CHAPTER 10 DANNY
I waited until she needed to use the restroom while we were walking around the shops, and then I snuck back into the jewelry store.
It’s not what I wanted to get her, but on limited cash and resources, it’ll have to do. And the more I think about it, the more I can’t help but think this is what I want to get for her…for us.
It’s simple, just like today was. It’s a vivid reminder that when it really comes down to it, this love we have is all that matters. Not money. Not other people’s opinions. Not what other people want from us. Not big, fancy diamonds.
Could I spend half a million dollars on a bigger one?
Sure.
Do I need to?
No.
For what? Status? Fuck that.
The only status I care about is Alexis Bodega’s marital one.
I have a game plan, and the pressure is huge. The bases are loaded, and it’s the bottom of the ninth, and we’re down by three with two outs. I’m up to bat.
It’s a dream I’ve had since I was a kid—or maybe a nightmare, depending on what happens when the ball comes flying toward me at over ninety miles an hour.
I make a snap decision when I see it flying toward me, and tonight, I’m hoping for the grand slam.
When we arrive back home, we’re both tired from a day out in the fresh air by the sea, but the box I ordered is waiting for us by the front door. She glances at me with concerned brows as she spots it at the same time I do.
“Did you order something?” she asks.
“I did.”
“What is it?”
I lift a shoulder and raise my brows mysteriously. “Put on that black dress you got at Target,” I say.
She raises a questioning brow at me. She’s probably thinking how I’m asking her to put it on so I can do something nasty to her underneath it, and if she thinks that…well, she wouldn’t be wrong.
But the other part of it is that I want to dress up for this.
I brought a suit with me in case she decided to invite me to the wedding, and I know the dress is the only dress she has with her.
I don’t give her any hints as to what I’m thinking, and she goes up to the bedroom to change while I head up to the rooftop to unload the box and set up for my plan.
When I go back down to the bedroom to change my clothes, too, she’s still getting ready. She’s got the dress on, but she’s fixing her hair and make-up in the bathroom with the door open.
She didn’t need to fix a damn thing. She already looked perfect.
Everything is ready up on the rooftop. I just need to change, but I don’t want her to see me until we’re back upstairs, and I want to wait until the magical sunset hour.
I wait for her to finish getting ready, and when she emerges from the bathroom, I say, “We’re having a date night in tonight. Meet me up on the rooftop deck at four-forty-five.”
The sun sets early here in December, and I don’t want to miss it. Sunset is just before five o’clock, and we’ll be up there at just the right time.
It’s a little early for the dinner I had planned, so we’ll eat later. The food is up there keeping warm, the champagne has been poured, and the music plays softly in the background—all the things that were in the box waiting by the front door.
I thought about bacon and donuts and how to incorporate them into this moment. I thought about our time together and what we’ve been through, what would be meaningful and symbolic for us.
And ultimately I realized that what’s most meaningful for us is the simplicity and ease with which we handle our relationship. People say relationships are hard work, but it’s never hard with Alexis.
Well, my dick is. Always.
This thing between us is so effortless, so easy. The things that complicate it for us are always the outside forces trying to fight their way in.
But all we have to do is hold onto each other to fight all of them off.
And that is the root of the promise I plan to make to her today.
“I love these surprises from you,” she says, and she walks over to gently kiss my lips before she disappears.
Get ready for a lifetime of them, I think to myself.
I think over my plan.
There are a million ways to propose to the love of your life. Publicly. Privately. In front of family. Naked—obviously not in front of family in that case. On a scoreboard or Jumbotron. Spur of the moment. Planned. Unplanned. On the beach. On a rooftop.
I didn’t have a lot of time to plan this one, but we’re in this place that feels pretty damn perfect, and we’re alone—just as we have been for our entire courtship—and it just feels right.
That’s what tells me it is right.
I rehearse the things I want to say while I get dressed.
I feel oddly calm, another thing telling me how right this is. It’s like I already know her answer before I’ve even asked the question, and there’s something comforting in that.
She always deserved better than the marry me, not him speech. She always deserved a better promise than if you marry me, you won’t have to marry him.
And tonight…that’s what she will get.
She will get all of me, something she’s had since the moment we met, but something I will promise her now.
I glance at the clock, see I’m running out of time, and head upstairs.
I get down onto my knee, and then I wait.