“Oh, I love it. These pictures are all really sweet. I didn’t even know you kept them.”
“I guess I didn’t quite let go of us as much as I thought I had. Thank goodness.”
Finally, she enters the living room, and her hands clap against her mouth in shock. She drinks in the candles, the home-cooked dinner, the fairy lights twinkling around the room. She drops her shopping bags on the ground and runs her eyes curiously up and down me, drinking in the suit I’m wearing.
“Have I forgotten something? What is all of this? What’s going on here?”
I dig into my pocket and curl my fingers around the small square box inside there. I pull it out and take a step closer to her. She gasps loudly as I drop to one knee in front of her.
“I know this is a bit quick, Jodi, and I understand if you don’t want this, but for me, it feels right. We’re about to start this family, and I want to do it in the right way, I really do. Plus, I already know that I want to be with you forever. I think I’ve known that from the very first moment I laid eyes on you. You made my heart skip a beat then, and you still do now. I love you more than anything in the world. I want you to be mine.”
“I already am yours,” she whispers emotionally through her tears. “And you’re mine.”
“And now I want to make it official.” I pop open the box and show her the princess-cut diamond ring. “So what do you say? Will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife?”
“You’re serious?” A single tear rolls down her cheek. “You actually want to marry me?”
“Of course I do! I wouldn’t have arranged all this, I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t. I want to grow old with you, to have a life with you. You, me, and the baby. I really think we can have the happiest existence ever. I see us growing old together in a farmhouse somewhere in the countryside. We’ll have more kids running around our feet, grandchildren one day, a dog perhaps, but through it all, you and I will always be in love.”
“You think about that stuff? Like, the future and things?”
“I do. I think about it a lot. I really do want a future with you, Jodi.”
She leans down as far as she can, her bump getting in the way, and she cups my cheeks. “I want that too, all of it. I would love nothing more than to be your wife, Brock. You make me so freaking happy.”
I rise to my feet and wrap my arms around her, kissing her as I do. She holds out her finger to me, and I slide the ring over it, loving how snugly it fits. It’s destined . . . we really are perfect together.
“So when are we going to get married?” she murmurs against me, her breath tickling my mouth as she does. “We’ll have to do it quickly if you want to be hitched before our baby is born.”
“Oh yeah? One minute you want to t
ake things slow, and the next you’re dragging me down the aisle?”
She pinches my side playfully. “Well, I don’t see you complaining about it!”
“Yeah, that’s true. I’m definitely not. I would marry you tonight if I could.”
“What about tomorrow?” She sways her hips coyly. “We could go to one of the adorable chapels they have here. It isn’t exactly like we have no choice in Vegas, is it? It’s wedding central.”
“You would do that? You don’t want to have a big fancy ceremony with all the trimmings?”
“No, that isn’t me. You know that isn’t me. I don’t want all attention on me. I just want to have a lovely wedding, just me and you. Millie and Josh, too, if they want to come along.”
I remember my last wedding. It wasn’t the fanciest then because we couldn’t afford it, but we stretched our budget, spent way too much, made it a massive affair, and it crashed and burned anyway. This is so much better. Just us, declaring our love for one another, solidifying our relationship forever.
“Tomorrow it is then.” I smile widely at her. “I suppose this is my last night of freedom.”
“It sure is. How do you want to spend it? Drinking with strippers? Hanging out and getting wasted?”
“Hmm, that sounds really tempting.” I stroke my chin. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do.”
“Okay, yeah, and I might go and watch that famous show of male strippers. I hear it’s good . . .”
“Or . . . we could just stay here, eat this dinner, then cuddle up in bed with a movie?”
“Hmm . . . you know what, that sounds good too. Let’s go for that one. Domesticated bliss. Sounds perfect.”
“You know what? It does to me too. Practice for the rest of our wonderful lives.”