Page 122 of A Really Bad Idea

My palms are held up high as I try to assess the situation. “It looks like you’re proposing. Anyone who looks over here at me standing and you down on one knee would assume you’re proposing. But you’re holding a penny. Oh God, are you not proposing? Because, right now, you are winning some kind of award for making me feel crazy.”

“Are you done being crazy?” he asks calmly.

“I think so,” I huff.

“Because I’d like to propose.” Christian looks up with a steadfast twinkle in his eye. “Meadow Duvane—”

“No.”

“No?”

I stomp my foot. “No, Christian. You can’t.” I run my hand over the back of my neck as I try to process what the hell is going through his head right now. “You can’t just come here and propose marriage with a penny.”

“Why not?” He looks up at me, confused. “Is it because I don’t have a ring? I do, if you’re wondering. It’s my grandmother’s. Three carats on a gold band. You can change the setting if you want.”

He’s incorrigible, completely beguiling, and I want to slap the smug smile off his face. Yes, he’s smiling. The bastard thinks this is funny.

“An hour ago, you said we couldn’t be friends, and now, you’re here. Doing this!” I let out an exasperated breath.

As muddled as I seem to be at the situation, he is taking it all in stride.

“For the record, I didn’t say we couldn’t be friends. I said that was the end of our friendship. And you’re the one who told me not to tell you I loved you.”

I nod slowly. “That sounds about right.”

“Believe me when I say, I didn’t plan on proposing like this. In my mind, it was with a romantic dinner and dancing. I’d have a ring in a box, but as you well know, life doesn’t go as planned.”

“Then, why are you doing this?”

“Because you don’t let me talk. I’m down here, on a knee, and I’m not getting up until you let me finish.” His tone is loud, and my heart jumps wildly in my chest.

I stand here, stone silent. He raises his brows and tilts his chin in temptation to make me speak. I don’t say a word. He takes that as his sign to continue.

“What you didn’t let me say earlier is that I am wildly, crazily, passionately in love with you. I don’t just love you. I live for you. I’m not saying it because you said it first. I’m telling you, I fell in love with you on a walk home from your school play. I fell harder during car rides and late-night talks. I found my soul mate over two decades of friendship. You’re the only woman I have ever and will ever love. I lost you once, and I will never lose you again. That’s why I’m not asking; I’m telling you. Marry me. Be my wife, the mother of my children, my soul mate, my whole heart, my last wish. Marry me, Meadow.” His tender gaze is accompanied with a hard swallow as he adds, “Will you marry me?”

“I thought you weren’t going to ask?”

He shrugs. “Call me a gentleman.”

And, just like that, I fall into his arms. My knees hit the pavement as I tumble into his embrace and kiss the man of my dreams with every bit of love in my body.

“Yes,” I whisper into him as he kisses me back, stealing my breath away. “Are you sure? This was very sudden.”

“Not for me. I’ve been dreaming about this my entire life.”

As the water trickles from the fountain behind us, we kiss for an eternity. He caresses my head and bends me back, his tongue stroking mine with an intensity that leaves me clinging to him.

“It won’t be easy,” he says with his hands on the sides of my face, holding me tight. “I won’t always be here—”

I grab his hands and kiss the lifeline on his palm. “Being a great surgeon is one of the things I love about you the most.”

My answer seems to please him immensely.

With a steady smile, he stands up, pulling me with him. “What else do you love about me?”

“That you’re my best friend.”

“Hate to break it to you, but we were never best friends.”