Reaching to the night table, she unplugs her phone from charge, taps in her access pin and passes it over. I prop my head on the pillows as she sits up, watching as I open the app store.
Might as well start with a bang.
Once the app we use for group chats is installed, I set up Addie’s profile, then take my phone and open the Hayes group chat. The one with everyone in it, including our parents, who we added a couple of years ago.
“Ready to meet the family?” I ask, resting my back against the headboard and curving her into my side so she’ll fit into the inevitable FaceTimes.
With a deep breath for courage, she nods, eyes on the screen as I hold the phone out. With one tap, I get the ball rolling, my heart doing a strange cartwheel when a message appears:
Colt Hayes added Addie Soon-to-be-Hayes to the group chat.
The radio silence that ensues is so fucking gratifying. For the first time ever, they’re speechless. I see bubbles spreading, letting me know who saw the notification. One, two, five—twelve, but no one’s reacting. Ten, twenty, thirty seconds go by, and I wonder what’s going through their heads.
Twelve hours ago, I was venting, acting like the world fucking imploded, and now? Now we’re engaged.
Addie kept mentioning that big rock while I wrung orgasm upon orgasm out of her, and at some point, I thought...why the hell not?
She’s everything I ever wanted. It’s a crazy notion, getting engaged two weeks after meeting. Who the fuck does shit like this? People don’t get engaged so fast. It’s not how this is supposed to happen...
Then I remembered it doesn’t matter what people think.
This is my life.
Ourlife, and no one but us sets the rules. I’ve searched high and wide for the right person. I’ve been desperate to find my girl and put a ring on her for years, but never rushed into anything with the countless women I dated.
I wanted theclick. I wanted the real feeling.
And now I have it. I haveher.Mine. Always mine.
“Who’ll call first?” Addie asks, squeezing the life out of my fingers, her ring biting my flesh.
“Either Rose, Nico, or Vee.”
Another ten seconds pass, and Nico it is.
His face pops up onscreen, quiet, a little out-of-tune piano music in the background even though Mia’s sitting beside him. I guess it’s Melody. She’s been trying to play since she managed to climb the stool on her own.
Nico’s first sentence highlights why he’s the one I always looked up to growing up. Why he’s the one who took care of me, Colt, and Conor, and why he’s the one I can always count on without fail, even in the most mundane of things.
Family is the most important thing to Nico. It always has been, and he proves it when he opens his mouth.
“Welcome to the family, Addie. I take it you’re engaged.”
Addie wells up, her muscles relaxing, and I kiss her head, lifting her hand to show off what we agreed would be a temporary engagement ring. It’s plastic. Pink with a daisy on top. A novelty ring you win at the arcades. I didn’t win this one though. It’s been in a drawer downstairs since Melody left it here. It was the only ring I could find after midnight.
It’ll be one hell of a story to tell our kids as long as I leave out that I sauntered downstairs naked, and ate Addie’s pussy straight after she saidyes.
“Hey, Nico.” She waves at him. “Hey, Mia. It’s nice to finally see your faces.”
“Explain,” Theo demands as he and Thalia join the chat. “I don’t get it.”
“They’re engaged,” Thalia says, rolling her eyes. “Try and keep up, baby.” She turns to us with a bright smile. “You don’t waste time, do you?”
“Addie bullied me into proposing,” I aim for a scolded look, but there’s been a smile permanently glued to my face for hours that ruins the effect.
Cody joins the chat on his own, his wife still in Milan. “Well, aren’t you two quick!” he booms with a grin. “Hey there, soon-to-be-sis. Glad I knocked some sense into you last night. Also, I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I. Am. Fucking.GOOD.”
“Taking credit, are you?” Conor joins the conversation, the heads popping up on the screen getting smaller and smaller. “At least share it, alright? We were both there when they met.”
