“You drive a hard bargain, lady,” I say. “But I bet I can do just a little better.”
The moment I bend my knee, the crowd loses it, and so does she, and I know that I’m grinning like a fool so hard it makes my face begin to ache. She laughs, and again tries to calm the crowd, but her words are drowned out.
“All right, all right,” I say into the mic, even then only barely loud enough to be heard. “Everyone give us just a moment of quiet. I have a question and it’s really important she hears me, okay?”
They quieten down gradually, and Janie has to turn away from me momentarily to breathe before she can face me again. She’s laughing, at least, which is a good sign.
I clear my throat and switch the mic off. This part is just for her. Just for Janie.
“Janie Hall,” I begin, and unfurl my fingers to reveal the box that I’m genuinely surprised isn’t crushed to bits. “I love you, and I am so, so proud of you. You are by far a better person than I am, and I don’t have any business asking you a question like this. But I don’t have a choice. For me, it’s a matter of survival. Without you, I won’t be able to eat, or drink, or sleep. Without you, I won’t be whole. I won’t even be alive.
“I don’t deserve you, and I know that. And I’m not sure that I ever will. But…” I open the box, and there are gasps from the front of the crowd when they see the ring. Janie’s eyes light up as well, not because it’s a perfect blue diamond, but because the man I paid a hundred grand to design and produce it for me is a master of his craft and this ring is, objectively, staggeringly beautiful. “…if you’ll marry me, Janie Hall, I will spend the rest of my life trying to be good enough. Janie, will you let me try? Will you marry me, baby?”
At first, she doesn’t answer. She isn’t even breathing, and I think no one else in the room is, either. We’re both suspended in the silence, until someone from the back of the room shouts, “Say yes!”
Janie bursts out laughing, and the crowd takes up the chant. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
I wave them to silence, but give them all the thumbs up for the assist, and when their laughter dies down, Janie’s hands are over her mouth. She doesn’t make a sound at first when her mouth opens, and she has to suck in a breath and swallow hard, nodding her head. “Yes. Okay. Yes!”
Everyone cheers, a roar of approval and excitement. The cameras flash, and probably all of it is on video on fifty phones and cameras throughout the room, but neither of us care. After I slip the ring on her finger, we’re together, and Janie kisses me and all the noise, the lights, the cameras... everyone in the room vanishes for me.
It’s just me, and her, and our baby.
“She’s pregnant!” someone screams. A high-pitched voice. Janie and I both snap out of it and look for the source, and see Gloria standing on a chair. “Janie Hall is pregnant with Jake Ferry’s baby!”
There’s a beat, and Janie calmly uses it to pick up the microphone again. “Yes,” she says, “I am.”
She looks up at me, and I take the mic from her.
“I really couldn’t help it,” I say, smiling.
The guests and bloggers love it, erupting in cheers and laughter, snapping more pictures while Janie and I wave and smile for them.
“And P.S., Gloria?” Janie says into the mic once the laughter stops, “You’re fired.”
Shock, gasps, and also some sage nods follow as Gloria storms out of the lounge. From behind the bar, Chester throws up his arms in happiness.
And sure, the story’s got everything a blogger could want. It’s PR gold.
But more than that, it’s our first family photo session.
Chapter 76
Jake
The fallout is swift.
Reginald has no choice but to publicly voice his approval of the engagement as well as the pregnancy. If he doesn’t, he’ll lose face. To prove to the public that he means it, he even pays for the wedding.
It’s the most extravagant affair I’ve seen him throw, but, thankfully, he only bothers to bankroll it. The planning is someone else’s job when I prove to be only slightly more useful than a box of bricks at wedding planning. When Janie proves to be too busy with Red Hall’s explosion of business, our saving grace turns out to be Toia.
Helping to plan the wedding seems to bring my stepmother to life, and she and Janie become fast friends. My father wasn’t the only one that underestimated her. Janie very quickly points out to me that Toia could easily get into the event planning business and do very well. She even has all the right connections—people that don’t particularly care for Reginald Ferry but might be wil
ling to hear Janie out if she puts in a good word.
It takes two months to put the wedding together. Reginald offers to rush things along, get us to the head of the line in this or that department, but Janie shuts him down with zeal that borders on excessive. She can’t believe he’d even consider delaying other people’s weddings just to move ours ahead. I’m not sure they’ll ever get along, but they at least seem to have a certain… rapport.
It takes until the day before the wedding for Reginald to speak to me alone, and I don’t even have to approach him. Which is ideal, because I wasn’t going to.