“Canned peaches? They should be easy on your throat.”
His throat really wasn’t bothering him at all, but he nodded, unlikely to ever refuse her coddling. “What happens at sunset?”
She dropped her fork in the big container of peaches. “The sun goes down.”
He shook his head at her. “Smartass,” he murmured with a crooked grin. After she retrieved the fork, he watched her lick peach syrup off her fingers.
“Why did you ask me that?” she asked suspiciously.
“I just talked to Brian on the phone. He seemed to think something significant was going to happen at sunset. Something involving Eric and Jace. You aren’t planning to murder me, are you?”
Her initial stunned expression quickly turned to uneasy laughter. “Murder you? Eh, no, not exactly.”
“Then what exactly are you planning on doing?”
“It’s a surprise. A good one. I promise.” She offered him a peach with her fork. “Just relax, okay? You’re making me nervous.”
He slurped the peach down his throat. “Making you nervous?”
“Look,” she said, pointing at something over his shoulder. “There’s Alcatraz.”
Why was she pointing out one of the most horrible prisons in existence? Maybe she was just trying to distract him. They were sailing away from Alcatraz and closer to the Golden Gate Bridge over her shoulder.
“And there’s the Golden Gate Bridge.”
She glanced behind her and turned a sickly shade of green. “Already?”
The closer they got to the bridge, the greener she looked.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded slightly. Fed him another peach.
Sed’s phone vibrated in his pocket. His heart skipped a beat. He hoped it meant Brian had found the music file. At the same time, nerves were getting the better of him. They should just wait until tomorrow.
The sun sank lower, appearing as a glowing red-orange ball on the horizon.
His phone vibrated again. He took a deep breath and pulled his phone from his pocket. It was Brian.
“I need to take this, sweetheart. Excuse me.” He turned his back on her and answered, “What?”
“I found it. Put Jessica on the phone and I’ll play it for her.”
Sed took a deep breath and handed her the phone. This was it.
She gave him an odd look as she took the phone from his hand.
“Brian has something you need to listen to.”
She glanced at the bridge behind her. It loomed larger and larger with each passing moment. “Can it wait?”
“Please.”
She held the phone up to her ear. “Brian?”
He said something to her, Sed could only guess what. Her expression changed from curiosity to wonder, and then her eyes filled with unexpected tears.
“Oh no, don’t do that,” Sed said.
“You wrote this song?” She covered her lips with trembling fingers. “For me?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Yes, I wanted you to hear it before—”
“It’s beautiful.”
The time was right. Certainty replaced his nervousness in an instant. He removed her ring from his pocket and went down on one knee before her. “Jessica,” he said, his heart full to bursting, “will you mar—”
Her eyes widened. “No. No, don’t do that. Not now. You’ll ruin everything.” She dropped his phone, stood, and pulled him to his feet by his shirt.
Her verbal slash to his heart stole his breath.
No? She’d said no. How could she say no?
Jessica turned and waved vigorously at the bridge overhead with both arms. She took Sed’s hands in hers. He felt it. He saw it. Her love. It was there in her eyes. So clear he could reach out and touch it. Why had she refused him?
Why?
The ring. It was too small. She deserved better. What had she said when she’d thrown it at him two years ago? Hock that cheap piece of shit. But even if that was her reasoning, he could not accept it. Would not. She loved him. He knew she did. So why? Why had she said no? What could he have done differently? He couldn’t let her go again. He just couldn’t. She had to—
“Sed, sweetheart. Look up at the bridge.”
Sed obeyed, too stunned to argue. He could barely hear the roar of a motorcycle on the bridge far above and then an enormous white banner unfurled over the edge of San Francisco’s most famous landmark. Will was written on the banner in huge red letters. A few seconds later a second banner opened. you. And then a third. marry. Someone (Jace?) was riding a motorcycle across the pedestrian walk of the bridge and opening the banners one by one. me. And the final banner fluttered open: .
“Pez?”
“Oh no, they got the last banner upside down.” Jessica laughed and then looked up at Sed. “It’s supposed to say Will you marry me, Sed?” She smiled anxiously. “Well? Will you?”
Her beautiful face blurred as ridiculous, sentimental tears filled his eyes. He wiped at them with the heels of his hands. She was asking him? For real? Yes, yes, God yes. He lifted her left hand, pressed it to his trembling lips, and then, at long last, slid her ring on her finger.
She glanced down at it and gasped. “This is my ring. The one you gave me in Pittsburgh.”
He nodded, incapable of speech. His heart clogged his throat.
“You kept it? You didn’t hock it to fix your tour bus?”
“It never left my pocket. It’s yours, Jessica. Always has been, always will be,” he said breathlessly. “And now it’s back where it belongs. On your finger.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I can’t even tell you how much this means to me.” She clutched her hand to her chest, pressing the ring against her heart. Now her eyes were filling with ridiculous, sentimental tears. But they looked good on her. Sed cupped her cheek and kissed her tenderly, glad that insignificant trinket meant the world to her as it always had to him. After a long moment, she drew away from his caressing kiss.
“You never answered me,” she whispered. “Will you marry me, Sed?”
Unable to catch his breath, much less form words, he did the only thing a singer without a voice could do: he blinked.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Jessica grinned and tackled him to the deck. She made short work of his shirt and feverishly pressed her lips along the hard ridge between his pecs, down his quivering belly to his belt buckle. “I’m feeling incredibly naughty, Sedric. How about we consummate this engagement, right here, right now?”