Our eyes meet across the crowd. She rolls them when she sees me blow a kiss from across the room, but there’s a smile tugging at her lips she doesn’t even try to hide.
That smile? It undoes me.
I juggle two mistletoe balls in hand, and she shakes her head, but I’m already moving toward her. When I reach her, she grabs one of the balls, and I wrap an arm around her waist and kiss her temple, breathing her in. She smells like caramel coffee.
“You look proud,” I say.
“I am.” She leans into me just a little. “We pulled it off again.”
“We?” I grin. “Are you finally admitting this was a joint effort?”
She lifts her clipboard and flashes the top sheet.Holiday Gala 2.0 Danny Love Approved.
I let out a laugh. “Color-coded chaos. That’s our brand now.”
“You say chaos like it’snotcharming.”
“You’re finally admitting it.” I kiss her again, slower this time. “I say it because I’m lucky you let me in.”
She looks up at me, and something in her gaze softens. There is less fire, less defense and more of, just her.
“It’s not luck,” she says. “You told me you’d show up, and you have every day since the last gala, and it’s not just been with jokes or chaos. You’ve been here with all of it. And it’s all I wanted. It’s all I still want. Forever.”
Well, if I couldn’t say it better myself. That’s when I reach into my back pocket.
Her eyes go wide. “What did you do?”
I grin. “Something you’d normally hate if we haven’t already been talking about it.”
“Danny.”
I put my hand up. “Just relax. I made a plan.” She groans already, but I keep going. “Plus, I had help. Your sister may or may not have organized a binder for me with a proposal timeline.”
Sadie covers her face with one hand, laughing into her palm. “Proposal? I thought we said we’d just go to the Justice of the Peace?”
“We did say that, but I have to make sure you’ll show up. That’s what this is for.”
I open the box, and she gasps. It’s a simple gold band with an oval-cut diamond. There’s nothing outrageous or showy about it. It simply states, I’ll love you forever, no matter what we face.
“Say yes,” I say quietly. “Make your next calendar color white. Let me spend every season driving you just the right kind of crazy.”
Her eyes are glassy now, but it’s not from fear or fromnothaving a plan. This is our plan, on our timeline, and we’re making our own schedule now. It’s a surprise, but not really, and it’s simply Sadie, when she finally lets go of the plan and trusts the moment.
She nods, her voice thick. “Yes. Yes!” She jumps up once, before wrapping herself around my waist. “Does this mean I can plan the wedding?”
I grin, my heart damn near splitting in two as I slip that ring on her finger. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” And just like that, I know this was always the endgame. Not perfect, not planned, not really anyway. But just how it’s supposed to be.
Color-coded chaos. Forever.
THE END
