A/N: Mature content (been a few chapters, I get it). ❤️❤️❤️

I bought Ellie's engagement ring three months ago, during Christmas break our senior year at UW but waited to propose to her when the moment felt right. I hadn't wanted the experience crammed in between our midterms or finals and originally planned that I waited until after the NFL draft because of the uncertainty in my future.

Halfway through our senior year, Ellie's future was set. U-Dub's Nutrition Department at UW encouraged her to apply for their graduate program and she easily got in for a Master's degree. While her location for the next year was definitely still here in Seattle, mine was still completely up in the air. I hoped for the best with the NFL draft but at the least, the Biotransport department assured me that I qualified for their graduate program after I'd expressed an interest in teaching high school science.

I knew from the very first sight of Ellie, the way she'd literally stolen the breath from my lungs, that she was different. Even in high school, she taught me to throw aside my selfishness, my arrogant, fake persona, and loved me for the real guy that no one else took the time or effort to really know.

At one point in time, I doubted we had the chance to be together again, but never lost hope for another chance. The fact I'd found, and lost, someone who affected me more than anyone else, who made me love her with every thought in my brain and action from my body, and who broke up with me like some self-preservation move of my feelings were the only shreds I'd clung to some of the days I was at UCD.

In hindsight, Ellie had made the right decision though. She needed time to be on her own and I needed my priorities set straight.

After Ellie and I reconnected at UW, despite two years apart, we fit back together like two missing puzzle pieces. Our reunion wasn't an easy, seamless process but after we came out the other end of a dark tunnel, I'd never felt so close, so connected, and so complete.

Just one piece missing. The forever part.

Fuck, I'm nervous. What if she doesn't like it?

Ellie's custom ring earned me more than one set of raised eyebrows at the jewelry store when I went there during Christmas break. I'd taken a gamble on her ring design and while it wasn't extravagant, it was definitely unique.

Under the false story I told Ellie that I went home for one of Brody's last baseball spring training games, I dragged both him and Mom with me to the jewelry store once I arrived here. Their reactions, where Mom sobbed uncontrollably and choked the life out of me while Brody just gave me a silent thumbs up, were less than helpful in the reassurance department.

Thankfully, Ellie also agreed to my proposed idea that we spent a weekend in California, under the false idea that we spent time with our Moms before we finished college. After all our flights during the season, we actually drove down and back. She agreed and, after an overnight drive because I was wired with nerves, I accomplished literally nothing other than walked around Mom's condo like a zombie whose hands shook uncontrollably. Before Mom asked Ellie herself, I called her and asked if I could take her to dinner.

Impatience won out against careful long-term planning and once I took Ellie back to a familiar location, one that meant more to our past but now I connected it to our future, I knew the moment was right.

As soon as I find where my stomach went.

"Davenport?" Ellie's eyebrows lifted at the sight of the cliffed beach location ahead of us. "We're eating here?"

"We never did christen in my truck," I teased her, grabbed a blanket off the back seat, and shut off the engine.

"I did wear a skirt..." By the soft smile and slight head shake Ellie offered me, she had no idea the nerves that rattled against my stoic exterior. If Ellie looked close enough, she probably saw the goosebumps that raised the hairs on my forearms but she thankfully shifted her eyes to the beach view.

Internally, I felt like one of those lottery machines where the balls bounced around chaotically, but I parked my truck, exhaled sharply, and pointed out the front windshield. "Let's go see the sunset."

"Best part of the beach, despite sand in every crack," she muttered before I slammed my door shut, then bit back a laugh at how she climbed out of my truck like she jumped off a low cliff.

My heart hammered a faster beat as my trembling fingers rolled the small, velvet box inside my pants' pocket. The familiar mix of saline, brine, and whatever the smell of crisp, California ocean air was hit me in a breeze just two steps towards the beach.

Thankful that Ellie's hands clasped my forearm instead of my for sure sweaty palm, we clomped clumsy, uncoordinated steps over the sand. The slow and tedious movements did nothing against the flurry of nervous activity inside my body. My organs rearranged themselves internally, as my heart dropped into my stomach and my stomach definitely flipped around and was still somewhere else, out my ass for all I knew. My brain clicked like I felt my actual neurons fired, if that were even physically possible.

My thoughts drifted backwards, to the bittersweet moment when I first confessed to Ellie that I loved her. After a horrible embarrassing moment where another girl staged kissing me at my Homecoming Dance, Ellie's compassion, understanding, and just different way she'd always seen certain situations made that night one of the best of my life, trumped only by the second time I told her those three words again two years later.

An early evening sunset started at the horizon, which gave the water a blueish-green tint against pink and purple streaks painted across the sky. By the way Ellie gazed forward at the reddish-orange sun, I assumed she thought that's why we were here. A strong breeze lifted up a few loose strands of her dark hair and blew them into her cheeks and I couldn't hold back my focused look while she brushed them aside.

My feet decided enough wobbled steps were enough and stopped so abruptly that I tugged Ellie's arm backwards. Confusion lines etched all over her beautiful face as she turned back but, right then, I captured a mental image I knew stayed with me forever. With the sunset backdrop, the soft crashes of the waves, Ellie's long, straight hair flowed behind her like a dark curtain, and curiosity mixed with the same warmth that pooled behind her dark brown eyes whenever she looked up at me.

Just as beautiful as the first time I saw her.

No... even more.

Every cell in my body, every muscle, bone, organ, and even strands of my hair froze still when my free hand reached into my pocket and lifted the box into her line of vision. I released her hand, cracked open that box, and rammed it right up in front of Ellie's face.

Understandably, the gravity of the moment, which was completely unplanned in Ellie's mind, hit her like a mack truck. Her mouth dropped open, pushed out a loud gasp, her eyes stretched wide, and she stuttered, "Wuh-wuh-what?"

"We're not here for dinner, baby," I assured her with an abnormally loud laugh and lifted up the box's lid so she saw what was inside. "Just this."

"It's..." Ellie's eyes, now shiny with tears, stared down at the ring box. "G-green?"

"It'sanagate," I rushed out in one breath. A flicker of confusion flashed over her eyes as they lifted to mine, so I swallowed hard against the sandstorm that had taken up residence inside my mouth, and slowly clarified, "It's a moss green agate, that's why there's dark green swirls in it... surrounded by diamonds. I thought -"

Ellie's lower lip trembled and her eyes glossed over like mirrors but she stood completely still, with no readable emotion on her face except the pink that flushed over her entire face. An inner 'oh shit' sensation washed over me at the unconventional choice for her ring's center stone, which looked like a lighter green with dark green ink dipped and swirled in it.

"Like all of me..." I dropped down onto not one but both my knees, where I looked up at Ellie. "It's yours if you want it. I know it's different and if you don't like it then I'll get -"

"It's beautiful." Ellie's tears dripped over the edges of her lashes and my fingers twitched since they were too busy to catch them. "I never pictured what I'd want but it's -"

"Agate means strength," I interrupted her and rambled a sales pitch as my mouth moved on its own at this point. "You've been through more shit than anyone deserves, terrible shit, and came out the other side a stronger person. You're one of the strongest people I know and your heart... fuck, I love that too. You don't see it, but I do, so... Hopefully when you look at this, you'll know I feel that way and all the other ways I feel about you."

More tears beaded up in Ellie's eyes but I pushed out, "I love you so much. I never stopped, even when I worried I'd lost you or how broken my heart was when I had lost you. You bring so much light, warmth, and love to my life Ellie that I'd be honored if you'd marry me."

After I word vomited the most emotional, and most likely confusing, confession I'd probably ever given in my life, I rolled my lips inward and pressed them tightly together. My lungs burned from how I held in my breath as I waited for her reply. My pulse buzzed in my veins but the rest of my body locked up frozen still. Even my thoughts froze inside my brain.

Panic welled up inside me the longer I knelt in place, the longer Ellie's dark eyes stared down at me, with now continuous tears streamed down her cheeks, her chest heaved with uneven breaths, and she sniffled. Finally, her lips parted and she gasped out, "How long are you going to make me wait!? Ask the damn question already!"

"Oh fuck," I cursed when I realized she was right and shook my head. "Will you marry me Ellie?"

"Yes!" As soon as I said her name, she shrieked out her answer in the highest pitch, most excited voice I'd ever heard from her, flung her small frame into me so hard I tipped backwards, and squeezed her arms around my neck.

Every tensed muscle in me relaxed and a light, airy feeling like I'd been pumped full of helium flooded through me at her answer. The dampness of her cheek brushed against mine and her raspy breaths alternated with soft sniffles hit my ears, but I'd never been happier than I was the moment my arms squeezed her tightly.

Now she's really my girl.

Fuck no, my fiancée... My forever.

As Ellie drew back, both our fingers trembled so much, I was surprised I rammed the ring on the correct finger. Her other hand's palm cupped tightly over her mouth so I only saw two dark eyes that still cried steadily until they blurred slightly from my view. My knees shook as I stood up and swallowed hard against the sob that ruptured in the back of my throat.

Instead, my hand gently threaded through her fingers and lowered her hand right before my mouth smashed hard against hers. We both inhaled sharply through our noses as our bodies tangled in a mess of hands that grabbed at each other, mouths pressed tight, even our tears intermingled. I wasn't an emotional guy but feelings I hadn't known I was capable of feeling at the same time bubbled up and crashed over me - relief, love, and the security that came from being tied to Ellie.

"First off," she whispered in a raspy breath and looked down at the ring on her finger. Her voice shook but the awe and excitement in her eyes meant the world to me. "I love it. I love you. I-I c-can't believe this, oh gosh. I'm so ridiculously excited, I feel like I'm going to burst out of my own skin."

I barked out another laugh, then hugged her tightly against me. "Don't do that, please. I need you Ellie. Today and every tomorrow after that."

"Me too," she whimpered softly. "Me too."

I brush my lips onto the top of her head and paused for just a breath. Even the slightest touch fired up all kinds of wants inside me, a desire that I needed to be as close to Ellie as possible before I also internally burst. My arms squeezed her so tightly she gasped, then patted my lower back like she tapped out for oxygen.

"Sorry..." With a better idea in mind, I turned and yanked her back in the direction of my truck.

Now we're definitely doing this.

Thankfully, our steps off the beach felt a lot quicker, even though Ellie stumbled a few times and gripped my arm tightly. With one hand, I flipped down the back gate of my truck and offered her a hand up.

Ellie quickly climbed up into my truck, where I groaned with relief at the fact she'd worn a skirt tonight, her bare legs dangled over the back gate. She sat down, higher than where I stood on the ground, so I pressed myself right in between her legs. With the same idea in mind, she wrapped her arms and legs around me, smashed her lips onto mine, and squeezed our torsos flush.

My hands flew straight to Ellie's hips, threaded up under her skirt and latched onto the warm, smooth skin on her hips. She whimpered softly against my lips, but I took the opportunity and pushed my tongue inside until it met hers. Tiny flames danced over my skin and I felt like I was going to internally combust from all the emotions and cravings that drove my actions.

With slow, careful movements, I lowered Ellie down onto her back, thankful I'd planned ahead and laid out a blanket. While I knew the truck bed was anything but comfortable, the way Ellie's dark eyes found mine and her chest heaved slightly, I know she didn't care but I did.

Ellie's breath hitched as I gently pressed her inner thighs further open, hooked her underwear to one side with my index finger, then lowered my head right into her center. Her breathless moans hit my ears right when I placed my tongue on her wet, soft, heated folds. While her back arched, fingers tugged at my hair, and quivers ran down her thighs, my tongue moved in all directions, up and down, sideways, and circled while I told her, showed her, proved to her that she was mine to take care of... That there wasn't anywhere else I wanted to be.

When Ellie flinched and gasped under my tongue's massages, I slipped one finger inside her wet channel. As I flexed and curled my finger against her inside walls, pushed over the ridges that throbbed and squeezed, Ellie's face tensed and she trembled from her hips to her shoulders.

Once an uncharacteristically loud moan escaped Ellie's lips, all the blood inside me rushed between my thighs. My cock ached to be buried inside her but I restrained myself because a near-feral desire drove me until my fiancee felt good or, even better, fell apart. Like always, her orgasm ripped through her quietly but all the letdown signs from her parted lips, eyes squeezed tight, and muscles relaxed were so familiar, the fact she hadn't made a sound turned me on even more.

I pulled back only for a public inventory and groaned in relief since we were absolutely alone at the edge of the roadside parking lot. Flat down in my truck, Ellie was safe from view already, but by now the sunset had faded into early evening, with the only source of light flickered down from the lot's overhead lights. With one push up, sat down, pulled Ellie up, and set her on top of my lap.

"Are we really doing this," she whispered breaths over my lips but her hands flew down to my pants, where she tugged up my T-shirt and unzipped my jeans quickly. "Because if we start -"

"I already can't stop," I admitted quietly. My hands roamed over her bare thighs and just the feel of her soft skin under the rough pads of my thumbs and index fingers fueled the desperation inside me. Too many layers of clothes sat between us, so I just held her as close as possible, the warm friction lines between us as we grabbed and pawed at each other.

With one movement, Ellie's hands slipped down my underwear with my jeans just enough inches needed before she grabbed right onto my cock, lined the tip at her entrance, and sank down hard. Warm, slicked pressure enclosed around me from tip to base and my fingers squeezed into the skin on her hips as she slowly slid down until her inner walls pulsed around my shaft.

A grunt left my lips but I couldn't have stopped grinning if my life depended on it, even when Ellie paused and cupped her hands around the back of my neck. From any other angle, we looked just like she sat on my lap, her skirt puddled around my jeans, but we were as intimately connected as possible. For a few raspy breaths, I cupped my hands around her jawline and just stared at her.

"I'm going to marry you Ellie," I blurted out the obvious and flexed my hips gently upwards.

My hands lowered to her sides, threaded up under her skirt. I ran my palms gently over her ass, lifted her slightly higher, then bucked up into her on the next descent.

Her head tipped forwards, which pitched long, dark strands of her hair on either side of my face as her forehead rested against mine. With one breath, my heart nearly exploded at Ellie's answer.

"Yes."

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A/N: Two more chapters! ❤️😭