I smile up at my man, still overcome by this amazingly romantic gesture. I’ve never been romanced like this. “Thank you,” I whisper.
“My pleasure.”
We clink glasses and sip the delicious pink champagne, then dig into our dinner.
“How did you do all this?” I ask with a bite of steak in my mouth.
“Minions,” he responds with a shrug and I laugh.
“Seriously, when? This wasn’t here when we went for our run this morning.”
“I had it done this afternoon while you napped.”
I take a bite of my Caprese crostini and watch him while I chew. His hair is loose, he’s wearing a black t-shirt, showing off his beautiful tattoo, and his blue jeans fit him perfectly. Nate glances over at me, and his eyes soften. He brushes a crumb off the side of my mouth and runs his thumb over my bottom lip.
“What?” I ask.
“You look lovely with the firelight dancing on your skin, and your beautiful blue eyes look happy.”
Oh. Yes, he’s in uber romantic mode tonight.
“Thank you,” I whisper, completely caught up in him.
I take another sip of the delicious champagne and finish the food on my plate. “That was delicious.”
“Mmm…” he responds as he also takes his last bite. He takes my plate and napkin and sets them aside with his and turns back to me, opening his arms. I slide easily between his legs, leaning my head on his chest, to enjoy the view.
“It’s really beautiful here, ace.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He kisses my hair and wraps his arms around my shoulders, hugging me against him.
“If we didn’t have work, I’d never want to leave.”
“Like I said earlier, we can come here whenever you want.”
“We should try to come once a month. And bring Nat and Luke and the baby. They’d love it too.”
“That sounds great to me.” He kisses my hair again and I smile. He’s so kind, and I love that he likes my friends.
The sun is slipping into the water now, sending orange reflections across the surface. The sky is dark purple, and in the distance I can see some dark clouds rolling in.
“We might get lucky and get a winter storm tonight.” I rub his arms where they rest across my chest.
“You like thunderstorms?” he asks.
“At the beach I do. They’re awesome.”
“Would you like some dessert?”
“I always, always have room for dessert, babe.”
Nate chuckles as he climbs around me to the table and returns with two small individual chocolate cheesecakes.
“Oh, my. Even here you manage to feed me chocolate cheesecake.”
“Of course. It’s your favorite.”
“What’s your favorite?” I ask and dig into the decedent dessert. “Oh sweet Jesus, that’s good.”
“You.” He responds, his eyes on fire as he watches me lick chocolate off my lips.
“You are romantic tonight.” I take another bite and moan.
“Does it really bother you?” he asks with a grin.
“No. It’s nice. Don’t tell Natalie.” Nate laughs and offers me a bite of cheesecake from his own plate, which I happily accept and offer him some of mine.
We finish our desserts this way, feeding each other, and then settle back against the cushions, drinking another glass of champagne.
“I have something for you. I’ve been trying to give it to you all day, but you kept distracting me.” He smiles ruefully at me and digs into his jeans pocket.
“You don’t have to give me anything, Nate. This whole weekend is amazing.”
“Well, this is special to me, and I want you to have it. It’s why we stopped at my dad’s this morning.” He pulls his hand out of his pocket, but holds whatever it is in his fist.
“Okay,” I murmur, encouraging him to keep talking.
“I already told you that my mom passed when I was very young. I don’t remember a lot about her, just mostly what my dad has told me, but I remember that she was really pretty, and she was very affectionate.”
“I’m sure she was gorgeous, Nate. One look at you, and no one would doubt that.”
He smiles at me and runs the backs of his fingers down my face.
“The year she passed, I gave her this for her birthday, which was today.” He opens his fist, and inside is a silver chain with a pretty silver heart-shaped pendant.
He looks up to me, still smiling. “I’d like to give it to you.”
I feel my jaw drop and I watch as he takes the heart in his fingers with one hand, cups my hand in the other, and places the warm metal in my palm.
“Nate…”
“She would have loved you,” he continues. “I wish she could have known you. I want you to have this.”
My eyes are searching his, and I’m just so touched. He’s giving me something of his mother’s. If that doesn’t scream commitment, I don’t know what does.
“Turn it over,” he whispers.
Engraved on the back is Love, Nate.
Tears spring to my eyes as I rub the sweet words with the pad of my finger. I am overcome with emotion.
“I know it’s not diamonds, or wildly expensive…”
Before he can finish the words, I climb onto his lap and wrap my arms around his shoulders, bury my face in his neck, and hold on tight, letting the tears come.
“Hey, it’s okay baby.” His hands are moving up and down my back, soothing and caressing me.
“Thank you so much,” I whisper into his neck, unable to look him in the eye and let him see my tears. “This is the most beautiful gift anyone has ever given me.”
“Hey.” He pushes back on my shoulders so I have to look at him and he grins at me as he wipes the tears off my cheeks with his thumbs. “Can I put it on you?”
“Yes, please.” I offer him a wet smile, pull my hair up off my neck, and wait patiently as he clasps it. It falls a few inches below my collarbones, and shines in the soft firelight.
“It’s beautiful, Nate, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
There’s suddenly thunder in the distance, and we both look out to the water as lightning strikes through the dark clouds moving closer to us.
“Looks like we’re going to get that storm,” I murmur.
“Well, as much as I wanted to make love to you here, looks like it’s going to be plan B.” Nate stands and holds his hand out to me, helping me up. He passes me our champagne glasses and the champagne bottle, then lifts me in his arms and climbs the stairs.