“Yeah, you do.” I lean back in my chair. “Want to tell me what happened?”
He does, and I roar with more laughter as he admits to giving Jester the jar of peanut butter.
“You jackass. There’s a squirt bottle right there on the counter. That’s all you have to do and he’ll leave it alone.”
“I didn’t know!”
“You didn’task.”
“You were asleep.”
I grin. “How’dthatwork for you?”
“Not very well,” he grumbles.
I take pity on him. “It’s all cleaned up?”
“Yeah, it’s all cleaned up. Sorry about that.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who had to clean it up.”
Our gazes lock and he cracks first. A soft giggle, echoed by me, that builds and grows until we’re both howling with laughter.
I point at my phone once I can finally talk again. “I got pictures of the floor.”
He snickers. “Yeah, I took a couple of him, too, before I bathed him.” He shakes his head. “Not exactly how I planned to wow you this morning.”
I grin. “I guarantee you, I willneverforget this morning.” I stand and he stands with me, and that’s when I show him my left hand.
What I’m wearing on it.
His smile fades as his gaze widens. “Really?”
“Really.” I hold up the other ring. “Any man who’s willing to own up to his messes and try to clean them up the way you are deserves a chance.” I take his left hand and slide the ring onto his finger. “I love you.”
He grabs me and kisses me and, for a moment, the rest of the world disappears. “Love you, too, babe. So much.”
* * * *
The next week passes in a blur. We’re not going to set a wedding date just yet, but we’re going to wear our rings.
For now, that’s enough for me. I know we need to do this the smart way and set up everything in a prenup first, draw up our wills, all of that. We drive down to Miami on Thursday, because he wants to be at the office first thing Friday morning to clear out his office.
I know Desi isn’t looking forward to breaking the news to his parents. Mostly the news about him leaving the firm and leaving Miami. Ironically, the news about him marrying me isn’t what he’s worried about, because at least they’re not homophobic bigots.
They’re just very…classist, I guess?
I always sensed his mom resented me. Before all of this, I didn’t realize how much of that was due to the fact that she wants to live vicariously through her son’s achievements. I mean, it takes the wind out of her sails if she feel she needs to hide the fact that he walked away from a job making a lot of money to return to a quiet small town, restart his practice there, and settle down with the man he loves.
That’s not very flashy, to be sure. Not when she’s got friends whose children are doing amazing things all over the globe in a wide variety of activities both personal and professional.
Desi wants to pack up the condo and get the truck loaded before telling her. So we can get out of town quickly once it’s done. I hope that timeline works for him, except I have a feeling Freddy might still spill the beans to Desi’s parents before Desi’s ready to deal with them. That was one wet-hen angry dude when he left my house. According to Desi, Freddy’s supposed to be terminated from the firm today. Once that occurs, who knows what’ll happen with the guy?
Don’t feel sorry for Freddy one bit, either. Desi’smine.
Thank god.
Desi’s arranged for a real estate agent to meet us at the condo Friday morning after we return from clearing out his office, so she can take pictures before we start packing and making a mess. Our goal is to leave Miami on Monday morning at the latest. We might be able to leave Sunday, depending how fast we can complete the packing.
