I lifted my head so I could meet her eyes. “Yeah, I want you to marry me. The U-Haul is optional.”
“Shouldn’t we date for a while longer first?” she asked.
It wasn’t the resounding yes I’d hoped for, but I knew she was way more cautious than I was. After all, we both knew it was her life that would be changing more than mine. It wasn’t like I could produce movies in Seattle. At least not that many of them. Although maybe now that I had my own production company, I could make that work.
“How about we have a long engagement?” I suggested.
“At least a year,” she countered.
“Done.”
“And I don’t want some big flashy ring. Nothing too expensive.”
She narrowed her eyes and gave me a stern frown to let me know she was serious. It made me even wetter than I already was.
“Of course not,” I said, already imagining having something custom designed for her, something simple but elegant.
“I know your work is here, but we have to spend time in Washington with my mother. There’s no way she’d come to L.A., not unless I held a gun to her head.”
“Done,” I said again. “In fact, I think we should get a place in Seattle, so we have somewhere to land when we’re in town. I’m hoping to do some filming there when things get rolling.”
She looked down at me, studying me carefully. “So we’re really doing this? We’re moving in together, merging our lives after knowing each other for less than six months?”
I didn’t even need to think about my answer.
“Yes we are. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
Her smile was so bright it made my breath catch in my throat.
“Great, that makes me happy.”
Thank God, because it made me happy too.
“I know how to make you even happier,” I said teasingly.
“How?”
“Come up here and sit on my face and I’ll show you.”
“You’re so romantic,” she laughed, even though we both knew she didn’t care about all that stuff.
“Real love isn’t just romance, it’s showing up for each other every day.”
Hailey looked at me suspiciously. “Did you just make that up? Or is that a line from one of your movies?”
I gave her a wink. “I’ll never tell.”
Epilogue – Hailey
Six months later…
“I’m so happy you girls chose to get married here in Ferndale.”
Mom slid her hand over my shoulder, smoothing the sleeve of my wedding dress. It was lacy and fitted, with elbow length sleeves and a skirt that flared out right above the knees. I’d known it was the perfect dress for me when I found it in a wedding resale store just outside of L.A.
Rick had been with me that day, and even the gruff bodyguard said it looked like it was made for me. Tori still couldn’t believe I’d only spent two hundred dollars on it. I didn’t want to know how much she spent on her dress. The few arguments we’d had were about money, but gradually we were meeting in the middle.I was learning to be less frugal, and she was learning to be less extravagant.
I’d been living with Tori for six months now, and I’d never been happier. At her publicist’s suggestion, not long after I moved in we had Oprah to the house. The woman had been so famous for so long that even I knew who Oprah was. We’d given her an exclusive interview about our relationship and Tori’s plan to retire from acting to focus on her new production company.
