“I love you, Ava Green. I will love you endlessly and always.”

“Oh, James, I love you too.”

He lowers me back down to my feet gently and then he drops down to one knee on the flower-strewn sand, fishing in his coat pocket. I realize instantly what is happening, of course, and clap my hands over my mouth.

“Ava Green,” he says solemnly, pulling out a little black box and holding it aloft, “will you do me the most profound honor of being my wife, and making me the luckiest man in the world?”

I fight my instincts to scream the answer. “Are you sure about this?” I ask in a low voice. “You know how rough it’s going to get. I can’t promise you it will be easy.”

“I’ve never been surer about anything in my life. I don’t want easy. I want you. And I will be there for you every step of the way, through both the good and the bad. You’re not getting rid of me again.”

“I never wanted to get rid of you in the first place.”

“So is that a yes?”

“I’m not sure.”

His smile slips off his face and he looks at me, worried. “Why not?”

“Well, I mean, I haven’t seen the ring yet.”

He closes his eyes for a moment as his smile grows again. Then laughter bubbles out of him. “Jesus, Ava, you had me really worried there.”

“I’m sorry.” I half smile, half cry, though they are happy tears. “I’m kidding, of course. I don’t care what the ring looks like; it’s a definite yes. Yes, yes yes!”

He whoops loudly as the crowd erupts into cheers and I remember for the first time that we have an audience. I laugh through joyful tears as he climbs to his feet and picks me up to spin me around. When I protest, laughingly, that I am getting dizzy, he puts me down and slides on the ring, a beautiful emerald the color of the lake at the bottom of the waterfall. Then my father claps him on the shoulder and James turns to talk to him. Kate taps me on the shoulder and I turn around.

“I’ve just been informed that the mayor happens to be an ordained minister,” she says quietly. “Shall I fetch her?”

“Yes.” I smile at her. “And quickly. I don’t want to waste another second not being this man’s wife.”

Hearing the word, James turns, groaning, and pulls me into his arms again. “Those are the most beautiful words I have ever heard you say.”

I kiss his chin. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“Only the cute ones.” He winks.

Chapter Forty-Four

At 4:49 p.m. on my “wedding” day, I officially become James’s wife. It is the happiest moment of my life, and the most emotional by far. Afterward, we don’t let each other go, not for a second. Well, apart from bathroom breaks. After the ceremony on the beach, we head to the surf club hall, which has been decorated beautifully enough to mollify even my mother. There we dine on the freshest bounty the sea has to offer as we celebrate our new chapter with the people who helped write the book of my life.