She carried the baby to the window and gazed out, pushing the balcony door open for a better view of the tropical landscape. In the slight breeze off the water, the palm trees wavered left and right. Later, she thought, she would go on a long walk out there, hand in hand with the man who still made her mind unravel with nerves.
“Ah, but you’re wrong, Rosie,” Hakan said, laughing from behind her. “It is I, and all of Zaymari, who have lucked into you. Can you imagine who I would have had to marry, if you hadn’t come along in your cute-as-heck maid’s outfit and proven me wrong?”
Rosie giggled, gazing at her baby. He yanked at her red hair and she yanked it back, feeling the sting of it. “You were betrothed, is that what you’re telling me? Did I break something up?”
“Naw,” Hakan said. “But you should have seen the line of suitors. All of them beautiful. And all of them with exactly one eyebrow traced across their face.”
“Just the unibrow. It’s kind of like a shield from the sun,” Rosie said, laughing.
“Like sunglasses?”
“Exactly,” she said.
She tapped her finger between her own eyebrows, grateful that she’d plucked that final hair the previous day, before she’d boarded the plane. She remembered how stark that hair had looked in the sink on her last day in that apartment, the place in which she’d planned to raise her son alone.
“Now. I think I want to start the press release in a kind of specific way,” Hakan said.
“Well, you’re the media guru,” Rosie said, using his words. Outside, she could see a group of children near the water, splashing and creating castles in the sand.
“I am, which is why I present the following as the introduction,” Hakan said, clearing his throat. “Are you ready?”
Rosie rolled her eyes, giggling. “Sure. I’m ready when you are.”
“I think it should start, ’Citizens of Zaymari. Sheikh Hakan and his new fiancée would like to announce…’”
He paused, allowing the air to fill with tension. “You know. Something like that.”
Rosie laughed. Fiancée? Her heart rallied in her chest, but she told herself to calm down. Of course, Hakan was joking.
She shook her head and cooed to her baby: “Did you hear what your daddy accidentally called me? Isn’t he acting silly?”
But then, all at once, she felt a presence behind her. “Hakan?” she whispered. Suddenly, she felt that she couldn’t get enough air. She blinked wildly and spun around, gazing down at the floor.
Hakan was kneeling before her on one knee, those dark eyes flashing with devilish charm. In his hands, he held a tiny box. And on the inside of that box, a stunning, antique ring shone brightly in the setting sunlight.
“Hakan…” Rosie whispered. She shook her head, biting her lip. She hadn’t expected this. She’d barely dared to dream about it.
But Hakan began speaking, then. “Rosie. Two years ago, something wonderful happened to us both. I nearly hit you with my car.”
Rosie rolled her eyes, suppressing laughter. She felt tears brimming in her eyes.
“And after that, we began a great journey to find one another again. And now I can’t imagine my life without you. You, me, and Zak—we couldn’t be more handsome together, could we? Will you marry me, Rosie?”
His smile was almost too much for her to bear. Through tears, she began nodding, wiping at her eyes. “Of course I want to marry you,” she cried. “I want to marry you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
Hakan rose and wrapped his strong arms around the both of them, kissing her firmly on the mouth.
Rosie’s tears swept onto her cheeks, and then Hakan, too, was crying, opening his mouth and tracing his tongue over hers. Her passion for him riled high in her chest, and she clung to him and their baby, wondering how, in this great world, she could have gotten so lucky.
The End