Shift Happens (Providence Family Ties 2)

“Even though I drive a car you hate and will likely drive ones just like it for the rest of my life?”

“I’d happily spend the rest of my life pressing the button to move the seat as far away from the wheel as possible for five minutes every day, if it means having you in it.”

There was a round of “aw’s” from the women—including Sasha’s cousin, Gabby, who’d just joined us—some gagging from some of my brothers, a coughed “pussy” from Benny this time, and Sam muttered, “Why does he hate the car? It’s a fucking amazing car.”

“Because you got it on purpose to mess with him, honey,” Ryan pointed out, then mouthed another apology to me.

Sasha wasn’t done, though, and pressed her front against mine. “Even though I have to drive with my nose practically touching the windshield when I’m in your truck?”

That wasn’t an exaggeration.

“Absolutely.” Wanting to get on with it, I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist and leaned my forehead against hers.

“I don’t care that you steal the t-shirts I’d planned to wear the next day. In fact, I love it. I don’t care about all of the things you think are a problem about yourself, like your insane hair.” I tugged on one of her curls, making her grin.

“All of the things you think are an issue, just make me love you even more. You’re the A to my B. The coordinating piece to the puzzle that completes it.You’re the muscles and ligaments that hold my bones straight. I even love that we’ll never sit over a pot of coffee together because it makes you so hyper, you can’t even tie your shoelaces or get your feet in your shoes.”

Yeah, I’d found out why she only had K-Cups after Sam had accidentally given her his cup of coffee two weeks ago. Seeing her running everywhere because she couldn’t walk, her legs jumping around when she tried to sit still, and how she’d practically been vibrating with energy for a good six hours had made the realization hit home.

It’d never occurred to me that she had an honest to God’s issue with freshly brewed coffee when she’d warned me never to give it to her after her accident, but there it was.

I could do without drinking coffee from the pot if necessary, but I couldn’t do without Sasha.

“Will you marry me, Sasha?”

Instead of yelling a yes or no, she jumped up and threw her arms around me, whispering in my ear, “A million times yes.”

Because the others couldn’t hear her, I didn’t want them to think she was choking me, so I yelled, “She said yes!”

Everyone started yelling and high-fiving each other, then came and congratulated us.

During it, someone knocked into me, and it was either drop the world I was holding in my arms or catch her around the ass and wrap her legs around my waist to hold her tighter to me. She’d already been through enough, and I didn’t want to add another concussion for either of us onto the day, so I went with option B.

Unfortunately, I forgot about her injury, and when her crotch pressed against my abdomen, she whimpered, and not in a good way.

“I think she broke my vagina.”

Pressing my mouth next to her ear, I promised her solemnly, “I’ll sue her if she did.”

Then, every guy who’s ever proposed worst nightmare happened.

Just as everyone took a step away from us, I realized that in all of the bustling and back-slapping and me lifting Sasha, the ring had fallen out of the box. Because so many people had been walking in the sand around us, it’d all gotten kicked around, and there were no telltale sparkles. No glinting of metal in the sun. Nada.

Seeing the panic on my face, Elijah shouted, “She changed her mind already?”

Swallowing loudly and feeling the sweat beading on my back, I croaked, “I dropped the ring in the sand.”

So, instead of her proudly showing her ring off to everyone, we spent the next hour on our hands and knees with our family around us, searching through the sand for the damn ring.

Yeah, we found it. But while we were looking, my brothers filled her in on the things that’d happened when my cousins had proposed to their poor wives.

They’d just told her about Tom when Webb sat back and held his sand-encrusted hand in the air.

“Found it.”

Later, as she stared down at it, a contented smile on her face, she made me promise something to her.

“Please promise me that if you ever swallow this for some reason, you’ll get it sterilized, and then we’ll just put it back in the box for the rest of our lives. I don’t need to wear it to know it exists and how beautiful it is, but I don’t think I could hack wearing something you had to eject from your butt.”