Falling Into Love with You (The Hate-Love Duet 2)

I swallow hard. “I didn’t propose to you on the show tonight because I didn’t want you thinking, even for a second, my proposal was fake. And I didn’t want to do it for real for a TV audience. I’m sick of sharing our love story with the world, Laila. I’m not doing this for money or fame. None of that stuff matters to me, if you’re not there with me, enjoying it all, right by my side, forever.”

With that, I sink to my knee, making Laila burst into sobs. I hold up the ring and smile up at her, emotion turning into a hard lump in my throat. “Laila Fitzgerald,” I whisper. “Not too long ago, I felt coerced into a fifty-fifty partnership with you. But I want you to know, I’m now one hundred percent yours, voluntarily. With this ring, I give you all of me. I want you to take everything I am and everything I’m going to be. It’s all yours, just as long as you say yes to being my wife.” My hopeful smile broadens. “Laila Fitzgerald, will you marry me?”

“Yes!” she screams. “Yes!”

Tears threaten my eyes, but, somehow, I swallow them down while standing and sliding the ring onto her finger. The ring in place, and our agreement made, I pull my fiancée into me for a deep kiss, and then wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.

After a moment, when I’ve gathered enough control of myself to speak again, I take Laila’s hand and point at a cluster of diamonds nestled around the central rock. “See this little diamond here? That’s from the ring Jasper gave to Mimi—the diamond that was in her wedding ring.”

“Oh my gosh.” She physically convulses with emotion.

“Mimi wanted you to have that diamond in your ring, so you’d always know she was smiling down on us from heaven.”

Laila throws her arms around me. “I love it. And I love you. Thank you so much.” She pauses. Pulls back. “But what about Sasha? Shouldn’t Sasha have Mimi’s diamond?”

“No, Sasha wants you to have this.”

Laila returns to hugging me and loses herself to sobs.

I hold her shaking, quivering body for a long moment, feeling happier in this moment than I’ve ever felt in my life. I feel Mimi’s love and guidance all around me. I feel certain I’m on the right path, with the great love of my life—a woman I’m going to love and protect, forever. I pull back and look into Laila’s tear-filled eyes. “I love you, Laila, and I always will. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I love you, too.” She wipes a tear. “I’ve got a savage love for you, Adrian Savage. It’s infinite.” She touches my cheek. “And everlasting.”

Epilogue

Laila

Kendrick, as Savage’s best man, raises his champagne flute to Savage and me, and everyone in attendance at our small wedding, which we’re having at Reed’s sprawling home, follows suit.

“To Savage and Laila,” Kendrick says. “You two are perfect for each other. I sincerely believe that. Laila, you make Savage a better man.” Kendrick looks at his best friend, the groom, and smiles. “And, Savage, you make Laila make you a better man.”

Everyone laughs.

Raising his glass even higher, Kendrick bellows, “Cheers to the bride and groom!”

The party erupts and Savage and I kiss.

We’re outside on Reed’s large patio, underneath twinkling lights. Savage and I both have shiny new rings on our third fingers and perma-grins on our faces. Our wedding this evening has been a fairly simple affair, attended by our closest friends and family. And it’s been perfect. Straight out of a fairytale.

We pulled our wedding together a bit faster than we maybe envisioned when Savage proposed four months ago, once we realized how busy we were going to be in the coming year. My third album just released and it’s already soaring. “Savage Love” is my biggest hit, by far, and I’ve been hard at work on designing a makeup line, too.

Savage and his band are working on their next album. And I have no doubt it’s going to be another smash hit. Soon, my husband and I begin shooting the next season of Sing Your Heart Out. Our first of four seasons we signed on to do. And once shooting on the show ends, Fugitive Summer and I are going to participate in a “festival style” tour with a slew of other artists, including 22 Goats, Aloha, and Alessandra—a new touring concept that will make the process of bringing live music to our fans a whole lot more fun and less of a grind for everyone involved.

All things considered, Savage and I realized we had to get married pretty quickly, and in a relatively simple fashion, or else wait another year and a half to do it in grand style. So, here we are. And, frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The past four months in our new house have been magical for us, to the point where we’ve both felt an urgent desire to call each other “husband” and “wife,” sooner rather than later.