What? WHAT!
She stared at him unable to comprehend what he’d just—
“Did you propose?”
He grinned. “Yeah, I did. Pretty cool, huh?” He held up a perfect, sparkling diamond ring.
She looked from him to the ring, waiting for the punch line. About two seconds later she realized that he’d not only asked the question, he’d meant it. On the day when she felt like the world’s biggest failure, the man of her dreams had proposed.
“But I’m unformed clay,” she told him. “I don’t have a life plan or know what I’m supposed to be doing, and it’s possible my mom and I are codependent.”
“I know, and we’ll figure it out together.” He smiled at her. “I love you, Shannon, and I’m totally fine with your mom. Cindy’s great.” He waved the ring. “Did you want to comment on my taste in jewelry?”
“Oh my God!” She flung herself at him and kissed him, then drew back and snatched the gorgeous solitaire from his fingers. “Yes. Of course I’ll marry you!” She slid the ring into place where it winked up at her. “It’s perfect.”
And so was he, she thought dreamily as they kissed again. Okay, sure, she didn’t know exactly what came next, but maybe that was okay. Maybe she and Aaron would figure it out together.
The kiss got a little hotter. Still keeping her against him, Aaron moved toward the front door and carefully locked it.
She laughed. “Seriously? On the desk?”
He grinned. “It won’t be the first time.”
“Nor the last.” She started unbuttoning her blouse, then stopped and looked at him. “We can’t tell anyone.”
“That we had sex on my desk? I agree.”
“About the engagement. Not for a while.”
She thought he would ask why, but instead he grinned at her. “Because Cindy’s getting married in a few months, and if she knows about us, she’s going to want a double wedding?”
The man knew her mother, she thought with gratitude. “Exactly. I draw the line at matching wedding gowns and a shared experience.”
“I promise, I won’t say a word.”
2
Victoria kept her eyes closed as her father navigated his way through Bel Air. She’d been given a shot of painkiller before being discharged, but even with the drug coursing through her, she still felt every bump in the road. Her body ached worse than it had, and the swelling had yet to hit its peak, so there was more pain to come. She really did have to spend some time rethinking her career choice, she told herself, trying not to wince as the small SUV turned a corner and her body swayed with the movement.
“We’re nearly there,” her father told her, his voice concerned.
“I’m fine.” A lie told in what she hoped was a cheerful tone.
“I wish that was true. All right, last turn.”
She knew better than to brace herself. Tightening her muscles would only make her ribs hurt more. So she relaxed and just went with it, wishing she were already in her bed and drifting off to sleep. Of course that would mean being in the house with her mother, so maybe the car ride wasn’t so bad after all.
“We’re here.”
She opened her eyes and saw the familiar three-story estate that was her parents’ house. It was slightly pretentious, meticulously kept and befitting a senior executive at a major motion picture studio and his elegant and wealthy wife. As this was Bel Air, no one worried about having “too much.” Not thather parents had been interested in keeping up with others or even impressing them. Milton and Ava simply lived their lives. Other people would gossip without anyone encouraging them, her mother had always said. So why worry about it?
When she’d been a kid, that gem of wisdom had usually been part of a conversation that included instructions for her to sit up straight and do better in her classes. These days it was accompanied by a sigh as Ava struggled to reconcile what she’d always wanted her daughter to be with who her daughter had become.
As if she had the ability to sense when things were going to happen before they actually did, Ava was already standing on the wide front porch at the far side of the circular driveway.
“I can feel the disapproval from here,” Victoria murmured.
“Stop! Your mother’s been worried about you. We both have. No one likes to be told that their child is in the hospital.”
