Chapter 23: Mirror Lake

Maeve's POV

Mirror Lake lay flat and silver under a low spring sky.

Gideon had rented the only cabin on the shore.

He carried the bags in himself and would not let me lift one.

"Sit," he said.

"I'm eleven weeks pregnant, not an invalid."

"Sit anyway."

I sat on the porch step and watched him make four trips to the car.

He fetched blankets I had not asked for and a kettle I had not asked for.

He put a pillow behind my back and checked the window latches twice.

I stopped him with a hand on his sleeve.

"Gideon. You can stop."

"I want it to be right."

"It's a lake," I said. "It's already right."

He sat down beside me with his hands between his knees.

The water moved a little in the wind. A bird called somewhere on the far bank.

"I promised you this five years ago," he said. "I promised it three times.

"Each time something came up, and each time I picked the something."

"I know."

"I'm here now."

"You are," I said. "So ask me."

He turned on the step to face me.

He took both my hands, and his were not steady.

"Maeve Calder. I don't have a chair or a ring or a pack to give you.

"I'm just a man who made a terrible mistake and learned how to read."

I laughed, wet.

"Would you choose me? Not because of the baby or the bond. Because you want to."

I looked at his face. The grey eyes, the stubbled jaw, the pale mark at his throat where the torc had been.

I thought of every night I had waited at the top of the stairs.

I thought of the man who had waded into a creek for a dead phone.

I thought of him on his knees in a gravel yard, giving up everything he held to ask me one question.

"Yes," I said.

He closed his eyes.

"Yes, Gideon. I choose you."

He pulled me against him, and I felt him shaking all the way through.

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