Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 48

"God I love this place so much." Calum sighs as he leans back onto the sand. "C'mon, when you're on a world tour, I'm sure you're gonna find a lot of nice places you'll love." I joke as I lay down beside him. "Oh you get what I mean!" Calum retorts and I laugh a little.

"Well you never actually told me why you love this place so much...." I say and Calum looks at me before he shifts a little into a more comfortable position before facing me. "When I was younger I would always come down to this beach with my family, or with Luke. Eventually I found this place by accident when I went swimming one day. And I always promised myself this would be my quiet place. Just to... get away from the world. Think a bit." Calum said and I smiled, before laying my head on his chest.

"Well I'm not gonna deny it, I love this place too." I sigh as Calum and I are both silent for a few minutes. "But there's one thing that I love a lot more then here..." Calum says his fingers stroking my hair. "Really? And what's that?" I ask and he looks over at me, cupping my cheek and staring into my eyes. "You." he whispered, his thumb brushing my cheekbone before he leaned in for a gentle, lingering kiss.

He pulled away for a moment before I then whispered "I love you Calum." Calum smiled, his eyes crinkling slightly, before he said "I know sweetheart." He pulls me closer to him and I then whisper "Please don't leave..." "I'm coming back. It won't be that long." "It's months Cal. MONTHS." I croak out as I feel my eyes water.

"I love you, and even when I'm away from you, I'm still gonna love you." Calum whispers as I nod and he kisses me again.

We finally come into the secluded cove and I see that the place is practically the same. The water is still a gorgeous blue, the sand is still crystal white. I flop down onto the sand and the others follow suit, before I then turn around and see Calum standing there. He's wearing a simple grey muscle tee, and he's got his swim trunks on as well. I get up and walk over and say "Cal...."

He looks up at me and grins before he then says "Natalie." "Wait, I thought you were coming to the beach with us over there-" "I decided to come here. I....I had something really important to ask you. Well to tell you...but also to ask you...." Calum says and I can see he's nervous...but for WHAT.

He finally takes a deep breath before going down on one knee. Oh my god. Oh my god. I put my hand over my mouth in shock. I then see him reach into his pocket and pull out a case....a case for a ring. Holy. Shit.

"Natalie....I love you. I love you so, so much. And I've never been happier in the time that we've been together. You're the sunshine in my life, and you make everything seem so much brighter even when it seems like it's complete darkness. You're so gorgeous, beautiful and amazing inside and out and I can't even begin to describe how much you blow me away everyday. And I want to be with you, and I want to be able to wake up everyday and see your face, go to bed with you in my arms, be able to live our lives out. And like your dad said....life is too short. And I wanna spend whatever life I have with you, my soulmate, my first and last love." Calum says and I feel tears rolling down my cheeks because I'm so touched by his words.

"So... Natalie Alison Lane....will you marry me?" he asks and he reveals the ring. My heart is pounding and my mind is racing. I loved Calum, really I did....but was he truly my soulmate? Was he really meant to be for me? Wasn't I too young? I didn't doubt myself however before I kneeled in front of him, my hands cupping his cheeks, taking a deep breath and whispered "Yes."

Calum has tears welling up in his eyes as he puts the ring on my finger before leaning in and kissing me. I hear the cheers of everyone else behind me and I turn around as Ashton yells "GROUP HUG!" Calum and I stand up and we all end up getting enveloped by everyone and their sweat.

When I looked down at the ring, I felt my heart glow because the truth is, no matter how far or how bad things got... love really pulled through.

Author's Note

Well that's another one in the can! *wipes away tears*

honestly I loved writing this book (even though it definitely got rough sometimes) but hopefully you guys enjoyed reading this book as much as I did writing it! *well co-writing it with

but we're not *quite* done with Natalie and Skyler just yet! the final book in the trilogy is gonna get posted soon, so keep an eye out for it!

love you all!

xx

-heartrain1259