When he pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket, one of the tears blurring her vision broke free and rolled down her cheek. And when he got down on one knee, a few more followed. He lifted the lid and nestled in the box she saw a shimmering ring with a central diamond nestled down between two bands set with smaller stones. It was gorgeous.
“I know I already bought you one of these, but that one was always hanging up in your work gloves. This won’t catch on the leather or twist around too much.” He tilted his head up to look at her. “This whole month was crazy, with all the pretending, but somewhere along the way it stopped being a lie.”
“Did you go getting ideas about me, Sean Kowalski?”
“I did, and it was one hell of an idea, too. I love you, Emma. I think, deep down, that’s what I wanted to write on that blank sticky note I left on the mirror, but I wasn’t ready yet. I’m ready now. I love you and I want you to marry me. For real.”
Words were flying around in her head, but she couldn’t seem to get them into any kind of coherent thought. “I don’t…I…are you sure?”
“I’m wearing a pink shirt.”
“I love you, too,” she said, because that seemed like the most important thing to get out there. “And I want to marry you. For real.”
He slid the ring on to her finger and then stood up so he could kiss her breathless. As a little girl she’d imagined she would shed pretty, feminine tears during this moment, but she was too damn happy to cry.
“I was thinking,” he said when he was through kissing her, “that if I do some odd-job carpentry, like that deck remodel, and you do your landscaping, maybe we could coordinate our work so we wouldn’t have to wait too long to have kids. We could switch off days, maybe.”
“That sounds perfect. But will it make you happy?”
“It will.” He kissed her again and a happy sigh escaped her lips when it hit her she was going to get to kiss this man for the rest of her life. “But most importantly, you make me happy.”
She threw her arms around his neck and—just to be different—she kissed him this time. And then she reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out the blank sticky note. It was a little tattered now, but she held it out to him.
“Wondering what you were going to say has been killing me.”
He took it from her and then pulled out a pen that said Jasper’s Bar & Grille from his back pocket. I love you, he wrote and then he stuck it to the front of her shirt.
“So you won’t ever doubt it,” he said in a husky voice.
“Let’s go inside and get started on this for real thing we having going on.” She took his hand and tugged him toward the door. “And, because I love you, I’ll start by stripping you out of that pink shirt.”
Don’t miss Exclusively Yours, Undeniably Yours, and more books featuring the Kowalskis from Carina Press!
About the Author
Shannon Stacey married her Prince Charming in 1993 and is the proud mother of two incredible sons. She lives in New England, where her two favorite activities are trying to stay warm and writing stories of happily ever after. And while her two cats refuse to curl up on her lap and keep it warm while she writes, her Shih Tzu is never far away.