Butterface

She glanced up at him, looking, really looking, at the man who’d twisted up her world and thrown it around, and realized that he was telling the truth. He loved her.

“We should probably let the fire department get us out of here now, or the neighbors will expect this kind of show every night,” she said, because of course she was the woman who said the wrong thing at the wrong time. This was even worse than pointing out the open bar when he’d asked if he could buy her a drink at the wedding.

“Well, I’d heard that public declarations of love were romantic,” he said, dipping his head down for a kiss but stopping millimeters short of touching his lips to hers.

Her heartbeat sped up again. At this rate, she was going to need blood pressure medication or a kiss. She knew which one she preferred. “And I’d heard they were silly.”

“Whoever told you that was an idiot,” he said.

“But I love him anyway,” she said, meaning every single word.

Rising up on her tiptoes, she closed the distance between their mouths, kissing him with every bit of everything she had. At that moment, there were too many everythings to be separated. There was love and hope and anticipation and, yeah, nerves, because the important things in life were always a little bit scary, but in a good way.

“Are you catching all of this, Mom?” Frankie’s voice cut through the euphoria of the kiss.

Well, that and the number of people stomping across her front yard. She looked around. There were way more firefighters there than the call needed. Front and center of the crowd was Frankie, who was holding up his phone. Kate Hartigan was visible in the majority of the screen but there was no missing—event though they were in the little box on the right of the FaceTime screen—Gina and Ford with their kiss-swollen lips.

Heat rushed to her cheeks, but unlike the last time she and Ford had been kissing onscreen, it was from pure, unadulterated happiness.

“Hey Mom,” Frankie said. “Let Finian know that I call dibs on being the best man at the wedding.”

Gina gulped. “He hasn’t asked me to marry him.”

“Good Lord, Ford.” Frankie shook his head. “Do I have to smack your scrawny butt around again, or are you going to get it right finally?”

“Shut up, Frankie,” Ford said. “I’ve got this.”

There wasn’t a ring, and he didn’t get down on one knee. Instead, they were stuck in a hole in her front porch surrounded by firefighters while Ford’s mom watched on FaceTime.

“Gina Luca, I don’t deserve you, but I’d be the luckiest guy in the world if you’d agree to be my wife.”

Fighting back tears of joy, she let her gaze travel around the people slowly crowding in on them. Here she was, about to kiss a guy while a crowd of people watched and smiled, and that old nausea started to rumble in her belly. But then her gaze collided with Ford’s again and she could see he was even more afraid of rejection than she was. A fine sheen of sweat had broken out on his forehead, and his eyes were literally begging her to forgive him. To love him. His lips mouthed the word, “Please,” and her heart cracked open. All the insecurities she used to protect her heart from pain, barricades she’d spent decades erecting, just…melted away.

She wasn’t sure she could trust her voice, so she mouthed back, “Yes.”

His face lit up like she’d made him the happiest man in the world. And she believed him. His lips found hers in a hungry kiss, her arms winding around his neck, her fingers getting lost in his thick hair and holding him to her. Cheers broke out from the assembled firefighters and a few happy exclamations from Kate on the phone. They barely noticed.

Eventually Ford pulled back, his big hands cupping her face. “You don’t happen to know any good wedding planners, do you?”

“I might.” What a smart-ass this man she loved was.

And then before she could even formulate a thought, he kissed her again.

Chapter Twenty-One

Five Years Later…

It was total chaos in the Victorian’s backyard as about twenty mini Hartigans, mini Lucas, and a smattering of other little kids squealed in glee as they ran from the bounce house to the face-painting station to the puppet show in the far corner. In the middle of it all was the birthday girl, sprinting toward the inflated castle wearing her favorite gift—a bright red firefighter’s helmet from Uncle Frankie.