Epilogue
SEPTEMBER
FRANKIE
“You’ve honestly never been in a football stadium before?” Prince Oliver asks as he takes his seat next to me in the Boston Commoners owners’ box and hands me a beer.
Seriously, never going to get used to having a member of the British royal family bring me a drink. Nor will I find it easy to drop the “Prince” like he’s asked me to. “Prince Oliver” is all I’ve ever heard him referred to as my whole life.
“Football, yes,” I say. “Soccer, no.”
“Oh, I meant soccer,” Oliver says. “Sorry. Even though I’ve lived in the US for a few years, I still sometimes forget that it’s confusing when I call it football. Doesn’t help that our head coach is English too and totally refuses to say soccer.”
I could listen to Oliver talk all day. Not only is his accent spectacular, he has brains, banter and is instantly likeable.
It’s baffling that he doesn’t have a girlfriend, but Miller says he’s been burned so many times with women selling their stories to the press or with the paparazzi hounding them so much that they can’t take it, that he’s kept to himself since he left the UK.
Grandpa turns around in his front-row seat and holds up his beer to tap against mine.
“Cheers, Frankie.” He smiles like an excited kid.
He has a whole fresh lease on life now he has new knees, a renovated home, and, of course, love to put a spring in his step. It’s like he’s about twenty years younger.
“And Elsie,” I add.
She and Grandpa let go of each other’s hands, for what feels like the first time since we picked her up this morning, so she can offer me her wine glass.
“Cheers, sweetie,” she says. “Thank you so much for inviting us.”
“Wouldn’t be a true day out without you both.” Miller takes his seat on the other side of me, hooking his arm around the back of my chair and kissing my temple.
The touch of his lips anywhere on my body never fails to send a ripple of goose bumps down my side. And I’m pretty confident that will never end.
“Such a lovely evening for it,” Elsie says, looking up at the clear, darkening sky over the stadium.
“Here we go,” Miller says. He and Oliver get to their feet on either side of me.
I rise to join them as the crowd erupts in cheers to welcome the Boston Commoners and tonight’s opponents from Nashville as they jog onto the field.
The ref blows the whistle for halftime, and we all stand to applaud the Commoners’ one-nil lead.
“Now do you see why I bought into this place?” Miller’s face is lit up, energized from cheering on the team he’s followed since he was a kid. There’s also a slight edge of nervous worry behind his eyes that maybe they won’t hold on to their lead.
“Totally get it.” I rub his lower back just above the waistband of his jeans. “The atmosphere is more like a gathering of close friends than a huge sports event.”
It’s true. I’ve been in the stadium for less than two hours, and everyone I’ve bumped into has smiled and said hello. And not just because I’m with one of the owners. Before the game, I got lost looking for the restroom, and the person who helped me would have had no idea who my boyfriend is.
Boyfriend.
Just thinking that word flips my belly.
It wasn’t that long ago that I’d thought I’d spend the rest of my life in Chicago, or maybe New York City if a great job opportunity came up there, grinding on the corporate treadmill, thinking every promotion was more validation than the last, that every extra hour I worked made me a better person.
I never imagined my life would come full circle, right back to where I was happiest as a kid—Warm Springs.
That I would spend my days in overalls and muck boots rather than business suits and high heels, dealing with sore hooves instead of sore egos, and enjoying the laughter on a child’s face when they get their first donkey ride rather than monitoring the scowls around a boardroom table.
“Ha, look!” Oliver nudges me and points at the jumbotron.
“Oh, no.” I drop my head into my hands at the sight of Miller and me on the kiss cam.
The crowd roars.
“Let’s be good sports,” Miller says. “It’ll make everyone smile.”
I raise my eyes to the ceiling with amused resignation.
He takes my face in both hands and rests his lips against mine. Gently at first, then increasing the pressure until my eyes close and I almost forget where we are.
The wolf whistles rebounding around the stadium remind me that our faces are currently ten feet tall for thousands of people to see.
I pull back and look into Miller’s eyes. “That’s probably enough.”
“Thing is,” he says. “I really don’t think it is.”
I open my mouth to ask him what he’s talking about, but no words come out because…
Miller’s dropped to one knee.
If the stadium had a roof, the crowd would have just blown it off.
Behind me, Oliver shouts, “Fuck, yeah!” and whistles so loudly I flinch.
Everything in my peripheral vision blurs.
All I can see is Miller looking up at me and taking my hands.
My heart races with a mix of excitement and embarrassment, my stomach somersaults, and the unreality of the situation makes my head swim.
Of course we’ve talked about spending the rest of our lives together and probably getting married someday. But we decided to wait until the house is built and we are able to actually live together.
Two weeks ago, we crossed that milestone and have finally unpacked and gotten everything the way we want it.
As Miller promised, it’s my dream home. I couldn’t wish for more.
And the fact it’s right next door to the sanctuary and I get to help Grandpa and make donkey videos every day for our social media is an unbelievable gift.
But whenever Miller was going to propose, I’d never have expected him to go down on one knee. And even if I had, I wouldn’t have expected him to do it in front of thousands of people. I’d imagined him rolling over one morning in bed, kissing me, and saying, “Let’s get married.”
Who is this Miller who’s going for a grand public display of a proposal?
“I love you so much.” His voice snaps me out of my swirling shock. “So much that I love you doesn’t cover it. It isn’t a big enough thing to say.” A rhythmic clap breaks out in the crowd, and everyone around us in the owners’ box joins in.
I take my right hand from Miller and rest it on my chest to try to calm my out-of-control heart and force myself to actually breathe because right now it feels like there’s a non-zero chance of me passing out.
The overwhelm of the shock, the surprise, the surroundings, grips my throat and builds pressure behind my eyes.
“But…” Miller’s still talking, and I absorb myself in his words, steady myself on them like they are a raft that will keep me afloat. “Would you please spend the rest of your life with me and marry me?”
And I’m wiping tears from my face. Tears I didn’t even realize had fallen. And nodding because there’s a lumpy rock around my vocal cords that I can’t squeeze any words past.
Obviously the nods are enough for the crowd because they erupt again and there’s some sort of fanfare through the sound system, and Miller stands up, taking a box from his pocket. A tiny wooden box with gold hinges.
He opens it toward me to reveal a wooden engagement ring. It’s exactly the shape of a solitaire diamond, but it’s one hundred percent smooth, deep brown wood. And it’s fucking beautiful.
“We’ll get a real one,” he says. “This is just for now.”
“You made it?” are the first words I’m able to squeak out.
“Of course,” he says.
I offer him my hand and he slides it onto my finger. The warmth of the wood is better than any cold metal would feel right now. It’s like it wraps itself around me. And I know that for the rest of my life I will treasure this even more than whatever sparkly one we choose.
Suddenly the crowd explodes again and Oliver shouts, “Whoa!”
I turn to the screen to see its focus has shifted. But not far. Just to the row in front of us, where Grandpa is now on bended knee looking up at Elsie, who’s still in her seat.
“Get up, get up,” she says through clenched teeth while tugging on his arm. “Don’t steal their thunder.”
“No thunder to steal.” Miller puts his arm around me and draws me close to his side. “Go for it, Sam.”
I glance up at the kiss cam, and it’s still on them.
A chant gathers pace in the crowd, and it takes me a moment to realize they’re shouting say yes, say yes, say yes.
I’m willing Elsie to grant them their wish. She’s perfect for Grandpa. I haven’t seen him this happy in years. And the way she looks at him makes it clear she feels the same way.
I turn my attention from the screen back to the real people right in front of me.
“Elsie.” Grandpa takes her hand and kisses the back of it.
She immediately covers her face with the other and dissolves into giggles.
“You light up my life in a way I never imagined would ever happen again. Will you please say you’ll marry me before one of my new knees gives out?”
“Oh, get up. Yes, of course I’ll marry you. But get up, get up.” She tugs on his hand to encourage him to his feet.
He leans in to kiss her, and the crowd goes wild.
“A double proposal in the owners’ box today,” the announcer’s voice booms from the sound system. “That’s a first.”
Somewhere in the crowd, what sounds like a mini brass band strikes up “Here Comes the Bride” and the spectators start singing along.
“Oh my God.” Elsie turns to us, her face pink. “Can you believe it?”
I crouch and lean down to give her a big hug. “I’m so happy for you both. You are perfect together. Just hope you like donkeys.”
“Oh, I made sure of that first,” Grandpa says. “That would have been a deal-breaker.”
“Did you both plan this?” I ask Miller.
“I planned mine.” He’s full of pride. “Had to coordinate with the kiss cam guy.”
“And I just got swept up in the moment.” Grandpa kisses Elsie’s hand again. “Because life is way too short to not get on with it.”
They both have smiling eyes that are glossy with happiness.