“Seventeen houses. We saw three more yesterday.” I take a drink. “We made an offer on a brownstone in Lincoln Park. Four bedrooms, a garden, a kitchen that made Audrey gasp out loud. It’s not as big as my current place, but it’s?—”
“Yours.”
“Ours. That’s the point. These giant estates…” I look around at the giant lakeside monstrosity I barely even use and shrug. “They were never my thing.” I turn the bottle in my hands. “And the brownstone feels just right.”
“That’s great. I hope it works out for you.”
“Oh, it has. The sellers accepted this morning. We close in thirty days.”
David’s eyebrows rise. “And you’re just mentioning this now?”
“I was going to announce it tonight. After—” I gesture vaguely toward my pocket, where the ring box is currently burning a hole through the fabric.
“After you propose.”
“If she says yes.”
“Logan.” David fixes me with a look. “The woman just bought a house with you. A house with four bedrooms, which, for the record, suggests she’s thinking about more than just the two of you. She’s not going to say no.”
The statistical probability of acceptance is high, but?—
“Stop calculating.” David’s voice is firm but kind. “Just ask her. The rest will take care of itself.”
Easy for him to say. He’s not the one whose brain runs probability matrices on every possible outcome, including several that involve public humiliation and emergency evacuation protocols.
But he’s also not wrong.
This is happening. I’m proposing.
Tonight.
By the time we’re all crowded around the long table on the deck, I’m a bundle of nerves. Audrey’s family on one end, loud and overlapping, passing dishes without asking and arguing about whether the Cubs have a chance this year. Bennett and Layla are debating weekend getaway venues with Serena, whileDominic attempts to engage Jenna in conversation and receives monosyllabic responses for his trouble.
Caleb stands, tapping his glass, and the table gradually quiets.
“Before we get to the fireworks and the inevitable sugar coma from Layla’s pie?—”
“It’s award-winning pie,” Layla interjects.
“—award-winning pie, David and I have an announcement.”
David rises to join him, and something in their matching expressions makes the table go still.
“As most of you know, we’ve been talking for a while about making a change,” David says. “Doing something that actually matters, instead of just billing hours for corporations that don’t give a damn about anything except the bottom line.”
“So we’re doing it.” Caleb grins. “Kingsley & Kingsley. We’re opening a law firm together.”
The table erupts. Bennett is on his feet immediately, pulling both brothers into a hug that looks more like a tackle. Serena is crying—happy tears, she insists, wiping them away. Michaela pumps her fist and shouts something about ‘neep-o-sheep-em’.
“What’s neep-o-sheep-em?” Audrey asks me, and I shrug.
“Nepotism.” Serena leans in. “Michaela’s version. It’s a long story.”
Audrey sighs happily and rests her head on my shoulder. “I love this great big crazy family of ours.”
“They’re not technically?—”
“They’re family.” She squeezes my hand under the table. “Yours and mine. That’s how it works.”
