Now she looked comfortable.
At home.
Jack opened the toolbox drawer.
Took out the velvet box.
Elena froze.
“No.”
Jack smiled.
“That sounds promising.”
“I mean—”
She covered her mouth.
Jack walked toward her.
“I had a speech.”
She laughed nervously.
“Of course you did.”
“I forgot it.”
“Excellent preparation.”
He looked at her.
“Seven years ago, I thought you left.”
Her eyes filled.
“Five years ago, you came back.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Elena frowned.
“You didn’t come back.”
He took her hand.
“You came forward.”
She started crying.
Jack continued.
“You told me the truth even when you knew I might hate you.”
He opened the box.
A simple ring.
Nothing extravagant.
“Elena, I don’t want our old life back.”
Her lips trembled.
“I want the one we built after everything broke.”
She laughed through tears.
“That is not romantic.”
“I fix engines.”
“Fair.”
Jack lowered himself onto one knee.
“Will you marry me?”
Elena looked at him for a long time.
Not because she was uncertain.
Because they had learned not to rush important answers.
She knelt too.
Jack frowned.
“This ruins the visual.”
“Good.”
She held his face.
“Yes.”
Jack smiled.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
They kissed.
Then applause came from the driveway.
Both jumped.
Sophie stood there with Jack’s sister.
“FINALLY!”
Jack stared.
“You were supposed to be at Ava’s.”
Sophie grinned.
“Aunt Rachel knew.”
Jack looked at his sister.
Traitor.
Elena laughed.
Sophie ran forward and hugged both.
The ring went on Elena’s finger in the garage.
Exactly where their second beginning had started.
They married six months later.
Small ceremony.
Backyard.
Sophie stood between them.
No expensive venue.
No dramatic speeches.
Elena wore ivory.
Jack wore a suit Sophie claimed made him look like “a mechanic pretending to own a bank.”
During the vows, Elena looked at Jack.
“I spent years thinking love meant never becoming dangerous to the people you love.”
Her voice shook.
“I learned that fear can make you disappear even when your heart never leaves.”
She squeezed his hands.
“You taught me that returning is not one decision. It is something you do every day.”
Jack swallowed.
Then his turn.
“I spent years believing anger protected me from grief.”
He looked at Elena.
“It didn’t.”
He glanced toward Sophie.
“What protected us was truth.”
Sophie wiped her eyes and pretended something had flown into them.
Jack continued.
“And boundaries.”
Elena laughed.
“And therapy.”
More laughter.
“And one loose starter wire.”
Everyone smiled.
Sophie whispered, “Best part.”
Jack nodded.
“Definitely.”
After the ceremony, Sophie took a photograph.
Jack.