“Hey, baby,” he says softly, reaching for my hands.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” I ask, looking at him here, in front of me instead of in Chicago.
“Well, you’ve been saying how much you miss everyone, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to get everyone together for our engagement party.”
“For ourwhat?” I ask. My forehead scrunches as I look around the room again. Everyone’s smiling, and I notice a videographer in the corner who wasn’t there before.
“Kayla…”
“Hmm?” I glance up at him, but he’s no longer there. My eyes travel downward to see him on one knee, smiling up at me, holding both of my hands in his. My mouth falls open as I finally realize what’s about to happen.
“Kayla, I know you don’t believe in love at first sight, but I think we can all agree that I was drawn to you from the first moment I laid eyes on you. You are my greatest adventure, the only one I want to explore the mundane and extraordinary aspects of life with. You make my world feel vibrant and new, just by being you, and I will forever cherish the love you have given me.”
Tears flow down my cheeks at his words, blurring my vision. I don’t wipe them away, needing to hold on tightly to both of his hands so I don’t fall over from the waves of emotion surging through me. My love—my blue pebble, the constant light in my often-stormy world—is pouring his heart out to me in front of everyone we care about, and I’m pretty sure I’m in shock.
He continues, “I love the life we’ve built, and if our life together never brings anything more than what we have right now, I will still be the happiest man in the universe because I have you.”
He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small black box. When he opens it, my breath hitches at the pink, pear-shaped morganite stone—haloed, set in a rose gold infinity band. “I love you with everything I have. Will you m?—”
“Yes! Of course!” I lean down, holding his face in my hands as I press my lips to his. I can’t see him through the tears, but I feel his smile against my mouth. He stands, lips still pressed to mine as he wraps one arm around my waist, holding the ring box in his other hand. When he pulls away, he reaches for my left hand and slides the ring on my finger, despite my trembling. It matches perfectly with my granny’s ring on my thumb. The tears slow, and the room erupts into cheers as everyoneawws.
“How did you pull this off?” I ask, looking around the room again.
Chase pulls me close, placing one more soft kiss on my lips. “Lots of late nights at work and frequent phone calls,” he admits, squinting an eye. “I had to use Trevor as the fall guy anytime someone called about this. Everyone helped in one way or another, and they all knew if I answered with, ‘Hey, Trev,’ they would need to give me a minute to make sure we weren’t in the same room.”
He’s talking fast, something he does when he’s trying to squash his nerves. “And that bakery, they almost refused to deliver boxes full of smashed cupcakes. Hunter had to go in there last night and offer them double just to convince them we wouldn’t leave them a bad review.”
“So Chicago was?—”
“All a ruse. I needed a good excuse for the planning meetings without you getting suspicious.”
“But… Joan. I’ve been talking to her for weeks. Phone calls, video chats…”
“Yeah…” He smirks. “Joanisone of Patti’s friends, but the only way I could make sure you had no idea about any of this was to make you the party planner. Ashlie gave Joan the details for colors and flowers, andyouhandled the rest.”
“And what if I would have said no?” I ask with a breathy laugh.
He shrugs, stroking my cheek. “Then we’d have a fancy party with our friends and family, and smashed cupcakes.”
“Oh God, I probably look like a mess!” I say, dabbing at my eyes. He grabs the handkerchief from his jacket and wipes the remaining black marks from my mascara.
“You look beautiful, baby.” Leaning in close, he nuzzles my nose before drawing me in with his lips. I move my hands to his shoulders, still half dazed he pulled all of this off flawlessly. He breaks our kiss, tilting his head as he looks at me. “If our moms shoot any more eye-daggers in my direction for keeping you tomyself, I don’t think I’ll make it to the wedding.” He laces his fingers with mine and pulls me with him toward the tables.
As we near them, I get a closer view of the scrolled font above the window. “That banner is so bad,” I whisper as we walk to the table where our family sits.
“I know…” He wrinkles his nose, nodding at our smiling mothers. “You can thank them for that. They wouldn’t let it go.”
