Chapter 48
forty-eight
Georgia
My head snaps up as the doorbell chime echoes down the hallway. “That’s her!” I hop off the stool in front of my makeup table, smoothing my hair as I hurry down the steps—but not before Cash can beat me to the front door.
“Let me, sweetheart.”
“Oh no, you don’t. I get the first hug.” Fighting for space in the foyer, we both lunge forward, and I laugh as Cash throws up an arm to block me. But just before his hand closes around the doorknob, he steps back.
“Forgot how feisty you could be when you really want something.”
“Don’t make that mistake again.” I smooth my hair down once more before pulling open the door with a big smile.
“There’s my dear!” Aunt Maggie holds out two shaky arms for a hug, light glinting off the lily brooch at her chest. It presses against me as I step out onto the porch for her familiar, violet-scented embrace, and I know she feels the press of my own.
A couple weeks ago, I’d found Julie’s matching brooch in a forgotten jewelry box in the attic, and I returned Maggie’s to its rightful owner.
“Thank you for making the trip out,” I say as she pats my back. “I know it’s a long drive.”
“I wouldn’t think of missing the big send-off.” She releases me and peers past my shoulder. “Now, where’s Handsome?”
“Don’t you worry, Miss Maggie.” Cash appears from behind the door.
“You think I’d leave the guest of honor hanging?
Get your pretty self inside.” He extends a hand to Maggie to help her over the threshold, then bends to hug her.
The sight is as heartwarming as it is comical, tiny Maggie in the arms of muscled Cash with well over a foot of height on her.
Maggie’s smile mirrors the one from the old photos of her as a young brunette with mischief in her eyes. “You’re the guest of honor, dear.”
Cash straightens up. “Not in my book. Come on, let’s get you a drink and a comfortable seat.”
“A comfortable seat next to me,” I say to their retreating backs. Cash, one arm around my aunt, glances at me over his shoulder and winks.
Lately, Maggie is the only thing Cash and I argue over; specifically, who loves her more.
Cash lost his grandparents so young he barely remembers them, and there must have been a hole in his heart.
He completely adores Aunt Maggie, and the feeling is mutual.
Not only does she find him funny, charming, and handsome, turns out she’s been a football fan since her husband turned her onto the game during their retirement.
Who knew my boyfriend would be her perfect match?
“Georgia!” Harmony appears on the porch, a huge covered casserole dish in her hands. “Jeez, did my mom make it inside already?”
“The lady can move when she sees something she wants.” I take the casserole and set it on the side table before hugging Harmony. “You guys are so sweet to spend your Saturday with us.”
“Are you kidding? This is the highlight of Mom’s summer—not exaggerating.
” She glances toward the driveway at the sound of car doors slamming.
Lorenzo, deeply tanned and with his tattooed arms on display, walks around to the passenger side of his car just as Cam steps out of his parked truck.
Harmony looks back at me with one brow arched. “Might be mine too.”
Mr. Jangles picks her way across the brick terrace past bare legs, sandaled feet, and clusters of balloons printed with NFL team logos, pausing here and there for cheek scratches.
She’s mostly an indoor cat, but since she and I officially became roommates back in June, she’s enjoyed excursions onto the back patio with me, where she’ll find a sun-warmed patch of bricks and stretch out.
The big Victorian is technically Cash’s now, but I still live here and will for at least another year.
I’m working for the university, as of three weeks ago, and am taking my time researching job options in Dallas.
Cash’s dad cranks open the umbrella over the patio table to protect Aunt Maggie from the July sun, while Cash slides a glass of lemonade and a bottle of beer in front of her.
“Talk about a man who’s in it for the long haul,” Jade tells me as she helps me arrange plates and cups on a folding table. “I think you can expect the royal treatment when you get to be an old lady.”
“Seriously.” Ruby appears behind us, balancing a giant white-frosted sheet cake dotted with sugar ornaments of footballs and green icing grass.
“Didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness Cash Hartnell be soft, sweet, and deferential, but here we are.
” She settles the cake onto the table and winks at me. “A good woman can perform miracles.”
Maisy arrives minutes later, and she, Amy, and I get to work pulling fruit trays and dips out of the fridge, arranging charcuterie boards, pouring chips into bowls, and carrying meat and sliced vegetables out to the grill, where Cam and Reeve fight for domination.
With the food set up outside, I move from group to group, chatting, offering drinks, and accepting compliments on the party.
It’s an exhausting task that I partake in happily.
With most of our friends already settled in new towns and new jobs and the rest of the guests traveling from outside Shafer, I want time with every single one of them before we all go our separate ways.
I’m carrying out a fresh pitcher of lemonade and a plate of fruit kebabs when, from his seat at the table, Cash catches me around the waist. “Sit down, baby. Just enjoy.”
I relent and ease down next to him, happy to stop buzzing around and take it all in. “Maisy, how’s it been living under your parents’ roof again?” I ask when she pulls out a chair next to her brother.
She glances over both shoulders until she locates her parents safely out of earshot on the other side of the patio.
“Not bad. They’ve accepted hiring outside help is a necessary evil, and Dad’s recovered really well from surgery.
But they still think me coming home for good is a matter of when, not if. ”
“To which you just smile and nod?”
She and Cash share a covert smile. “I won’t claim voices are never raised, but we’re working through it.”
“Glad that’s not my problem.” Cash winks, covering Maisy’s hand with his. “Now, I say we cut the cake. Georgia, you have matches inside?”
“For what?”
“The candles, of course.”
“It’s a going-away party, not a birthday.”
“No man in his right mind would give up a chance to make a free wish. So go scare up some matches for us, lovely.”
I do as I’m told, savoring the air-conditioned silence in the kitchen. I’m pulling open the junk drawer on the island when I see it: a folded sheet of notebook paper with my name scrawled on it in black ink. It’s set atop a large white box, and it’s unmistakable who it’s from.
I unfold the paper, smiling before I’ve read the words.
Will you wear my jersey? Check one:
Yes
No
Maybe
PS: You never answered. Do you like me?
I laugh to myself. He always did want to see me in his jersey. Anticipation stirs inside me as I pull the ribbon off the white box. Guess I want to wear it too.
The glass door slides open behind me as I lift the lid off. “You found your gift.” Cash’s hands settle on my waist as I push the tissue paper aside and lift out an oversized jersey, bright white with blue trim and a blue number seven splashed on the front.
“Ooh, this is exciting! It finally feels real, doesn’t it?”
He chuckles. “Felt pretty real when I was sweating it out at training camp. But yeah, it’s for real.”
“Did you want me to wear it now?”
“Yes.” His voice is soft. “Check it out, though, make sure there are no mistakes. I had it customized for you.”
“And here I thought you’d want me wearing your name across my body.” I flip the jersey around to find the letters on the back—and my heart stops at what I see:
MRS. HARTNELL
“I do,” Cash says, but his voice isn’t right behind me anymore. I whip around, heart pounding. He’s down on one knee, a ring poised between his fingers. It’s real. This is actually happening.
“Oh god,” I whisper, the only words I can summon.
He nods. “I’m really doing this, sweet Georgia. I want you to be my wife.”
I must look like a fish out of water because all I do is open and close my mouth, lost for words.
“I know. Nobody else would get down on one knee after seven months together, but nobody else has you. Nobody has ever understood what it feels like to look across the room, to hear your voice for the first time and know life will never look the same. Nobody else knows how it feels to kiss you and realize I might continue breathing when this kiss ends, but I’ll never feel alive until I kiss you again. ”
I whisper his name, my hands covering my mouth in disbelief.
“Nobody knows what it’s like to be loved by you and to know I might want more in life, but I’ll never need anything more than that love.
We’ve been told a hundred different ways we’re too much or too soon or not right together, and we’ve proved the world wrong every time.
I was always meant for you, and I don’t want to wait any longer for the one thing I know is right in this world. ”
Tears stream down my cheeks, my head spinning because it’s all true. It’s so much, it’s so fast, and it’s so right. But when you’ve waited your entire life for someone to look at you with the devotion that gleams in Cash’s eyes, the word no doesn’t exist.
“So. Do I get a yes?” Still on his knees, Cash looks adorably hopeful.
“Is there a box I need to check, or can I just say yes?”
“Please just say it so I can breathe again, honey.”
“Yes, Cash,” I say shakily. “I’ll be your wife.”
His smile is the warmest, happiest thing I’ve ever seen, and in a moment I never thought I’d live to see, he’s speechless as he takes my hand in his and slides the ring onto my waiting finger.
Then he’s on his feet, pulling me into his arms and off the ground and whispering against my lips.
“I love you, Georgia. I told you the first time I came here that I’m your man, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never forget how much I mean those words. ”
“I know you will.”
When my tears have dried, Cash slides the door open, and the noise of the party screeches to a halt. I crane my neck to peek around Cash’s shoulder, and I’m met by every eye on the patio staring at us and questioning.
Reeve finally breaks the silence. “Well?”
Cash steps out onto the deck, pulling me close, and grins. “You motherfuckers really thought she could say no to me?”
All eyes flick to me in my jersey, and screams erupt from the girls and cheers and hoots from the boys as Mr. Jangles flees for the safety of the house, her ears pinned.
“Wait, you knew?” I turn to Cash, my jaw dropping. “They knew?”
“Course they knew! You really think I’ve ever successfully kept a secret in my life?”
Ruby approaches with a cake in hand, this time a small round one with swirls and rosettes of white frosting and the word engaged in simple script in Tiffany blue.
When she smiles, tears glimmer in her eyes, and from there starts the chain reaction: Suddenly I’m crying, and then so is Amy, then Jade and Lenni, Harmony and Maggie, and I swear some of the men take pains to avert their eyes so nobody can see the tears that might or might not be forming.
The cakes are cut and passed around, glasses of champagne poured and raised in impromptu toasts, and the girls gather around to admire my ring.
Only then, as the shock finally wears off, do I stop to actually look at my new jewelry.
It’s a gorgeous emerald-cut stone set in a platinum band with a halo of tiny baguette diamonds, and Maggie, with a knowing smile, informs me it once belonged to her own mother, who’d saved it all her life for Aunt Julie, her oldest daughter.
As the party winds down, our friends insist Cash and I take it easy while they clean up.
We sit on the bench under the shade of the shagbark hickory, and Jangles leaps into Cash’s lap to curl up for a nap.
Shifting sunlight filters down onto our bare legs as warm air rustles the branches above us, the breeze enough to take the edge off the humidity.
As Jangles kneads at Cash’s lap, he looks down at her and smiles. “Looks like baby girl wants you to see my next surprise.”
Her paws have pulled back his shorts an inch, revealing a narrow line of black ink on his skin. “What did you—” Tugging the fabric higher, I gasp. He’s tattooed a big heart onto his upper thigh, our names written inside it.
“Told you I would,” he murmurs.
He did, back on the night it all began. Tears blur my vision as I admire the tattoo and then the face of the man who’s going to be mine forever. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is,” he says, stroking a finger over my lips.
“When did you even do this?”
“The sole advantage of being away from you the last few weeks was the opportunity to be sneaky.”
“You got a tattoo during minicamp?”
“After it was over. I’ve been planning it for months but wanted to do it when I wasn’t in the middle of intense workouts.”
I smile. “You always have something up your sleeve, don’t you?” With a deep sigh, I twist to wrap my arms around his neck and settle against him. “Any more surprises I should know about?”
“I think I’ve worn your nerves out enough for one day.”
When everyone’s gone inside, Cash takes my newly bedazzled hand and examines it.
“It’s stunning,” I say as the diamonds catch in the light. “I bet you just loved having a little secret with Maggie behind my back.”
“Can’t deny that. I’ve probably edged you out as favorite relative.”
“Hey, until we’re married, you’re not family,” I tease.
Cash sighs, looking wounded.
“Oh, Cash, I was kidding!”
He looks forlornly down at his lap. “No, it’s not that.”
“What’s wrong?”
“There is one question I’m still kinda worried about.”
“What question?”
“The original one. You’ve left me hanging for months now.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Do you like me?” He looks up at me, biting his lip dramatically as though he’s waiting with bated breath.
I laugh. “Well, that one I’m still considering. But I know for certain I need you, I love you, and I want to be with you forever and ever.”
He exhales in relief, and I know as he pulls me close, he’s not acting anymore. “And you know by now nothing matters more to me than what you want. Nothing ever will.”