“What about all your travel plans?” I pressed down the corner of his jacket collar and gave him a teasing smile. “All that money saved up to travel.”
He shook his head, still holding the ring box between us. “Having you by my side will be the best adventure I could ever have.”
I wanted so much to speak. Every word, though, seemed to be stuck in my chest as I tried to take it all in. His look of hope began to look strained as I struggled to find the right words.
“Please say something,” he whispered with a nervous smile. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to have to resort to singing like the beast. And though I’ve seen the movie, I can guarantee you that it won’t sound anything like that.”
“Why?” I whispered. “Why are you so determined to have me?” I thought back to all those horrible things I’d said about and to him, and how cantankerous I’d been on purpose. The way I’d refused him at the ball. All the awful names I’d called him in the letters stashed in my desk drawer.
He got up on his knees and leaned toward me. “I have never,” he said, taking a lock of my hair between his fingers, “met anyone like you. I tease you about all your self-assigned duty, but the truth is that you’re determined to love those that others won’t. You love my sister like she was your own, and you nearly died proving it. You stoop to lift up the weak without a thought for yourself. And I can’t think of a better person to have by my side as I face this crazy world.”
“Are you proposing again Derrick Allen?” I asked.
“Are you accepting this time, Miss Nickleby?”
I laughed and nodded, tears rolling down my face again as he slid the rose gold ring onto my hand. It fit like it had been made for me.
“What do you think?” he asked, watching me with an intensity that reminded me of a tiger I’d once seen at the zoo.
“It’s perfect,” I whispered. Then I closed my eyes and shook my head. It was all too much. Too perfect, like the ending of a storybook.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, looking slightly alarmed.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you the first time.” I bit my lip. “I didn’t want to. I mean, I wanted to say yes! I really did. I just…I was so afraid…”
“I know.”
I looked at him. “You do?”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “You said so in your letters. Lots.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “How did you get my—”
He grinned wickedly. “Your mother gave them to me.”
“Oh no.” I lay back in the grass and covered my face with my hands. “She did not.”
“She did.”
I felt the sudden change in the air. It prickled with electricity, like someone was very near. When I peeked through my fingers, I found him leaning over me, his face inches from mine, one arm on each side of my head.
“I also know,” he said, bending until his lips were brushing my ear, and his body was only inches above mine, “that at one point at least, you wanted to have my babies.”
Was it possible for one’s blush to get stuck forever? Because I thought mine might.
He skimmed his nose down my cheek. “You know that can be arranged.”
I should say something. I knew I should. But it was difficult to think with him so close. Deliciously difficult. “You know,” I giggled breathlessly, “the pastor’s office is just across the parking lot. And he has a window.”
“Fantastic.” His breath was on my cheek now. “We can just ask him to marry us here and now.” He wriggled his eyebrows. “Then we can get started on those babies.”
I laughed as he gathered me up in his arms and pulled me tightly against his chest.
“You know what, Derrick Allen?”
“What?”
“I think that’s a fantastic idea.”
