“I’m going to be in town for a few weeks. I was wondering if maybe we could catch a movie or something.”
Owen looked at her, then back to TJ.
“I guess so.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I mean, as long as I can pick the movie.”
“Deal.”
TJ turned to Rachel. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He turned and walked away, making his parents come with him as they left the courthouse.
Jason squeezed between them and placed an arm around each of them. His brothers and their wives followed close behind. “How are we going to celebrate?”
“I was thinking Machu Picchu,” Owen said, deadpan.
“Peru?” Rachel exclaimed.
Glen started to laugh.
“I really am starting to like this kid,” Trent said.
“Too much?” Owen asked Rachel.
“Ya think?”
Jason laughed. “It’s only a seven-hour flight.”
Owen jumped in front of them. “Not a bad idea, right?” He pointed both index fingers at Jason and bounced on the balls of his feet. “Seven wonders of the world. What’s not to love?”
“Owen!”
“What?”
“How about dinner and ice cream?” Rachel suggested.
“Peru totally trumps dinner and ice cream,” Trent said.
Monica smacked his arm. “You’re not helping.”
“He has school in the morning.” As if Rachel had to talk this crazy clan out of a spontaneous trip to Peru.
“And community service hours,” Mary added.
Glen was looking at his phone. “It’s eighty degrees there right now.”
Rachel turned her unbelieving stare toward Mary and Monica. “These men. How do you cope?”
The door to the courthouse opened, and a rush of cold air had all of them turning toward the icy temperature.
The view was breathtaking . . . or maybe it was the beginning of altitude sickness.
From Rachel’s vantage point, she could see Owen running circles around the others. His crazy-ass idea caught a fever within the Fairchild men, and before Rachel could say no, they were tucked in the Fairchild personal jet and soaring at thirty thousand feet.
“I don’t remember the last time the three of us went anywhere together like this,” Jason told her as they rested on one of the many ancient steps of the Mayan temple. She sat half in his lap, her tan legs dangling across his, her head resting on his shoulder.
“Why not?”
“Work. Life. Sometimes we have our eyes set on the golden ring so hard that we lose sight of everything else that’s important.”
“Didn’t your parents already hand you the golden ring?” she asked, watching Jason’s profile.
“Up until I met you, it felt more like a baton I had to run to the finish line. Only I never saw the finish line, so I just kept running.”
“Sounds tiring.”
“Exhausting. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I woke up with you by my side.”
“Jason.” He always had the right words.
He turned to catch her smiling at him. “It’s true. I’ve never felt so alive as I have when I was convincing you to date me.”
“When was that? Between putting up my Christmas lights or fighting my legal battles?”
“Somewhere in there.”
They both laughed.
“I want this. Exactly this, forever,” Jason said.
Rachel looked at the panorama before them. The blue sky merged with the deep green of the Peruvian forest that hid Machu Picchu for hundreds of years, the steps where human sacrifices were likely performed, a constant reminder of how precious life was. “You can have this every day if you want.”
She laughed.
Jason shook his head and grasped her hand. “Not this.” He waved a hand at the land in front of him. “This.” He squeezed her hand.
Before she could say a thing, he pointed at Owen taking pictures of his brothers and their wives. “That. I want to be that guy who says . . . okay, Owen, you wanna learn about the Great Wall of China? Let’s go!”
“That’s crazy.”
“Not quite crazy.” He kissed the back of her hand. “Maybe a little crazy.”
She squeezed her thumb and index finger together. “Tiny bit.”
“I’m going about this all wrong,” he said.
“Going about what?” she asked.
He hiked her higher on his lap and kept one hand on her hip to keep her from toppling off. Jason’s playful smile turned twenty shades more serious.
“I have fallen completely and irrevocably in love with you.”
Her jaw fell open.
“I want you, this love, for the rest of my life.”
She was going to cry.
“The way I see it is I can spend the next six months convincing you we belong together forever, or we can just get on with our beautiful life.”
“Jason—”
He placed a finger over her lips. “Marry me, Rachel. Give me a reason to pass the baton and start living my life again.”
She sniffled through her smile. “You’re crazy.”
“We established that.”
“I guess that makes two of us.”
His smile fell. “You’re serious?”
She nodded through her tears. “Yes.”
“Oh, thank God.” He kissed her hard, spoke without breaking contact of their lips. “I’m going to make you so happy.”
“You already do. I love you,” she told him.
He kissed her softer, deeper.
“Hold on.” He pulled away and lifted her off his lap and onto the Mayan steps and then dropped to one knee. From his back pocket, he produced a small box.
“You totally planned this.”
He smiled like a teenager and opened the lid. His eyes glistened with unshed tears of his own. “It was my mom’s. I would be honored if you would wear it.”
Ugly tears ran down her cheeks as her heart burst with pride and happiness. Then she looked at the ring. “Your dad had great taste.”
Jason removed the ring, wiped his cheek, and lifted her left hand.
They both stared at it for several seconds, the enormity of the step they were taking circled around them with a loving band of joy.
“This is really happening?” she questioned.
“Oh, this is on. We are doing this.”
He stood and pulled her into his arms.
Their kiss was broken by the round of applause from below.
Owen pointed his camera lens their way and put a thumb up in the air after checking the image.
“Was he in on this?” Rachel asked under her breath.
“They all were.” Jason waved.
“You’re all nuts.”
“Not quite.”
Epilogue
Light bounced off the lake and caught Owen’s fishing pole as he tossed a line off the side of the boat. Nathan sat on the opposite side, directing him. Summer was quickly fading into fall, signifying the year since she’d moved.
Rachel felt the weight of the ring Jason had placed on her finger that day in Peru, and the band he’d added to it the afternoon six weeks later when he made her Mrs. Jason Fairchild.
The memory of Jason flying her and Owen back to California to place flowers on Emily’s grave on the anniversary of her death wasn’t something Rachel would ever forget.
Their marriage was saluted by most and doubted by others.