Chapter 18 Home Is You #2
Daniel nodded.
"He had diagrams."
Alex looked slightly embarrassed.
"I may have prepared."
"You made construction plans for decorations," Emma teased.
"I wanted everything perfect."
Mrs. Harper walked over and hugged Jamie carefully.
"My dear."
She smiled warmly.
"You deserve every bit of happiness in this room."
Jamie looked around slowly.
The apartment felt filled with love.
Not expensive decorations.
Not elaborate displays.
Just memories.
The people who had stood beside them through every important moment.
His eyes settled on Alex.
Something about the way Alex looked at him made his heart begin racing again.
Emma suddenly clapped her hands.
"Okay."
"Everyone."
"Move back."
Marcus immediately grinned.
"Oh."
"It's happening."
Jamie looked around in confusion.
"What is?"
Nobody answered.
Instead, they all quietly stepped away, leaving the center of the living room empty.
Alex walked toward Jamie.
Very slowly.
His expression carried the same quiet certainty Jamie had seen the day Alex tore apart the relocation contract.
Jamie whispered nervously,
"Alex..."
Alex smiled.
"I've spent the last few weeks thinking about the future."
Jamie swallowed.
"So have I."
"I kept wondering when the right moment would be."
His voice remained calm.
"Then I realized something."
He laughed softly.
"Our lives have never waited for perfect timing."
Jamie smiled through nervous tears.
"That's true."
"We became friends because of a broken pipe."
"We fell in love while pretending not to."
"We're having a baby much sooner than either of us expected."
Jamie laughed.
"When you put it like that..."
Alex nodded.
"So I decided to stop waiting."
He reached into his jacket pocket.
Jamie's eyes widened.
"No..."
Alex slowly lowered himself onto one knee.
The apartment became completely silent.
Emma quietly wiped away tears.
Marcus wrapped an arm around Daniel.
Mrs. Harper smiled through shining eyes.
Alex looked up at Jamie with a smile filled with love.
"When I first moved next door..."
He laughed quietly.
"...I thought I was just renting an apartment."
Jamie covered his mouth.
"I had no idea I was moving toward the rest of my life."
Alex opened a small wooden ring box.
Inside rested a simple platinum band.
Elegant.
Timeless.
Exactly the kind of ring Jamie would love.
"You taught me that love isn't found in grand gestures."
"It's found in coffee before sunrise."
"In homemade soup."
"In grocery lists."
"In ordinary evenings that somehow become unforgettable."
Jamie's tears slipped freely down his cheeks.
Alex continued.
"You believed in my heart before I understood it myself."
"You loved me through every fear."
"You've filled every empty place in my life with warmth."
He smiled gently.
"And now..."
He looked briefly toward Jamie's stomach.
"...you've given me the greatest gift anyone ever could."
"Our family."
His voice grew even softer.
"I was offered the biggest promotion of my life."
Jamie nodded faintly.
"I know."
Alex shook his head.
"But titles disappear."
"Buildings eventually belong to someone else."
"Success changes."
He looked directly into Jamie's eyes.
"You don't."
"No promotion."
"No award."
"No amount of money..."
He smiled with complete certainty.
"...could ever compare to the life we've created together."
The apartment had become so quiet that Jamie could hear his own heartbeat.
Alex took a slow breath.
"So..."
He smiled.
"Jamie Flores."
"My best friend."
"The love of my life."
"The father of our child."
"Will you marry me?"
Jamie's answer never reached his lips.
Instead, tears overflowed so quickly that he could only nod.
Again.
And again.
Finally he managed one trembling word.
"Yes."
Alex laughed through tears of his own.
"I'll need a slightly louder answer."
Jamie laughed helplessly.
"Yes."
His voice broke.
"Yes."
"I'll marry you."
Alex slipped the ring onto Jamie's finger before standing and pulling him into the tightest embrace either of them had ever shared.
The apartment erupted into applause.
Emma openly sobbed.
"I knew this would happen."
Marcus laughed while pretending to wipe imaginary tears.
"I'm definitely not crying."
Daniel smiled.
"You absolutely are."
Mrs. Harper hugged both of them together.
"My beautiful boys."
She kissed Jamie's cheek.
"I've been waiting for this day since you first carried towels into that flooded apartment."
Everyone laughed.
The evening became a celebration.
Emma insisted on opening sparkling cider.
Marcus somehow convinced everyone to pose for engagement photographs.
Daniel promised to build custom bookshelves for Jamie's future cookbook collection.
Mrs. Harper quietly slipped a handwritten family pie recipe into Jamie's hands.
"For the next generation."
Jamie hugged her tightly.
"I'll treasure it."
Hours later, after everyone finally headed home, the apartment settled into peaceful silence once more.
Half-empty dessert plates remained scattered across the dining table.
Fairy lights still glowed softly around the living room.
Jamie wandered slowly through the apartment wearing his engagement ring.
Every time the light caught it, he smiled all over again.
Alex found him standing in the nursery doorway.
"You disappeared."
"I needed a minute."
Alex walked over and stood beside him.
Together they looked at the crib waiting patiently for the little life that would soon fill the room with laughter.
Jamie rested his head against Alex's shoulder.
"We're really doing this."
"We are."
"We're going to get married."
Alex smiled.
"We are."
"We're going to become parents."
"We are."
Jamie laughed softly.
"Our life became very exciting."
"It certainly did."
For a while they simply stood there, enjoying the quiet.
Alex gently slipped his arm around Jamie.
"You know..."
Jamie looked up.
"What?"
Alex smiled with unmistakable affection.
"I've been thinking about something."
Jamie laughed.
"You do that a lot."
"I do."
He gently brushed his thumb across Jamie's engagement ring.
"I used to think the best thing that ever happened to me was meeting my best friend."
Jamie's eyes softened.
"And now?"
Alex leaned forward until their foreheads touched.
"You stopped being my best friend a long time ago."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"You became my home."
Jamie's eyes filled with happy tears once more.
He answered the only way that felt right.
With a kiss.
A promise.
And the certainty that forever had already begun.
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