Epilogue
Four Months Later
Vicente Fernandez sings about El Rey while my dad mans the grill and argues with my Uncle Carlos over technique. Both of them run off Joey every time he tries to get in on the grilling action too.
I smile as I sit beside Ava on the glider beneath my favorite oak tree in my parents’ yard, soaking up the perfection. It’s late afternoon and temperatures have begun dipping into the tolerable range for a couple of weeks. It’s the perfect weather to christen my parents’ new outdoor kitchen.
My mom’s rule is that every Ramos child must help prep dinner.
Once they’re coupled up, they can choose which partner is cooking.
The other partner is either supervising their kids, or, if kidless, they are setting the tables and checking on my abuela.
Usually, when Sami and Madison come, it’s Josh and Oliver who report for kitchen duty, but Mom insisted Sami and Madison were going to improve their kitchen skills today, so Josh and Oliver are playing cornhole.
Charlie is a competent cook, so he’s in the kitchen because he wants to be, unfazed among two of my brothers, one sister-in-law, and my roommates.
The tables are set. The scent of the char tells me the meat is done.
I love how familiar these smells, sounds, and rhythms are, and I hold them close to me because it will change fast. Sami has been sporting an engagement ring since Pixie Luna got back from tour at the end of the summer, and we’re all heading to Oklahoma in two months for Madison and Oliver’s real wedding on his family’s horse farm.
She’ll move out, and granted, they’ll only be down at Oliver’s place, but not forever. Maybe not even for long.
But they are right here right now, and I will treasure every one of these moments like Charlie’s customers hoard Jordans.
“Time to eat!” my dad calls, and the center of gravity shifts as people move toward the waiting tables in the yard.
We’ve found it’s better to go with two instead of one long one, and the kitchen crew comes out bearing bowls of salad, sides, baskets of bread, tortilla warmers, and anything else we could possibly need for each table.
Dad and Uncle Carlos have deigned to let Joey carry a platter of meat, which I’m sure is all they will allow him to do until he hits middle age, when then, maybe, possibly, he might be permitted to watch the grill for a few minutes at a time.
Everyone settles into chairs, and Charlie deposits the mango jicama salad he made in front of us and sits beside me, stretching his arm over the back of my seat and dropping a kiss on my hair.
There’s no seating hierarchy, so every Ramos family dinner means time with different cousins or siblings or in-laws, but I especially like the way our table has settled this evening. My parents are across from us, and all my roommates and the boys I gave them fill in the rest of the seats.
Once every dish has been passed and plate has been filled, Uncle Carlos offers grace, then we dig in as if we all haven’t been stealing bites as each delicious item made it to our plates. The next few minutes are full of everyone commenting on the food. I know each beat, and I love it.
“How did the first week of rock school go, Chuck?” Joey asks. He and Ava are sitting next to my mom.
“Tolerably well, Joseph,” Charlie answers.
“Doing any lab work yet?” Ava asks
“Yeah, actually. Fun with hydrochloric acid. I’ve checked my schedule twice to make sure I didn’t accidentally end up in a graduate chemistry lab.”
Ava smiles at him. “Free tutoring for my favorite geology nerd.”
“Thanks. I’m keeping up right now. Being a rock nerd is paying off so far.”
“It won’t stay that way,” she says. “Not trying to stress you out, but it’s going to get technical quick. Grad level science is brutal.”
Charlie only nods. “Everyone knows pressure creates diamonds. Speaking of which . . .”
He pushes back his chair and stands, but I’m still wondering how many times I’ll have to hear that corny joke, and it’s not until Madison gasps that I catch on that something is different. A sharp spike of adrenaline hits my veins, my gaze following everyone else’s to settle on him.
“Oh, whoa, y’all.” Charlie holds up his hands. “I don’t have any diamonds on me.”
A subdued laugh runs through the group, but disappointment curls through me. I hadn’t been expecting a proposal tonight. We’ll get engaged sooner than later, but not the first week of grad school. I have a feeling he might be planning for Thanksgiving.
Until he holds out a hand to me. “Ruby, would you stand up for a minute?”
I do, and a calm feeling soothing the jitters the adrenaline set off.
Charlie gets down one knee and produces a ring box, and now there are several gasps, including mine. My hands fly up to my mouth.
“You don’t give a diamond to a ruby,” he says as he opens the box.
Inside, a gold ring with a dark blue-green gem in a vintage oval cut gleams against velvet.
“Ruby, you already know I’ve loved you for a long time, but when I thought about how to ask you if you’ll let me love you for the rest our lives, I chose alexandrite. Do you remember what this means?”
I nod, and my throat feels too thick with happy tears to speak, but I get the words out anyway. “Peace, balance, transformation.”
“That’s what you give me. I’ll give you laughter, loyalty, undying support, adventures, comfort, babies, and happy memories, but not my heart, because you already have it. Will you marry me?”
My eyes haven’t left Charlie’s once. “Okay, Charlie.”
He slides the ring on my finger and stands to sweep me into a hug as our audience cheers.
Just for me, he murmurs, “Happily ever after starts now.”
I lean back enough to brush his hair from his eyes. “I’ve been living in that part of the story since Houston, Charlie Bucket. Are you ever going to catch up?”
And just as I hoped, Charlie rewards that bit of impudence with another kiss.
Get a FREE bonus chapter with a peek into Charlie and Ruby's happily-ever-after right here!
Still want more of the besties and their boys? How about full-length Betting on Love companion novel?
Everyone's favorite little sister, Katie, is forced to work with the guy who ruined high school for her to save her family from public humiliation in front of Austin's social elite.
Jump three years into the future with Dropping the Ball and catch up with what Sami, Ava, Madison and Ruby are up to along the way.
(Madison gets some of her funniest lines in her sister's book. Isn't that just like sisters?)