jordan and Noah’s lives were changing right in front of her, in the best possible way. And after she said yes—because of course she would—Griffin was going to confirm what Duncan spoiled for her, that Griffin was moving to Washington and leaving her behind. What the hell was in Washington? Did Duncan mean D.C.? God, was he taking a job somehow connected to his father’s political aspirations? How much did she not know about the man she lived with?
Maggie’s head swam again. Stupid ouzo. Stupid Maggie for thinking she was safe from being knocked on her ass by anything life threw at her anymore. She may have been standing in everyone else’s eyes, but inside she was grasping for purchase, doing everything she could to stay upright.
Jordan covered her mouth with her hands as tears streamed down her face, and all Maggie wished was that this moment and what she knew would come after could be fast-forwarded, just so she was sure she made it through. Instead, time seemed to slow down. Griffin grabbed her hand, tried to thread his fingers through hers, but she pulled away, his touch too much to bear.
Noah opened the box before speaking again, revealing a round solitaire diamond ring. It might not have been huge, but Maggie’s front-row seat confirmed it was beautiful.
“God,” he started. “I wasn’t supposed to do this off the cuff, you know? I had the right moment in my head. Everything was going to be perfect.” He chuckled. “But perfect has never been our way, has it?”
Jordan shook her head, still cupping her hands to her mouth.
“I fell for you as soon as I met you, Brooks. Being stuck with you in a train vestibule should have put me into a freaking panic attack, but instead it made me realize what I didn’t even know I was missing.”
Jordan let her hands fall, one of them reaching for Noah’s cheek. He leaned into her palm and kissed it.
“I got a lot wrong that year,” he continued. “But the one thing I got right was not letting you get away. Thank you for not giving up on me.” He dropped her hand so he could remove the ring from the box. “I love you, Brooks. It doesn’t matter that it’s been three years. Every day I wake up with you next to me is like falling for you all over again. I know our lives are crazy right now, but I also know we’ll get through it. Because we’re us.” He cleared his throat and held the ring up to her. “Let’s be us always, Brooks. Marry me.”
Jordan nodded as he slid the ring onto her finger. Then he rose to meet her.
“Say the word, Brooks.” Noah glanced around at their captive audience. “Everyone’s waiting for you to say it out loud. I’d kind of like to hear it, too.”
Jordan let out a laughing sob and then cupped his cheeks in her hands. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Noah. I love you. I want to be us. Always.”
The room erupted in applause as the newly engaged couple kissed, no one the wiser that outside, tomorrow’s groom was most likely trying to convince the bride to still have him, or that right in the very room where a couple just promised their lives to each other, another was on the brink of falling apart.
“We need to talk.”
Griffin’s hand was around Maggie’s wrist, and he was pulling her back toward the door and out into the main restaurant.
But it didn’t really matter what he was about to say, because after a year of trusting the first person outside of her gran and Miles, Griffin had lied to her. She was always so afraid that letting him into her life was a risk for him—that somehow he’d end up getting hurt. But she’d had it all wrong. Because here they were, thousands of miles from home, on what should have been the best weekend they’d ever had, and the only thing she was sure of now was that whatever Griffin said next would break her heart.
Chapter Seventeen
Duncan
Duncan was really tired of running, so it was a good thing the sand was there to slow Elaina down. He caught up to her quickly, grabbing her hand and forcing her to face him.
The sun hadn’t quite set yet, the glare of the waning light bouncing off the waves and backlighting the woman in front of him. Even with the hindrance of his swollen eye, he marveled at how Elaina still took his breath away. From the second he’d seen her, he knew that it wasn’t marrying her that had tripped him up this morning. He had no doubt that she was the only person he could fathom giving his life to. But the big picture? Leaving his home for the unknown? Well, that was fucking terrifying, and Elaina should understand at least that—the reason why he took his eyes off his damn bag and let this day turn to complete and utter shite.
“Are you going to say something, or are you just going to stare at me like a pirate?”
Duncan couldn’t help it. He threw back his head and laughed—a full-on howl. His eyes even watered a bit—well, the good one did, at least. He realized he hadn’t really let go of the stress of the day, and no matter how angry Elaina was at him, being in her presence washed away all the rest.
Elaina took advantage of his moment of weakness and stalked off toward the water again. The wind whipped at them wildly, and he watched as she cupped her shoulders in her hands, rubbing them to keep warm.
“I could warm you up,” he said as he approached, and Elaina whirled on him, arms crossed.
“You don’t call me the whole day. Just a text that says, Forgive me. I couldn’t get on the second plane. What am I supposed to think? You make me lie to my family…and yours. You come here looking like—like—I don’t even know what you look like. But you do not look like the man I’m supposed to marry in the morning.”
He staggered back, this time not because she took his breath away but because she knocked the wind out of him.
“My phone was dead. And that arsehole security bloke only let me make one call on his phone.” He ran a hand through his hair. “That doesn’t even matter. Wha’ am I supposed to look like, Elaina? If I showed up at ten o’clock this morning, hair combed and face free of any sign that would remind you of what you really see when you look at me, would you forget that I’m a mess sometimes? That I make mistakes? That I’m not a perfect man? I never pretended to be anything other than what I was. But you never really accepted that. Did ya, now?”
Elaina huffed out a breath but squeezed her arms tighter.
Three years ago, he had loved that she was a challenge—someone to whom he had to prove himself worthy. But had he ever really proved anything? Or had she just let her heart overrule her head until now? He knew he was a good man, that he loved her, and all this time he thought that was enough.