“Why are you acting so weird?”
“I’m not.”
“You so are.”
I laced our fingers together and opened the side door to the garage. Latte scooted in first and I almost stepped on him. “I’m a little nervous.” I turned on the light and she pulled away and ran to the huge fridge.
“Oh, my God. Is this for me? For us?” She tried to wrap her arms around the steel frame but didn’t quite reach. Her purple sneaker bumped into the panel of wood when she opened the door. “It’s perfect.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, Murphy.”
“I want to build a home with you, Veronica. A whole life. I thought maybe we could make the cabin a little more suitable for a pastry chef of your caliber. A kitchen you’ve always dreamed about.”
“I don’t need those things.” She closed the door and the ring box was in one hand as she brushed a few tears away.
I moved over to her. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“No, these are good tears. No one has ever cared about me enough to want to try and make me happy. But you already do that every day, Fortress. But this?”
I took the box from her. “I just need you to know I think about our future. About us and all the things we can have together.”
“I don’t need things.”
I went down on one knee, then flicked the box open. “I know. But I want to give them to you. I want you to know it’s not just about babies. Babies and more fur babies are the cherry on top for me, but it’s always been about you. About the two of us forever. Will you marry me?”
Her shawl floated to the floor and Latte jumped up between us as she curled her arms around my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around her waist until we were both on the cold floor in a heap. “Of course, I’ll marry you.” She laughed and cradled Latte into her lap as she crowded into me. Tears and happiness mixed into our kiss as she held me just as tightly.
Latte tried to chew on the corner of the box, but I managed to free it enough to pluck the pear-shaped solitaire ring free and slid it on her finger. I tossed the box so he’d go kill it.
“Oh, Fortress,” she said against my mouth.
“I’ll forever be your safe haven. I couldn’t imagine my life without you.”
She straddled me and wrapped her arms around me now that we were alone for a moment. “Forever sounds pretty amazing to me. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Veronica.”
Epilogue
Vee
Sometime in May…
Good thing I loved my husband more than anything on this Earth. Okay, equally as much as our little guy. I stroked the soft, springy fluff of Latte’s head as I scrolled through my to-do list. Well, Murphy’s updated to-do list. It was time to do my monthly check up on the website to make sure it was all running smoothly.
If it wasn’t, he’d step in and do his co
mputer stuff. I didn’t understand all the coding and backend things he mumbled about. All I cared about was making sure the women and men who wanted to make a family could find each other.
And it was working beautifully.
A little too well.
Because my life was becoming to-do lists lately.
I flipped back and forth from my work calendar tab and my personal one. Between the website and café, I actually needed a paper planner to keep it all in check. Handily, Ally and Sage had pulled me into their planner girl circle with Kelsey and a reluctant new convert, Rylee.
Now that the wedding was taken care of. We’d gone over the top with our St. Pats themes. Even ended up getting matching shamrock tattoos and a little baby shamrock for Latte to commemorate him as part of our family. Ten days in Colorado for our honeymoon was one helluva start to our marriage. Seriously, the Rockies were as impressive as I’d hoped. And now life was settling into a pretty amazing routine.
The ever-present snick of Murphy’s nail gun was the only thing that I’d change. Since we’d gotten home, he’s been working on our new addition—the secret addition that I sort of knew about, but wasn’t allowed to see until it was done. And really, how could I fault the man I love for wanting to do something sweet for me?