“Tell me,” he urged me.
“It’s nothing.”
“I can handle it. Tell me.”
“It’s silly. I know this. But I thought you would stay here. I knew you said all the time that you were going to have to leave someday, but I honestly thought you cared enough about me that you were going to decide to stay.”
Tears started to roll down my face and I tried to stop them. I didn’t want to cry in front of Malcolm. I didn’t want to let him see me so weak, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked, but then didn’t wait for me to respond. “I wanted to stay.”
“Really?”
“Yes. That night when I had to leave my heart hurt so badly. I begged them to let me say goodbye to you and they wouldn’t allow it. I was desperate to see you.”
He wrapped his arms around me and held me close to him. It didn’t help my crying at all. My mind was spinning with the new realization that Malcolm had actually cared about me just as much as I had cared about him. My mother had tried to tell me to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I hadn’t believed her at all.
“I have something else I need to confess,” Malcolm said as he grabbed my hand and helped me stand up. “I didn’t come here tonight. I’ve actually been in town for a few nights and I’ve had your father helping me with a project for the last month.”
“What?” I said as I stopped crying so I could hear him better. “What are you talking about?”
Malcolm smiled and pulled me with him as we walked the hundred feet or so to the top of the mountain. As we reached the peak, we looked out over the river area and I saw a ton of construction underway. There were cranes everywhere and it looked like they were building some sort of hotel or resort.
“My father sold off the land; we can’t go all the way down there,” I said as we looked out.
“I know. And yes, we can go down there.”
“No, we can’t. I don’t know who owns it. It would be trespassing.”
“I know who owns it,” Malcolm said as he squeezed my hand and smiled.
I looked at him and then down at the construction that was underway. My mind was still puzzled by what he was saying. Did he know the people who had purchased the land? How was my father involved? As I turned back to look at Malcolm he was down on one knee and I gasped as I saw the ring he was holding out.
“You see, Sarah Marie Miller, I just couldn’t stay away from you. I tried. Damn, did I try. But I couldn’t live a boring life without the woman that I loved. So, about a month ago I bought this land and hired your father to oversee the construction of the Edwards Corporate Ranch: a delightful corporate retreat that I hope to run with my wife someday. Sarah Marie Miller, will you marry me?”
“You’re insane,” I said as I smiled and tried to put all the pieces together. “So you’re the one that bought this?”
“Yep.”
“You’re the reason my father’s been sneaking away from the ranch the last month?”
“Yep. And I love you. I love it here and I want you to marry me.”
I looked down at Malcolm and that cheesy grin he had on his face. It was all too much to take in at once, but there was one thing that I knew in my gut. I knew that I loved him and the fact that he had was right there in front of me, down on one knee, was absolutely a dream come true.
“Yes,” I said as I covered my eyes and giggled a little.
“Wait, did you say yes?”
“Yes, you goofball. I said yes!” I screamed.
Malcolm jumped up from the ground and pulled the huge diamond ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. He wrapped his arms around me and dipped me dramatically as he kissed me.
“This, my dear, is the beginning of our happily ever after.”
Epilogue
Malcolm