Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 316

Lydia POV

Dave was still kneeling beside me, his attention focused on my feet as his hands worked gently over the aching muscles. I leaned back in the chair and let my eyes wander upward, allowing myself to take in the sky above us. It had changed completely since we arrived. A few hours ago, everything had been bright and golden, but now the last traces of daylight were fading into soft shades of blue and lavender. Clouds stretched lazily across the sky, their edges catching the remaining light from the setting sun. I watched them for a while, enjoying the strange peace that came with doing absolutely nothing. No phone calls. No emails. No children asking me for something. No crisis to solve. Just the sound of the evening around me and Dave’s hands occasionally moving over my feet.

Then I realized his hands had stopped.

I frowned and looked down, expecting to find him distracted by something, but Dave wasn’t looking at my feet anymore. He was looking at me. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. “Excuse me?” He didn’t answer. I glanced at my feet, then back at him. “You promised me a proper massage. What’s this?” He remained strangely quiet, and his silence only made me laugh. “Dave, what are you—”

Then I saw it.

Something caught the light between his fingers. At first, I thought it was one of the little candles surrounding the table, the flame reflecting off something nearby. Then I realized it wasn’t. It was in his hand. My words died somewhere in my throat as I stared at the tiny ring resting between his fingers. For a second, my brain simply refused to process what my eyes were seeing. Then the stone caught the warm candlelight again, and I finally saw it properly.

Pink.

A delicate pink sapphire sat at the center, set into an elegant, almost impossibly dainty band. It wasn’t huge, and it wasn’t loud. It wasn’t the kind of ring that entered a room before its wearer did. It was simply beautiful, the kind of beautiful that made you stare because every little detail seemed intentional. I leaned forward slightly, my eyes fixed on it. “Oh my God.”

My heart started beating faster as I watched the pink sapphire catch the warm light from the candles, reflecting it back in tiny flashes. The stone almost looked as though it had a soft glow of its own. It was perfect. Actually perfect. And that was when another thought hit me. How did he know? How did Dave know? Even Anna didn’t know that was exactly the kind of ring I liked. I had never told anyone. I had never sent a picture, never pointed at one in a store, never casually mentioned that this was what I wanted. It was simply something I had always imagined quietly in my head: a delicate ring, feminine without being excessive, something elegant enough to wear every day. Somehow, somehow, this man had found exactly that.

I looked at him. “Dave…” My voice came out much higher than I intended.

His mouth twitched as though he was trying not to smile. “You don’t want to marry me?”

I stared at him for a second before almost laughing. “Hell no.”

The change in his face was immediate, and I quickly reached for his hand. “No! I mean—God, no. I would absolutely love to marry you.” Relief washed over his face, and he let out a quiet laugh. “Okay.” I looked back at the ring, then at him. “Obviously.” Then I narrowed my eyes. “Wait. Aren’t you going to do some fancy speech?”

He blinked. “A speech?”

“Yes.” I stared at him expectantly. “You know, something emotional. Something that makes me cry. Something I can remember and annoy you about ten years from now.”

A smile slowly appeared on his face. “I have something.”

“You do?” I asked, suddenly curious.

“Yes.” He shifted slightly, still kneeling in front of me. “Give me a second.”

I smiled. “Okay.”

He took a breath, and almost immediately, the playful expression disappeared from his face. He looked at me differently then. Not like he was teasing me or trying to make me laugh, but with a kind of honesty that made the air around us feel heavier. “Lydia,” he began.

My smile softened.

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