“Hurry, take the pic.”
“Okay, okay.”
I set Quinn down on the floor in front of the tree, Chip at her feet, and quickly snapped a few shots before she twisted and grabbed an ornament.
“Get that too. An outtake.” Billy’s laughter filled the room, and it was the most beautiful sound ever. I did as Billy said, before she swept in and picked up Quinn. “My sweet baby girl, your first Christmas as a real person. And it’s snowing!”
“Last year she was a screaming, eating, pooping machine,” I added.
“Ha!”
The snow was piling up outside, and I was glad the food service had dropped off everything Billy needed. Despite it being the holidays, I knew how important showing up to set at her best meant to her. “Next year in Hawaii?”
“No way. We need to get our tree every year, Cal,” Billy rebutted, scooping up Quinn, looking at me like I’d committed a cardinal sin. “I’m going to tuck her in. Will you send a pic to Frank? So he sees what he missed.” She quickly added the last bit, nuzzling our daughter.
I laughed. Frank had removed himself from Christmas decorating duty since the time Billy kept him up all night at Ford’s and I’d broken her heart.
He did have an errand to run for me earlier today, and while I shot off the text, I walked downstairs to my office and grabbed what he picked up for me.
Then I quickly went and poured Billy a glass of wine and met her in front of the tree. She stood there marveling at the sparkling lights, ethereal in her wonder.
“To a hard day’s work and the most gorgeously decorated house in all the land.”
“Where’s yours?” Billy noted only one drink.
“I’ll get it in one minute… Come here. Sit.” I guided her back to the love seat. “You look beautiful,” I quickly added, and she did in her black leggings and green cashmere sweater. Her hair fell down her shoulders, and with no makeup she was the most stunning woman I’d ever known.
“What’s going on?”
“Take a sip of your wine. You deserve it.” She played along and I sank to my knees in front of her. “Willa.”
“Callum.”
“I love you.”
“I love you back, and not just because you’re my baby daddy.”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. I’ve been patient enough.” I watched her swallow and think about interrupting, her brow furrowed. “Take another sip.”
I waited and she did.
“It’s time I made an honest couple out of us, Bill. I’ve been in love with you since we kissed on the golf course.”
“You once said since I sat in your office.”
“Okay, since then. Maybe before then.”
She looked at me, her fingers grazing my cheek.
“I can’t love you or anyone else more than I already do. Well, maybe Quinn, but she’s all of us…the best parts of us. I want to be with you now and always. Academy Award aside, you’re brilliant and radiant and the most incredible mom, and I want—no,needyou to be my wife. Please? Don’t make me keep asking or wondering…”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a six-carat emerald-cut diamond on a platinum band encrusted in pink diamonds—the opposite of her earrings.
“Marry me, Willa Conway?”
A tear ran down her cheek. “What about when I’m not a celebrity anymore? Or fit and gorgeous? When I’m wrinkled and don’t work anymore?”
“All the better for me. I want all of you, celebrity or not. Wrinkled and old, playing canasta maybe. All of it for the rest of our lives.”
