The Fake Engagement

Then he turned back to her. “I’m in love with you, Eliza. I want to share my life with you. I’m not lying. I’m not acting. I’m telling you the truth, and you’re probably going to hate this, but the condom broke.”

There was a gasp.

“I want us to be together forever,” he said. “Melinda told me I would find my woman of ten. I had no idea what she meant, but now I do.” He held his list up. “At first I thought it was your list. The top ten of everything you wanted out of man, but it’s not. It’s my list. It’s the woman I think about when I read my list, and when I think about my life, it’s all you. I am in love with you.”

He rounded the table and went to her side, sinking to his knee in front of her.

“This is my heart, Eliza. This is me. There is no one I want more. Will you be my wife?” he asked.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Eliza said.

“I can’t let you walk away. I don’t want to live my life without you in it. The past three years have been incredible and not because of work, but because every single day I walked into my building looking forward to seeing you. That was all I wanted. Every day. To see your face.” He took her hand. “Do you love me?”

The seconds it took for her to answer were the worst of his life.

“More than anything.”

He got to his feet, cupped her face, and kissed her. Sinking his fingers into her hair, he kissed her harder than he ever had.

Eliza moaned.

“Okay, am I the only one who is a little pissed that he lied?” Kian asked.

“Get over it, son,” Marsha said. “His heart was in the right place.”

He broke the kiss. “Marry me,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Have my kids?”

“Yes. Everything, yes, I want to marry you. I’m in love with you.”

“Do you have a new ring, son?” Greg asked.

Preston glanced back at his dad and shook his head. “No, the ring I picked out was chosen from the heart. I didn’t give her a substandard ring. I gave her the one I knew I wanted her to keep. You’re my life, Eliza Drake, and I’m so sorry I waited three years to make you mine.”

She put her hand to his chest. “Am I awake?”

“Yes, but if we’re not, then I never want to wake up.” Ignoring their parents, he kissed her again.

He took the leap, and now, Eliza was his and he was never going to give her back.

Eliza pulled away and smiled. “You owe Adam and Natasha a hundred dollars.”

Preston burst out laughing. He’d forgotten all about that bet with his friends, but he had told Eliza about it late one night. That was the last he had thought of it. They were going to get a kick out of this. He hadn’t told them anything since he got here. “Technically, I only owe Natasha,” he said. “And I want to say, it is the best hundred bucks I’ve ever spent.”

“I love you.”

Epilogue

Five years later

“That was Juliet. She’ll be here in an hour,” Eliza said.

She put the phone into the cradle and walked into the sitting room. They had finished putting the decorations on the tree an hour ago, but her husband sat on the floor, a baby in his arms, while also putting the finishing pieces to the puzzle for Brendan.

Eliza smiled down at her little family.

“Mackenzie already texted. She’s at my folks’ place.”

It wasn’t Christmas without her friends and their whole family together. Her parents often came to Westcliffe Heights to be with Greg and Marsha. It was a friendship that had started five years ago, and it had grown from strength to strength.

She moved toward her husband’s side, sitting next to him as Brendan clapped his hands.

“I did it, Daddy, I did it.”

“You sure did, son. Do you want to head upstairs, get changed? Mom promised milk and cookies.”

“Warm milk?” Brendan asked.

“Since when did I do anything but?” Eliza asked.

He gave the air a fist pump.

She smiled.

He was five years old, a bubble of fun, and so tiring at times. After Preston’s proposal, they had gotten married the day after his parents’ anniversary. Three months after that, she found out she was pregnant.

Preston had made it his mission to bring their lives to Westcliffe, and she was so pleased he had because being pregnant and surrounded by family had been a true gift. Her best friends still had their lives back in the city, and until they settled down, they had come to Westcliffe Heights. Now, they alternated between holidays going to each other’s prospective houses, enjoying the life they always wanted.

Laura gurgled in Preston’s arms.

“Fuck me, Eliza, I never knew I could be this happy,” he said.