“Not until I met you,” he replies.
“Good grief,” Katherine says. “Who are the two of you? What have you done with my feisty sister and my husband’s grumpy business partner?”
I shrug. “We fell in love, I guess.”
Katherine reaches for my hand. “I’m so happy for you. And I’m also happy for us, because we get to go on double dates, go on vacations together, live life ... the four of us.”
“Wanna move to New York?” I suggest.
“Wanna come to Boston?” Katherine asks.
“It’s not so far away,” Hunter says. “We should all go in on a beach house for the summers.”
“On Martha’s Vineyard,” Katherine and I chorus.
“That’s where we should get married,” Hunter says, his face full of possibility and hopefulness. “We should rent out that house again and get married where we first fell in love.”
“You’re so romantic,” I say. I narrow my eyes. “And did you just propose?”
“I thought I had already,” he says. “Are you in any doubt that there’s anyone else for me but you?”
I shake my head and try to bite back a grin. Hearing how he loves me still hits me right in the chest. I’m not sure that feeling of surprise and bliss will ever go away. At least, I hope it doesn’t.
“Me neither,” he says. “I’d like to take your last name, if that’s okay, and know we’re bound together in law as well as love. I want all of that with you. So will you marry me?”
Contentment unfurls through my body like internal sunshine, leaving me warm and satiated, and I smile at the man beside me whom I’m going to marry. So this is how good life can get. I really had no idea. I stare at him, his cheeks rosy, his hair deliciously ruffled. There’s not much for me to say. If he wants to marry me, my answer’s yes. Of course it is. “I’ll marry you on Martha’s Vineyard,” I say. “Or at the top of the Empire State Building, or out at sea. I’ll follow wherever you lead me.”
Hunter cups my head and presses his lips to mine. The familiar buzz is back, and I sink into him, wanting no space between us.
We end our kiss and press our foreheads together.
“Can we get some champagne?” Ed asks a passing waiter. “Our best friends just got engaged.”
We turn back to the table, linking our hands and fingers.
“I’m matron of honor, right?” Katherine asks.
I wince. “I mean, yeah, of course, there’s no one else. But I don’t want a big fancy wedding.” I turn to Hunter. “Unless you do?”
He shakes his head. “Just the four of us on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard works for me.”
I can’t think of anything better. Me in a white dress next to Hunter, pledging to love him for the rest of my life, with my sister and Hunter’s best friend right next to us. It’s all I need. I don’t need to be the perfect daughter. The perfect sister. The perfect employee. I just want to be the woman who loves Hunter, and the woman Hunter loves back.
Epilogue
Hunter
When Ed told me he hadn’t bought Katherine a wedding present, I knew exactly how to solve his problem.
“You think they’ll like it?” I take the three steps down from the porch and turn to face the property we just viewed. It’s September, but the house still feels like summer inside. Maybe it’s the big sky above us, or the ocean in front of us, but it feels kind of magical.
“I think we should show it to them first,” Ed says. “I don’t want to be making purchases like this without talking to my wife about it.”
“You’re totally right. They have to see it before we buy it. It’s going to be in all our names anyway.”
“Right,” Ed says. “I thought for a second there you were thinking we should buy it as a surprise.”
“I value my nuts,” I reply. “I’m not making financial decisions like this without speaking to Lucy.” My cell starts to ring. “Speaking of.”
