“I haven’t seen her since the press conference.” Ares offers. “She was doing an event with one of her sponsors, but she should have been done an hour ago.”
“I haven’t seen her either.” Lev muses. “Maybe she’s with John. But he knew we were planning to take her out to dinner to pop the question.”
Ares frowns. “Where could she be?”
The answer to his question comes one second later when all our phones ping with an alert.
Zara dropped us a pin.
“She isn’t very far from here.” I say, grabbing my key card and triple checking that the engagement ring we bought for our girl is still in my pocket. “I’m sure the limo driver won’t mind doing one stop on our way to dinner. Let’s go pick her up.”
A few minutes later, the black limo stops in front of a storefront.
“That looks like a tattoo parlor.” Lev says. “What in the world is Zee doing here?”
We ask the young guy at the front desk if he’s seen Zara, showing him a photo of her from my phone.
“Ah, yeah.” He smiles. “She’s on Midori’s tattoo table. She should be done. She asked me to take you to her if you got here before they were finished. Follow me.”
“The fuck?” Ares whispers, giving voice to the same thought that’s swirling around in my head. “Is Zara getting a new tattoo? Did she say anything to you guys?”
Lev shrugs. “Nope. I don’t know anything about her wanting a new tattoo.”
“Ditto.” I agree.
We get our answer when we enter the room where a gorgeous woman is wiping Zara’s lower back with an antiseptic wipe.
“Hey guys.” Zara looks at us over her shoulder. “You all look so handsome and your timing couldn’t be more perfect. I wanted to show you before she wraps it. Even though I didn’t add much to the only tattoo I have.”
We all look at her lower back.
“What did you add?” Ares asks, clearly perplexed.
“If anyone should know straight away, that’s you.” Zara says. “I’ve always regretted getting Cal’s name tattooed on me. The only saving grace is that it’s behind me, so I can’t see it unless I look in the mirror. Do you remember what you said to me the first time I stayed over at your place? On your birthday?”
Ares’s sheepish expression says that he probably doesn’t. “Not really.” He admits, rubbing the back of his neck. “Remind me?”
“When I told you that I wanted to get rid of it with laser, you said that it would be easier to turn ‘CAL’ into your initials ‘C.A.L.’ So I asked Midori to add two dots, one after the C and one after the L.”
Holy shit.
I can’t help but smile. “That’s really sweet, baby. I love that you have my name tattooed on you.”
Lev rolls his eyes. “It isn’t just your name. And it’s just each of our initials, but I love it too, Zee.”
She looks at Ares, suddenly nervous. “What about you, babe? Is it ok?”
Ares closes the distance between them, brushing his lips against hers. “Princess, that’s the sweetest thing someone has ever done. For me and for those two.”
“So you all love it?” Zara asks.
“We do.” We confirm.
Her smile widens. “I’m glad you do. Otherwise, I would have felt really stupid asking you to marry me.”
“Wait, what?” I gasp. “You’re asking us to marry you?”
She nods. “Yeah, and having your initials tattooed on me forever is my way to do it. Will you guys make me the luckiest woman on earth and marry me?”
