Chapter 5 - A New Beginning
For three long, agonizing seconds, neither of them moved. The snow continued to fall around them, blanketing the Chicago sidewalk in pristine white.
Then, a soft, breathless laugh escaped Clara’s lips—the very same laugh that had rescued him from his darkest moments a decade ago.
"You idiot," she whispered, her voice trembling.
Before Ethan could process her words, Clara stepped forward, closed the distance between them, and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into the rough wool of his coat. Ethan dropped the ring box into the snow—not caring at all as it tumbled into a soft drift—and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, lifting her slightly off the pavement as he pulled her flush against his chest.
When she pulled back, her eyes were bright and radiant, framed by melting snowflakes.
"I didn't take the Portland job because I wanted to run away, Ethan," she confessed softly, cupping his cold cheek with her hand. "I took the interview because I was tired of waiting for you to realize what was right in front of your face. I was giving you an ultimatum without having the courage to say it out loud."
Ethan let out a ragged, disbelieving laugh of pure joy, capturing her lips in a deep, desperate, long-overdue kiss that tasted like winter, redemption, and the end of all loneliness.
Down in the snow by their boots, Ethan quickly dropped to one knee, scooped up the velvet box, brushed the white powder off the lid, and looked up at her with a grin that made him look twenty-two again.
"Director of student wellness?" he teased, his eyes sparkling. "Or Director of Carter Holdings Philanthropy, Chicago branch?"
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"Definitely the second one," Clara smiled, pulling him back up into her arms as the Chicago skyline glittered above them in the freezing winter night. "Provided you help me shovel the snow off my car tomorrow morning."
"Deal," Ethan whispered, sliding the diamond ring onto her finger where it belonged, knowing that for the first time in his life, his enormous house was finally a home.
