“I was thinking that we can lay low.” I push her hair away from her face and kiss her neck. “And then maybe just …”

She looks at me, and her eyes squint as though she’s not sure about something. “What are you up to?”

“Me?” I avoid her eyes. “Nothing.”

“Jacob McIntyre.” She calls me by my full name, and now I know she’s going to get it out of me.

“Okay, fine,” I say, turning and grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door.

“Wait,” she says, trying to keep up with me. “You didn’t lock the door.”

“I’m the sheriff,” I say over my shoulder. “No one will actually break into my house.” I open the door and pick her up, putting her in it and grabbing the seat belt. “You are going to have to do me a favor and not ask me anything and just go with it.”

“What in the heck?” she says, and I make her stop talking by kissing her.

“Please,” I whisper, and she looks at me.

“Okay,” she says softly, and I kiss her one more time before closing the door and getting in the truck. The whole way toward the creek, I go over my speech in my head. When I pull up to the clearing, she looks over at me, and I just shake my head. When I get out of the truck and walk around to her side, I grab her hand. My hand suddenly starts to get sweaty, my heart starts to speed up just a touch, and I’m suddenly so nervous, which is crazy since this is Kallie. It’s me and Kallie; it’s always been me and Kallie.

We walk hand in hand while the sun starts to set, and when we get to the rock, she looks up and sees everything I’ve prepared. “What in the …?” The lights that I strung up on the trees hang at different lengths, and the lace hanging looks like a canopy. I look at her and look back at the lanterns around the tree illuminating the tree.

I walk her to the tree and turn to look at her, and all she does is look around while tears fall down her cheeks. “Jacob,” she says to me when I get down on one knee.

“I had this whole thing prepared,” I start to tell her. “I went over the speech for the last week. I even rehearsed it with Ethan.”

“Oh my gosh.” She laughs. “He didn’t even tell me.”