Nine

Genesis

October 30

Bowie had been nervous all through dinner. It felt as if he needed to tell me something, but wasn’t sure how to. When he didn’t, my head immediately went to him breaking up with me or needing space or maybe he’d met someone else. Once we reached his car, he stopped and asked me if I was in the mood to go to the springs. Not to swim, just to sit and talk. I hadn’t been to the springs since I had been in high school.

I said yes, wondering if it was there that he was going to tell me whatever it was that had him acting odd. Mentally, I tried to prepare myself for Bowie not being able to do long-distance. Although I did feel like we had been doing good at talking on the phone and texting. I thought things with us were good. He’d told me he loved me just last night before we ended the call and went to bed.

When I’d opened the door this afternoon to him, he’d said he missed me and how he had needed to see my face. I hadn’t been expecting him, and it was a great surprise. One I needed. Kye had been busy with his underworld life this week, and I’d thrown myself into working when I wasn’t at the hospital. My only friends growing up here had been Bowie and Kye. It had taken me moving to Savannah for college to meet my first female friend. Quinn had claimed me the first day we met. Thinking of her made me smile.

Being a Monday night, the springs weren’t packed. There wasn’t another car here. Relieved that we would have privacy, I stepped out of the truck as Bowie walked around the front to meet me. His grin didn’t look like one of a guy about to break things off. That was some relief. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

“We got lucky. No one else is here,” he said to me, taking my hand.

“It is a school night,” I reminded him.

We made our way over to the spot we knew well and sat down. The moon was bright tonight, and the way it danced over the water was peaceful.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever been here without the place being packed,” I said.

“Yeah, me too,” he agreed. “We’ve got a lot of memories here.”

I laughed, thinking about the times we’d been here over the years. “Yes, we do.”

I left out that all those memories had Kye in them too. Bowie already knew that. I’d come here the first time with Kye and Bowie. Chloe had brought us the summer Kye turned nine.

“I’ve made mistakes with you. Ones I can’t go back and fix. If I had only known then what I know now,” he said to me, his hand tightening over mine, “I would have done it differently. I’d have listened to you about the kiss. I wouldn’t have shut you out. There wouldn’t be this weirdness between Kye and me.” He chuckled, then shook his head. “No. That’s a lie. I wouldn’t have ever been able to think of Kye as my best friend after that day. But I’d have stayed around for you.”

I really hoped we weren’t out here to rehash the past. I wanted to leave it there. Not go back and think about it.

“You and Kye were always opposites. That would have probably made the two of you grow apart over time anyway. Here you are, a software programmer, and Kye is a …” I trailed off.

“Lord of the Underworld,” Bowie finished for me with amusement in his tone.

I smirked. “Yeah, that. He also works on motorcycles,” I added.

Why I felt like I had to defend him when Kye chose to be a part of the Mafia life, I didn’t know. But it just always happened.

“Sure, I know,” Bowie said, and then he lifted our joined hands and placed a kiss on mine. “You’re right. We aren’t anything alike. Growing up, we were boys, and that didn’t matter as much. But as men, we don’t enjoy the same things. For example, there is no way in hell I’d go to a strip club. I don’t like guns, so I sure as heck wouldn’t walk around with one always on my body, and a motorcycle is a death trap.”

A smile touched my face as I thought of what Kye would say to all that. I was thankful that Bowie didn’t feel the need to go watch women dance naked and that he didn’t like guns. I hated them. The motorcycle thing I might not agree with. Somehow, when I was on the back of Kye’s, I felt safe. But I understood Bowie’s feelings about it. I’d never want him driving one. That would be dangerous.

“Kye lives a life neither of us will ever understand,” I replied, wanting to get the topic off him.

It felt wrong to talk about Kye with Bowie. I didn’t want to say or hear anything that made Kye sound bad.

“Yeah. And I should have seen that at seventeen,” he said. “I love you, Gen. I’m going to love you forever. There isn’t a woman out there who will ever be able to make me feel the way you do.”

I turned to look at him. Bowie only talked sweet like this when we were making up. We weren’t fighting tonight.

“I love you too,” I replied.

He studied me for a moment, then let go of my hand and stood up. Confused by why my saying I loved him would make him move away from me, I started to ask him where he was going when he moved in front of me and started going down on one knee while pulling something out of his pocket. The moment this happened was not something a girl could be prepared for. Had I imagined it in my head? Yes. But it had been years. Back when I had been a young teenager with dreams that were never going to come true.

This, however, was real. It was right there in front of me.

Bowie looked up at me, and on the tip of his finger was a diamond ring. My eyes went from the ring to his face. I was sure my mouth was hanging open.

“Genesis Stoll, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. It didn’t matter when we were apart. I loved you then too. I hated that I loved you, but I loved you just the same. I was born to love you. Forever, for me, is and will always be you. Will you marry me?”

This was happening. Oh my God. Not in a million years had I expected this from him. At least not now. I was living back in Ocala while his life was in Charleston. It had only been two hours from me in Savannah, but it was five hours from Ocala. I stared into his eyes and saw the fear. This was why he’d been nervous all night.

“I want to say yes,” I told him. “But I have so many questions. I can’t promise you I will be able to return to Savannah anytime soon. I don’t know when my dad will be better.”

He smiled. “I intend to finish this semester, and then the rest will be online. I’ve been offered a job out of Atlanta, but I don’t have to live there. It’s a great opportunity. One I hadn’t expected to get so soon. I’m going to buy us a house here in Ocala. You don’t have to leave your parents.”

Oh, wow. A house. He was going to buy a house. Here.

“You want to do that? Live in Ocala?”

I had always thought he couldn’t wait to get out. He’d always talked about the day we’d move off to a big city up north.

“I want you, Genesis. Just you.”

He loved me. Wasn’t that what every girl wanted? Yes. This was the man who loved me enough. I was what he needed. Nothing more. That was what my parents had. I wanted it too.

“Yes,” I said, surprising myself.

Bowie’s grin could have lit up the night sky without the moon. He took my finger and slipped the ring onto it. I barely paid attention to the solitaire. My head was spinning. I was engaged. I’d said yes. It was the right thing to do. With Bowie, I’d grow old beside him. He would be faithful and cherish me.

If only my heart wasn’t breaking a little for the young girl who had always had another groom in mind. A man who would never get on one knee for anyone.

It was time I grew up and let that dream go.