THE LIFE ETHAN COLE NEVER EXPECTED
Chapter 7
A year passed.
Not perfectly.
There were arguments.
There were difficult days.
There were moments when Ethan’s old instinct to retreat returned.
But he didn’t leave.
Neither did June.
They learned each other.
The little habits.
The fears.
The silences.
The things that needed to be said.
The things that didn’t.
One evening, Ethan and June stood on the porch after Lily had gone to bed.
The town was quiet.
A cool wind moved through the trees.
June looked at him.
“You know what I was thinking?”
“What?”
“I never thought you’d stay.”
Ethan smiled.
“I didn’t either.”
She laughed softly.
“Do you regret it?”
Ethan looked toward the house.
The light in Lily’s room was still on.
“No.”
June took his hand.
“Good.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“I have something to ask you.”
June raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
He reached into his pocket.
Her eyes widened.
“Ethan…”
He opened the small box.
There was a ring inside.
Simple.
Elegant.
Nothing extravagant.
Just like them.
June stared at it.
Ethan took a breath.
“I spent most of my life believing that staying meant being trapped.”
He looked into her eyes.
“Then I met you.”
June’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
He held out the ring.
“Will you stay with me?”
June laughed through her tears.
“That’s your proposal?”
Ethan smiled.
“It’s the best I’ve got.”
She stepped closer.
“Then yes.”
He slipped the ring onto her finger.
June wrapped her arms around him.
And for a long time, neither said anything.
