“Alix?” Jared asked, but she didn’t answer. She just stared at him. “Alix?” he asked louder. “Are you thinking of saying no?” He looked worried.
She managed to take a breath. “No. I mean yes. Yes and yes! And—” She threw her arms around his neck. Since he was still on one knee and not expecting her leap, he fell backward onto the rug, his body between Alix and the floor.
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said. “A million times yes.” She punctuated her every word with a kiss to his face and neck. “I can go with you to New York?”
Jared was laughing. “Yes, of course
you can. Who’s going to tell me that my every design is wrong if you aren’t there?”
“I thought you were going to leave me behind.”
He put his hand to the side of her face. “Not ever. I’ll never leave you.”
Alix began to unbutton his shirt.
He put his hand over hers. “No, not now.”
She pulled back. “The chapel hasn’t been consecrated yet, so—”
“It’s not that. I just think that we should wait until after we’re married.”
She drew back to look at him. “But that could be a year. My mom says—”
Jared kissed her to silence. “You don’t want to see the ring?” he asked. “It’s rather nice, if I do say so myself.”
“The ring! I’m an idiot.” She rolled off him and started searching for it on the rug.
Jared held up his hand. A platinum ring with a large pink diamond was on his little finger. “This what you’re looking for?”
She lay down on the rug beside him, her head on his shoulder, and held up her left hand for him to slip the ring onto it.
“With this ring,” he whispered as he put it on her finger.
Alix held up her hand to look at it. Nothing sparkled like a diamond in the light of a hundred candles.
“Like it? If not, we can get something else.”
Alix closed her hand. “It’s perfect. The best ring I’ve ever seen. Even Mom is going to approve.”
“About that,” Jared said as he rolled away, stood up, and held his hand out to her. “You can’t tell your mother until after we’re married.”
“I agree!” she said as she got up. “Let’s elope. Mom’s been saying that my wedding will involve a cathedral and a dress with a fourteen-foot-long train.”
He led her to a chair, she sat down, and he sat across from her. “I couldn’t live with myself if I cheated a girl out of a real wedding.”
“I don’t mind,” Alix said. “If it’s a choice between an elopement and Mom’s extravaganza, I’ll take a Las Vegas drive-through with Elvis.”
He sliced a bit of brie, put it on a cracker, and leaned across the table to put it into her mouth. “You see,” he said as he scooped up some hummus and ate it, “it seems that Izzy doesn’t want her wedding, so I thought that you and I would take it.”
“Oh, no! Please don’t tell me that Izzy and Glenn have broken up.”
“Not at all,” Jared said. “They’re going to Bermuda to get married and I’m flying his two brothers and her little sister down there to be with them. If you agree to everything, that is.”
When Alix realized what he was saying, she just sat there, holding a slice of cheese on a cracker outside her mouth. Just holding it, not moving. Jared reached across and guided her hand to her mouth.
Alix chewed for a moment, then said, “I can wear Aunt Addy’s dress?”
“I’m sure she’ll smile down from Heaven and thank you.”