Read Randomly Ever After for Free Online Page B

with exasperation. “Why did you bring it up here?”
    “To sing.”
    Her eyes widened and I wanted to kiss her so much. Kiss the tears away, kiss my stupidity away, kiss her until she said yes, kiss her until she was mute and all I had to do was slip the ring on her finger and then—only then—did just one, single word matter at all.
    Yes.
    Carefully, with aching fingers, I opened the case. Her eyes sh one so bright in the moonlight, the chunk of cheese in the sky blindingly white now that the clouds had stepped aside. A string of white Christmas lights dotted the edge of the rooftop garden and I took in the sight.
    A fine place to say I’m sorry to the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with.
    I pulled the ukelele out and got down on one knee, bent in supplication below, looking up into those big, brown eyes.
    A few strums to find the right key, and then it was as if all I were was words. I became the lyrics. Her eyes became the notes.
    And we became the space in between silence and love.

Amy
    I’d heard Sam sing before. He filled in on backups when Liam couldn’t make it, but this was different. The words were for me.
    Me.
    And only me.
     
    I used to think
    That silence was my only hope
    That if I stayed quiet I couldn’t break my heart
    But then you came into my life
    And words weren’t enough
    Suddenly
    You made me want you more than—
     
    The space in between
    Silence and love is filled by you
    You’re my bridge, my tightrope, my lifeline, my lifeboat
    My heart out there
    Yes, you....
     
    The tears poured out of me, my heart unfolding like a rosebud blossoming. I wanted to touch him, hold his hand, fling myself into his arms and stay there forever, but I wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say even more.
     
    Too many years
    I left you in doubt
    And pain and more
    Now I’m here to tell you all the words you deserve
    I love you, I need you, I want you, I feel you,
    I—
    Can’t fit them all in the space, the enormous space between
    Silence and love...
     
    The space in between
    Silence and love is filled by you
    You’re my bridge, my tightrope, my lifeline, my lifeboat
    My heart out there
    Yes, you....
     
    As he strummed the last chord, head bent down, not looking at me, he set the ukelele aside, then tipped his face up.
    He was crying, too.
    I don’t know who kissed whom, but soon we were a tangle of hands and kisses and apologies and tongues, fingers frantic to connect and reunite. Whatever happened earlier in the night now seemed petty and silly, a misunderstanding that shouldn’t split u s apart. We’d done that—let circumstance dictate too much silence, all those years ago.
    No more.
    “Amy.” Sam’s voice was husky and earnest in the night, a light breeze brushing his auburn hair forward, covering one eyebrow, making those eyes so mesmerizing.
    “Yes?” He hadn’t asked a question. Yet.
    He chuckled to himself. “Maybe this is for the best. Doing this on stage might have been a disaster after all. I’ll have to thank Liam later.”
    “Liam?”
    “His mistake —” Sam cocked an eyebrow and made a growling sound as he said the word, the gesture so alpha male, so possessive he seemed a bit dangerous, a little bit bad. Something inside me flared and tingled, thrilled and eager.  
    “His mistake,” Sam said again, “means I can do this in private. Should have done it that way all along.”
    On one knee, he reached into his pocket. My hands flew to my mouth, the distant sound of car horns and chattering concertgoers a soundtrack to his proposal.
    Moonlight gleamed off the diamond as he opened the flat little box. I gasped.
    Sam looked like he was struggling with two different ideas he wanted to express. I only cared about one.
    Mrs. Samuel Hinton.
    “Amy.” His voice shook with determination. Not nerves. Eyes the green of lush moss on a rocky mountaintop, of fresh grass in a May meadow saw only me in the clear night sky. “I love you more than I know enough words