My cheeks were already burning with embarrassment—everyone who’d been on Main Street had stopped what they were doing to watch us—but Harvey was right.
I’d asked for this.
“Iggyyyyy,” Harvey wailed like a cat having its tail stepped on, strumming the out-of-tune uke.
I thought maybe this was his version of singing.
“You know I can’t sing. But you’re the best thing—oh shit, that rhymes,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “Uh, that um… ever haaaapened to meeeee.”
Theo howled from the doorway, not daring to venture into the street alone after last time, but staring eagerly at Harvey, tail hitting the door frame as it wagged so fast it was nearly invisible.
“He’s a better singer than I am,” Harvey said, smiling shyly. “This is, uh, the spoken word interlude some songs have,” he added, still strumming the ukulele.
“I love you,” he said.
My knees went weak.
“Should’ve told you that a long time ago,” Harvey continued. “It’s always been you, Ig. It’s never been anyone else. I’ve been so slow to figure that out.”
I bit my lip.
Liam was right, Harvey was an idiot.
But he wasmyidiot.
And I loved him, too.
Harvey cleared his throat. “So I wanted to aaaask,” Harvey wailed again, Theo joining in with a tiny puppy howl at the end. “Can we get maaaaried?”
Wait.
Wait.
Harvey stopped playing.
The whole street went quiet.
Theo trotted over to Harvey, having apparently decided that the pavement couldn’t bethatunsafe if he was there. He sat at Harvey’s feet, begging for a pat, and Harvey crouched down to say hello to him.
But he kept glancing at me, uncertain.
“I was just thinking, I really liked being engaged to you,” Harvey told Theo, but I assumed it was meant for me. “We could keep doing that. We don’t actually have to get married. I mean, not anytime soon. Maybe one day?”
For the second time today, tears stung at my eyes.
“You’re not serious,” I said, voice breaking.
I wanted him to be serious.
“I can not be serious if you don’t want me to be serious,” Harvey replied, meeting my eyes. “If I’m wrong about this, tell me and I’ll go back to LA. But last week was the first time I ever felt like I was at home in my life. With you.”
Theo whined.
“And you, buddy. I love you, too,” Harvey said, bending down to let Theo lick a stripe up his cheek.
“I’m gonna pass out,” I said.
I wasn’t entirely joking, the world felt like it was spinning around me.
