“Okay, you get credit for the pages I read when I searched your apartment the first time. I won’t read any more.” I hand it back to her and she stuffs it under the cushions.
Then she looks up at me.
“I thought you said you hadn’t read anything about yourself.”
I shrug. “I might have fibbed. A little. Because you were embarrassed, and I figured it would be even worse if you knew what I’d read.”
Her cheeks turn pink. “So you already read everything?”
“Not everything. But enough to know you never stopped thinking about me.”
“Oh.”
“But here’s the thing.” I twirl a lock of her hair as I stare into her beautiful blue eyes. “If I’d kept a diary, it would’ve been filled with my fantasies about you. So even though I didn’t because I couldn’t, where it counts—” I pat my chest, “—it’s all there.”
Her eyes burn into mine. “I love you, Ace. I always have.”
“I love you too, baby. And I always have as well.”
“Will you marry me?” She claps a hand over her mouth, as if she didn’t mean to say that out loud, but I just cock my head.
“You sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes.”
“I’m currently unemployed.”
“I have a good job.”
“I don’t know where we’re going to end up or what I’m going to want to do once the novelty of being retired wears off.”
“I already told you I don’t care as long as you love me.”
“I might need to do a little spy work once in a while.”
“I might need to do some tutoring once in a while then.”
“Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”
“I have.”
“Then yes, I absolutely will.”
“And you’ll make a baby with me?”
“Yup.”
“Two?”
“Maybe.” I’m teasing her, and she knows it.
We grin at each other, and she wraps her arms around my neck. “Ace?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“You can read my diary. I have nothing to hide from you.”
“And that’s why I don’t have to. I already know everything I need to know.”
