“Cross my heart.”
He puts me down carefully and reaches for his jeans, pulling them on. I watch him button them up.
Then he crosses to a spot under a single big oak at the edge of the field, where he’s stashed a basket and a folded blanket. He shakes the blanket out across the grass and waves me over.
I sit cross-legged in one corner. He sits opposite me, pulling a bottle of champagne out of the basket, and pops the cork in one fluid movement.
“Show-off,” I tell him.
“I’m just getting started.” He pours two glasses and hands me one. The bubbles climb up the side. “To us.”
“To us.”
He leans in and kisses me. Then we both drink.
He puts his glass down and reaches into the basket again. He pulls out a pizza box.
I clap my hands. “You got us pizza. I’m so happy. I thought you might bring out picnic food. Things like tiny cucumber sandwiches and little crackers with cream cheese and?—”
“No way.” He flips the lid open. “I know you too well for that.”
I gasp. “Bacon and pineapple. My all-time favorite. You remembered.”
“Of course I did.”
He plucks a slice out of the box, holds it up, and feeds me the first bite. I close my eyes and moan.
“That’s heaven,” I say around my food.
He takes the next bite from the same slice. Then he stops chewing, blinks, and stares at the slice like it just confessed something to him.
“Good, isn’t it?” I smile.
“So good.” He turns the slice over in his fingers, studying it. “I’m in shock, actually.” Then his face does something. A slow, sheepish smile that turns into something a lot more thoughtful. “Do you remember what you said about this particular pizza?”
I frown. “No. What did I say?”
“I ordered the pepperoni, and you said if I’d ordered bacon and pineapple, then…”
I burst out laughing as the memory surfaces. “You’d be marriage material. I did say that, didn’t I? No wonder you were ready to run a?—”
I stop talking because Ridge is holding up a small box.
A ring box.
He opens it.
I make a weird sound from the back of my throat.
“I know we agreed to date for a while.” He keeps his voice low and steady. “You haven’t even agreed to move in with me yet. But I love you, Robyn. I love you so much. I want you, I need you, I respect you, and I cherish you. Please, will you be my mate?”
I flap a hand at my own face because I am about to ugly cry, and I am trying very hard not to.
“I really need you to say yes,” Ridge says. “Please say yes.”
I look down at the ring.
It’s a pearl. Not a perfect, shiny round one, but a misshapen, lopsided, and absolutely beautiful pearl, set in a band of rose gold that catches the late afternoon light.
