Simon

She held my hand across the center console while we took the hour drive to Jace's beach house. When Jace called this morning and told us to load up the car and head out there, Isabelle jumped up and down with excitement. She had been up late the night before worried about Clary. From what she had told me, she had good reason to be. I felt her head hit my shoulder alerting me that she was asleep. We made it to the beach house thirty minutes later and pulled into the driveway. Clary came running out of the house to the passenger side waking Isabelle up in the process.

Clary and Isabelle ran back in the house, leaving me to get the bags until Jace came out to help me. We greeted each other with a man hug and took the bags in the house. I was instructed to pack bags for Jace and Clary as well, since they just came out here the night before on a whim. The girls were already sitting out on the patio talking a mile a minute. It looked like they were talking over each other and didn't look like a conversation was going on at all, but I knew they understood what the other was saying.

Jace led me outside and we sat on the opposite end of the patio, out of earshot from our lovely ladies. He handed me a beer from the cooler and we sat back as we enjoyed the view.

"So, when are you going to do it," he asked breaking our silence. Jace had been my best friend for five years. We didn't like each other much when we first met, but after a while we realized we were a lot alike and got along really well, most of the time. I knew he had my back, no matter what and the feeling was reciprocated. Jace had gone with me about a week before to help me pick out the perfect engagement ring for Isabelle.

"I was thinking about doing it tonight," I replied with caution.

"Do you have anything planned?"

"I was just going to ask her to take a walk after dinner and drop down on one knee to tell her how much I love her and that she changed my life."

"Sounds good." We grew quiet again, but on the other side of the patio, Clary and Isabelle were flailing their arms around exaggeratedly while telling stories.

"Do you think it's too soon?"

"You guys have been together for six months. Hell, I'm ready to drop down on one knee right now and ask my girl to be mine forever and we've only been together a few months. I think that when it's right, you know and you obviously know that she is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with so go for it."

Just then, Clary and Isabelle came to sit with us. Izzy took my beer from me and took a drink winking at me. I shook my head with a smile before she turned to face me.

"We are going to go hang out on the beach," she announced. "If you boys would like to join us, you're more than welcome to."

She walked past me dragging her hand across my chest and shooting me a look that said I should definitely join her on the sand. Jace hopped up to follow Clary in the house as I did the same with Isabelle.

Ten minutes later, Clary and Isabelle were lying on the sand catching some sun while Jace and I tossed a football at the water's edge. I glanced back toward the girls and noticed them staring at us.

"Dude, it looks like we've got an audience," I yelled over to Jace as he followed my line of sight. He tossed the ball between his hands.

"Go deep," he yelled and I turned toward the water splashing around my knees. Jace's pass reached over my head and I dove for it catching the ball before landing in the water. When I resurfaced, I held the ball above my head and shook my hair out of my eyes before I could see Isabelle running toward me.

She crashed into me, pushing me underwater again. I laughed as I pulled her toward me. We were deep enough to where she couldn't stand, but I could so I held her up in the water as she wrapped her legs around my waist.

"Hey," she said before leaning her head forward to kiss me. I held her tight and fought the current trying to take us out to sea. "I love you."

"Well, that's good," I said with a smile. I just couldn't stop smiling around this girl. "Because I love you, too."

We made our way back to where Jace and Clary were sitting on the sand before flopping down next to them. Isabelle sat between my legs as we let the sun dry us. When we got too hot, we all made our way back down to the water. Jace hoisted Clary up onto his shoulders and I followed suit with Isabelle as we started a game of chicken, which turned into a wrestling match between Jace and me. The girls stood back laughing as we covered ourselves in sand. When I stood up from the sand, I looked over to Isabelle and gave her an evil look that said she had better run. She took of running, but I was too fast for her as I grabbed her and pulled her too me, transferring the sand from my body to hers. She let out a shriek as I lowered us into the water to rinse off.

Finally, Clary announced that she was going inside to get cleaned up and get started on dinner. Isabelle turned to give me a quick kiss before following her best friend up to the house. Jace and I followed to set up for dinner on the patio. He brought his speakers out and we turned Pandora on. I went back in the house to grab silverware and plates, but I ended up just standing in the doorway and observing the scene taking place.

Isabelle was dancing around the kitchen and singing along with whatever song was playing into a wooden spoon. Clary was standing at the stove and I could hear her singing as well. Izzy stood next to her and they sang in unison. Jace started to walk in the kitchen, but I stopped him before he could interrupt their little performance. When the song ended, Jace and I applauded and whistled. They turned around and Clary's face reddened before Jace walked over to her and kissed her deeply. Isabelle walked up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck before pecking my lips with hers.

"Clary, I hope you didn't let her touch any of the food we are about to consume," I said with a smirk and Isabelle smacked me on the chest.

"How dare you," Isabelle said. "I am an excellent cook."

"Sure, if you think pouring cereal and milk into a bowl is cooking."

"I'm sorry, Iz," Clary piped up as she turned to face us with Jace's arms wrapped around her neck. "He's right. You almost burned down the apartment once trying to boil water to make pasta."

"Oh, remember that time you tried to make French toast and you used salt instead of sugar," Jace asked.

"Okay," Isabelle shouted. "I get it, I'm challenged in the kitchen. You guys can stop reminding me now." Her brow furrowed and I pulled her against my chest. She huffed before relenting and wrapping her arms around my waist.

"It's okay, babe," I said. "I still love you, even though we'll probably be living on take out for the rest of our lives." I felt her relax and I tightened my hold on her. "Come on, let's go watch the sun set."

I led her out onto the patio and we sat on the top of the steps that led down to the beach. I reached over and took Isabelle's hand to interlace our fingers as she leaned her head on my shoulder. The sun was making its final descent to the horizon and the clouds were colored orange and pink from the sun. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen. I heard Izzy take a deep breath before she shifted closer to me and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

"This has been the perfect day," she whispered as she turned her head to nuzzle into my neck. I kissed the top of her head and squeezed her shoulder.

"Every day with you is perfect," I mumbled against her hair. She lifted her head to kiss me. We sat there for a few minutes, lost in each other until Clary and Jace came out with dinner.

"Dinner is served," Clary announced as we made our way to the table. There was an arugula salad with mango, goat cheese and vanilla bean vinaigrette. Shrimp scampi filled a serving bowl and roasted asparagus accompanied it. It was truly an amazing meal.

The sun had set and we ate by the light of a few candles and the porch light. Soft music played in the background as we ate, laughed and enjoyed the company of our friends. I sat back and observed the dynamic between the four of us. Isabelle and Clary were more like sisters than best friends and they loved each other as such. Jace and Isabelle had developed a sort of sibling relationship as well with their bickering and teasing of one another. We all fit in different ways to the group, but we had become a family in the short time we had all known each other.

We had finished eating when Clary looked over to me and asked, "Simon, when did you know you wanted to be a fighter?"

"Not until pretty recently," I replied. "I actually just took a job at the gym, thinking I could teach some classes because I had trained in jiu jitsu for a while. Then I saw all the guys training and realized that I wanted something like that to focus on and be proud of. So, I talked to Jace one day and we started training. A few months later, I had my first professional fight and the rest is history."

"Jace," Isabelle said. "What would you be doing if you weren't fighting?"

"I wouldn't be here," he said and I nodded my head knowing what he went through before he started his career. "If Hodge hadn't found me when he did, I would have been dead before I turned twenty-one."

Clary and Isabelle let out a collective, "Wow." Clary walked over to Jace and kissed his forehead before clearing the dishes from the table. Isabelle stood to help her, but I grabbed her hand and pulled her down toward me.

"Go for a walk with me, Isabelle Lightwood," I said looking into her eyes. She smiled and nodded as I stood from my chair. We walked past Jace and he gave me a nod of his head as I patted him on the back.

I led Isabelle down toward the water and started walking along the shoreline. We held hands, swinging our arms as we made our way farther away from the beach house. I dropped her hand and wrapped my arm around her shoulders pulling her closer to me as she placed her arms around my waist. I could see her looking up at me from the corner of my eye.

"What are you thinking about," she whispered in my ear. I stopped walking then and stood in front of her taking both of her hands in mine.

"I love you," I said.

"I love you, too, Simon."

"Isabelle, from the moment I met you, I knew you were going to be a challenge. I could see you had walls built up and they weren't coming down any time soon. You honestly scared the crap out of me. You are strong and confident and fiercely independent. I thought there was no way a girl like you could fall for a guy like me. I may be a tough fighter on the outside, but on the inside, I'm still the Star Wars loving, video game playing, nerd I've always been and you love me anyway. You have become my whole life and I can't imagine spending another minute of it not knowing if you'll be mine forever."

I got down on one knee as I let go of one of her hands and took the ring out of my pocket. Her free hand came up to cover her mouth and tears started falling. The light breeze was blowing her dark hair and the stars shone bright in the sky behind her. She was beautiful. I smiled up at her and took a deep breath.

"Isabelle Lightwood, I love you more than I could ever explain." One more deep breath. "Will you marry me?"

A/N: So there it is! Thanks so much for reading! I can't believe how supportive everyone has been and I can't thank you all enough. I really appreciate all the kind words and suggestions so keep them up! Anyways, I really hope you liked this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think and leave a review! :)

Thank you so, so much!