“Oh no you don’t.” She tries to shoo me away. “I’ve got work to do, and if we’re in bed together long enough, you know exactly what’s going to happen.”
I don’t budge. Instead, I play my role as best as I can while racked with nerves. “First of all, you’re not supposed to be working on our vacation.”
“The intern said he needs help finalizing the clips to use for this week’s segment of Hot Mic. It shouldn’t take me more than ten minutes. Twenty tops,” she promises.
I sigh. “All right, then maybe I can help you so we can get back to our vacation festivities.”
She quirks a brow my way but doesn’t insist on me moving. Thank God.
“Hmm, that’s weird,” she says as she types.
“What is?” I’m scared she might be able to hear my heart attempting to beat out of my chest.
“The attachment. It’s usually a couple audio clips I can play right from the email, but instead it’s a link to open a much larger file.”
I stay quiet, not trusting my acting skills at the moment.
Her face is set in concentration as she continues to type on her keyboard. Then she presses play.
“Raise the volume,” I all but shout before clearing my throat. “So I can hear and help you out.”
She doesn’t pay any mind to my sudden outburst as she does as I ask, and we wait in silence for a few moments.
“This must be wrong. I don’t hear anything—wait, there’s live transcripts on these?”
Her head tilts. “Wait, is that us? Why did they send me—”
“Keep listening, Daze.” My stare must communicate more than I intended, because she goes stock still before maxing out the volume.
I pull the ring box out from under my pillow and slide off the bed. Bringing myself down to one knee, I open it. My recording continues to play as Daisy places both hands on her cheeks.
Tears silently stream down her face as she stares at me, then the ring, in awe. “Luke, is this really happening right now?”
I nod. “Yes, and surprisingly enough, I still have more to say.”
We both laugh, breaking the tension that built while we listened intently to my mic recordings. She scoots down the bed, sitting on the edge where I’m currently waiting for her on bended knee.
I take the ring out of the box and take her left hand in mine. “For so long, I battled with the fact that I no longer wanted to bejustyour friend.” She smiles. “When in reality, I wanted to be your verybestone.”
She sniffles as I continue. “The person you walk down the aisle to and raise children with. The one to hold your hand when life undoubtedly throws us a few curveballs. Instead of friendship bracelets, we’ll have rings… or tattoos.” I smirk as she shakes her head. “We’ll share secrets and a last name. Our life will be one everlasting sleepover. And when the real world gets too crazy, we can run away together to our secret haven. The place where the rest of the world ceases to exist.”
She hiccups and giggles through her tears. I need to wrap this up before we’re both in the same boat. “Daisy, not only do I want to be your forever best friend,” I lean down and kiss her bare ring finger, “but I want to be your husband. I want to be your family. So, I’ll ask you today, like I ask you every day. What do you want, Daisy? Think you wanna do forever with a grizzly grump like me?” I blink away the tears so I don’t miss the beautiful sight before me.
She wipes her cheeks with her free hand and takes a deep breath. “I want to be your wife, Luke. I want to be the mother of your children, and I want to see you become the best father on the planet. I want a small wedding with our closest friends and family. And I want to start forever as soon as possible with you as my husband.”
I slip the ring onto her finger before my trembling fingers dare drop it, and we both stare at how right it looks on her hand. Then I haul her onto my bent knee and kiss her deeply.
“I love you. Can’t believe you’re wearing my ring on your finger.” I kiss her smiling lips.
“I love you. So freaking much. I can’t believe you pulled that off! That must have been so hard to do, pulling all those recordings, getting the transcripts, working with someone from my team—”
She’s rambling, listing off a few of the many steps I had to take to get this done right. Of course she’d be concerned about the logistics when she’s usually the one taking care of everyone else. But she’s going to have to get used to it, because I plan on spending the rest of my life taking care of her.
I hold her face in my hands and gently pull her focus away from the laptop on her bed as she continues to rattle off the details of my proposal. “Hard? Daisy, I’m only going to say this once, so pay attention.” She straightens on my lap. “There are things we can’t control in life. We will be tested in more waysthan one. Whether it has to do with work, our past traumas, or simply our day-to-day life.” I scan her face and look deeply into the eyes I get to call my home for the rest of eternity. “Being away from you is hard. Talking about my past is painful. But loving you? It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever had the privilege of doing. And it’s been an honor to stand by your side as your boyfriend. But as your husband? Just you wait and see what life has in store for us, because something tells me that it’s gonna be good.”
EPILOGUE
FALL
