Kapitel 94: 94. Chapter 94
Her heart's going to give up the ghost any second now, quivering and thrashing in her chest as Rafe takes her hand.
He gives her that sexy, blue-eyes smile, close-mouthed with the corner that tilts up. Just for her.
"Alexis Castle," he starts.
She might not survive.
"I have a question for you." He's grinning again, his dark hair tossed over one eye as the breeze picks up again. He's entirely too confident, entirely too smug, and now he's pulling something out of his pocket. It shines golden in the sunset.
She drops to her knees beside him, stares at it.
"That's-"
"You said come find you when I got a ring." He rubs his thumb over the place where that ring will go, gives her another encouraging smile. How is he not at all nervous? "Allie."
She glances back down to the ring - her mother's ring - Kate's ring - and can barely breathe.
"Allie, I got a ring. Marry me?"
Her heart stops.
He rubs his thumb over her finger again, as if getting it ready, waits on her to figure out how to breathe again.
"Yes," she manages, unable to even think.
He slides the ring over her finger - Kate's ring - and brushes his thumb across the back of her hand, tugs on her. She crashes into him, mouth to mouth, his touch resuscitating her, her arms winding around his neck to hold on for dear life.
She realizes she's crying only when she feels the little-boy hand at her shoulder, hears her brother's anxious voice at her ear.
"Allie, why you crying?"
She laughs and breaks from Rafe, sees her little brother peering at her from his squatted position in the sand, concern and compassion leaking from his eyes.
"Happy tears, Dashiell. I get to marry Rafe, and it makes me happy."
"Oh," he says and stands back up. "You're not hurt?"
"Nope, all good. Better than good."
She leans out and hugs him tightly, kissing his cheek and making him squirm.
"Ew, cooties."
Rafe laughs at that, has already gotten to his feet and now holds his hand out to her. She can't remember falling to her knees in the sand beside him, but now that she's slowly regaining strength in her legs, she thinks she might be able to make it.
And her parents-
Her dad looks stunned, but not too bad, honestly, and Kate is hanging back, entirely too tentative for her mom. She squeezes Rafe's hand and drags him over to her parents, lets go to wrap her arms around Kate.
When she hugs back, Allie presses her mouth to her mother's cheek, feels it flood over her again. "Mom, your ring."
"Yours now."
"Why - how - but it's your mother's ring," she murmurs, pressing her closed eyes into Kate's neck, her arms around the slender waist of her mother.
"Well, it's your mother's ring too, isn't it?" Kate whispers tightly.
Allie jerks back, eyes startled to Kate's, her heart pounding. "Yes. Yes it is."
Her mother nods back, brushes the hair behind Allie's ears with a gentle, reassured look. "I'd rather pass it on early like this, and not the way my mom passed it on to me."
Allie nods back, her heart squeezing tight. "I love you."
Kate catches her up in a second embrace, tighter than the first, her lips at Allie's ear. "Volim te, dušo."
"All right, my turn."
Allie laughs and looks up at her father over Kate's shoulder, releases her mother to be embraced so very tightly by her dad. His arms are thick and his body envelops her, as if he could take her back.
"Congratulations, pumpkin," he says, his hand running down her hair and squeezing her tighter. "He's a good man."
"Thank you, Daddy."
"Just don't make me a grandfather until your younger siblings are out of preschool."
"So, two years then?" she jokes, leaning back with a sly smile to look at him.
He smiles slyly back at her. "I said all your siblings."
Her confusion, her near-excitement, makes her smile falter, but Kate is slapping her father's shoulder. "He's messing with you. We don't need any more than those two."
Allie laughs at that, hugs her father impulsively once more, then steps back to find Rafe's hand with hers. The ring catches on his fingers and she looks at him, their eyes meeting with a grin.
They're going to get married. He wants to marry her.
Wow.
Somehow, (and really, he doesn't mind at all; in fact, it's kind of nice) Rafe ends up carrying Ellery back up the boardwalk, her shoes in one hand. Allie has her fingers tucked into the back pocket of his cargo shorts, hanging on to him; he can feel the ring scrape against him at times.
He's going to marry her. Finally.
Ellery winds her arms around his neck and shifts to look at the people passing them on the boardwalk, heading back down to the beach with buckets and flashlights.
"What they doing?"
"Searching for crabs."
"Crabs?"
"They come out of the sand at night when it's cooler. You can put them in a bucket and have a pet crab for a few days."
"Or eat them," Allie says. "I think they eat them."
He shoots her a look, but Ellery sits up in his arms, looks entirely too interested, and not at all grossed out or sad about the crabs getting eaten.
"I eat crab?"
"I don't think you ever have," Allie answers. "You could probably try some when we go out tomorrow night."
"Mommy!" she yells, practically in his ear, and he realizes he's never heard her quite this loud before.
When Kate turns around, she sees that Rafe is carrying Ellery and she stumbles back to them. "Oh, sorry. Ellery, we went back for your shoes so you could walk all by yourself, moja mala sakupljačica stvari."
"Whoa. What was that?" Rafe laughs, giving Ella over to Kate.
"Ah, sorry," Kate starts. "Little magpie."
Allie takes his hand and nudges him to keep walking. "Croatian. Mom speaks like five languages."
"Really?" He stares at her, realizes he's staring, and then gives her an apologetic grin. "Any Spanish?"
She shakes her head. "Italian. French. No Spanish."
"My family still speaks Spanish at all our big gatherings. Holidays."
"I love it when you speak Spanish," Allie murmurs. He glances over at her, their eyes meeting and everything going up in a blaze.
"Here, give me Ella's shoes and you guys go do your own thing. Okay? Text me if you stay in town, Allie."
Rafe clears his throat at that, gives Allie a raised eyebrow as she blushes fiercely.
Ellery whines for Kate's attention. "Mommy. I eat crab?"
"You haven't eaten crab. We could try some."
"No hot sauce."
They all laugh at that and Kate smooths a hand down Ellery's hair. "No hot sauce, cricket. That's just for Dash." She waves off him and Allie. "You two go do something. You don't need to spend tonight giving kids baths and playing board games. Go on."
Rafe squeezes Allie's hand and looks at her. They're already dressed up for the sunset photos on the beach (he knows the photographer got some good shots of the proposal), and he wants to take her out. Away from her family, but mostly just to have a moment to touch her, have her all to himself.
"Sure. Thanks, Mom."
At the end of the boardwalk, Rick Castle turns around and shakes his hand before they part ways. His grip is firm but it's not threatening, which Rafe considers to be a huge step forward. Rick is even smiling at him, a little bit.
Dashiell runs back from where he'd gone on ahead, tackles Rafe around the knees. He leans down and pats the boy's back.
"Hey, we'll see you later. We're not leaving," he says, trying for an awkward, leaning over hug.
"My birthday is tomorrow."
"I know. That's really cool. We are definitely looking forward to that. We have birthday presents for you too."
They separate then, Ellery giggling with her mother about something - crabs or shoes, he can't make it out - and Dashiell taking his father's hand at Rick's insistence. He and Allie stand there watching for a moment, and then she turns to him and launches herself into his arms.
Rafe catches her, holds her tightly to him, hips meeting hips, and dives down for her mouth. She breathes hotly against him, her teeth at his smile, and he pushes his tongue past the thin barrier of her lips, strokes the roof of her mouth.
She moans softly against him, breaks the kiss, comes back to him, breaks it again. "Not here."
"Too many little kids," he laughs, wraps his arms tighter around her. The twilight has made her hair look like the sun when it sinks into the water, her body like a mermaid's against him. "I love you. I love you-"
"We're getting married," she grins, kisses him again before pressing her forehead to his. "How did you - did you ask Kate for the ring?"
"No. She gave it to me. This morning. And I knew the time was right."
"It is right. It's so right. I love you, too." She slides her fingers through his hair and arches up into him, claiming his mouth again.
He lets her be aggressive, dwells in it for a long time before pushing her away, afraid he won't be able to stop touching her if she keeps it up.
"Let's go get dinner together. Walk around," he says, reaching down to thread his fingers through hers. He tugs her after him, starts walking towards the parking lot and their car. The keys are in his pocket - he'd thought maybe. . .
"And after that?" she says archly, giving him that look that makes his body thrum.
"We'll see. We have the rest of our lives, Allie."
She stumbles to a stop beside him, stares up at him, then gives him a gorgeous laugh. "Yeah. Yeah we do."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein