"I was going to wait," I said slowly. "I had this whole plan. Dinner at that Italian place you love, candlelight, the whole thing."
"Wait for what?"
My heart was pounding. This wasn't how I'd planned it. But maybe that was the point. Maybe the perfect moment wasn't some orchestrated event.
Maybe the perfect moment was just this. The two of us, in our kitchen, in the middle of our ordinary, extraordinary life.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring box.
Betty's eyes went wide.
"I've loved you for twelve years," I said. "Through everything. Through all the time apart, all the mistakes I made, all the years I spent watching you from a distance because I was too much of a coward to come back."
"Hudson."
"You're it for me, Betty. You always have been." I opened the box, revealing the ring. "I don't want to spend another day of my life wondering what if. I want to spend every day proving to you that I'm worthy of you. So..." I got down on one knee, right there on the kitchen floor. "Betty Ramirez, will you marry me?"
Tears were streaming down her face. She pressed her hands to her mouth, her whole body trembling.
"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, of course I'll marry you."
Relief and joy flooded through me so intensely I felt dizzy. I slid the ring onto her finger, then stood and pulled her into my arms, kissing her with everything I had.
"I love you," I said against her lips.
"I love you too." She pulled back, looking at the ring on her finger with wonder. "It's beautiful."
I'd spent ten years in the cold, watching her from a distance, telling myself I was doing the right thing by staying away.
I'd been an idiot.
Betty was mine. And I was hers.
Forever.
Epilogue: Betty
One year later.
The wedding was small.
Just the way I wanted it.
We got married in the garden behind The Flame, the place where everything had started. Layla was my maid of honor.Reeves stood as Hudson's best man. Marco and Jesse handled the bar, keeping the champagne flowing and the music playing.
Hudson cried when he saw me walk down the aisle. He took one look at me in my simple white dress, Layla's grandmother's lace veil on my head, and tears streamed down his face.
"You're so beautiful," he said when I reached him. "I can't believe you're really going to be my wife."
"Believe it," I said. "You're stuck with me now."
"Best news I've ever heard."
The ceremony was short and sweet. We wrote our own vows, stumbling over words that couldn't possibly capture everything we felt. When the officiant pronounced us husband and wife, Hudson kissed me so thoroughly that Marco had to whistle and yell "get a room" before we finally came up for air.
The reception was everything I'd dreamed of. Good food, good music, good people. I danced with Hudson until my feet hurt, then danced some more. Layla gave a speech that made me laugh and cry at the same time. Reeves told stories about Hudson that made him groan and hide his face in his hands.
It was perfect.
