“It’s probably unnecessary, but we’ll let you give us the whole tour,” Khall told Prauxx.
She rolled her eyes and launched into a rundown of everything she suspected was wrong with the farmhouse, including old wiring, old plumbing, no insulation, small closets, endangered woodpeckers on the west porch, wet basement, stone foundation, and some things April was pretty convinced Prauxx had only made up to frighten them.
But Khall just nodded and said fixable to each and every issue.
“You can’t fix endangered woodpeckers, Captain Rivvor,” Prauxx said, turning to him sternly at last.
“Then we’ll live with them,” he told her. “They can’t be any louder than we are.”
Bo yelped with delight and screamed for Minerva in the next room, as if to prove his point.
“You have something I can thumbprint and get our offer in?” he asked politely.
“Humor me and at least walk through the whole thing first,” she pleaded, exasperated.
“Aren’t you dying to see it all?” April asked him, squeezing his arm.
“Fine,” he said. “But if someone buys it while I’m indulging the two of you, you get to tell the kids.”
“We’ll see it, but let’s make it quick,” April suggested.
Later that day,as the suns set, they stood on the back porch, watching the girls explore the land while Prauxx paced and talked on her comms, negotiating their offer.
“It’s all happening so fast,” April mused as the sky blushed a deep pink.
“What’s happening so fast?” Khall asked, taking her hands in his.
“My dreams are coming true,” she murmured gazing into his amber eyes.
And then he was going down on one knee as the girls streaked across the meadow to watch.
“Dad, you were supposed to wait for us,” Minerva scolded as she stopped before them.
“I picked it,” Bo said proudly.
“She hasn’t even seen it yet,” Khall whispered loudly. “She doesn’t know what it is.”
“I think she knows what it is,” Minerva said, winking at April.
But April was trying too hard not to cry to be able to wink back.
Khall pulled something shimmering from his pocket and held it out to her.
She blinked back her tears to see a scandalously large diamond, flanked by two smaller ones. The ring itself was carved to look like two feathery wings were holding the stones.
“That’s us,” Bo said solemnly. “The big one is Daddy, and the little ones are Minerva and me. And the wings are so you won’t be scared to fly.”
“It’s beautiful,” April breathed.
She would have been happy with a plain metal band, or nothing at all. But since they had chosen this for her and imbued it with special meaning, well, she would never take it off.
“April Clarke, if you marry me, I will spend my life dedicated to making you happy,” Khall said, his voice husky with emotion.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes?” he echoed hopefully.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she cried.