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“Miss Martin. Would you do me the honor of a dance?”
“The honor is mine, Mr. Haven.”
He looked to someone else in the crowd and nodded. A new song began. He stepped back and bowed. I curtsied. He moved closer, putting one hand around the small of my back and took my hand in the other.
“I don’t actually know how to do the right kind of dance. I tried researching but it was surprisingly confusing.”
“That’s okay,” I said as we moved to the music, waltz-style. “This is lovely.”
He led me in gentle, sweeping circles. A few people around us joined the fun. It wasn’t the coordinated cotillion or Scotch reel of a regency ball, but it left me giddy nonetheless. Zachary was so handsome, so dashing, such a gentleman.
The man of my dreams, indeed.
“Are you having a good birthday?” he asked as another song began. We kept right on dancing.
“The best ever.”
He smiled. “Good. I thought you’d like this.”
“You?” I narrowed my eyes. “I’ve been under the impression this was Annika or Audrey’s idea. But it wasn’t them, was it? It was you.”
“Guilty.”
“You rogue.”
“Guilty there too. I also have a little confession.”
“Besides being secretly behind my party?”
He nodded. “This isn’t actually a birthday party.”
“Then what is it?”
He stopped dancing right in the middle of the song. His eyes didn’t leave mine as he slowly lowered himself to one knee.
The guests around me faded away as Zachary produced a ring from an inside pocket. My eyes widened and I gasped as I recognized what was happening.
“Marigold, I love you more than anything. You’re the kindest, most beautiful, most compassionate, most amazing woman I’ve ever known. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
I nodded, trying to get the word out around the lump in my throat. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
With that brain-melting, sexy grin, he rose and took my hand. The crowd erupted in applause as he slid the ring onto my finger. Then he drew me close, placed a knuckle beneath my chin to lift my face to his, and kissed me.
I melted in his arms. He picked me up off my feet and twirled me around. I couldn’t tell if I was laughing or crying. Probably a bit of both.
Finally, he set me down and kissed me again.
“You orchestrated this whole thing so you could propose?” I asked.
“Your birthday was a good excuse. I wasn’t sure how else I was going to pull off a regency costume party without making you suspicious.”
I held out my hand to stare in awe at the dazzling vintage-style halo with an emerald cut center diamond set in a rose gold band. “I had no idea.”
“I told you I was going to marry you.”
I met his eyes. My heart felt like it could burst right out of my chest. I loved him so much. After everything we’d been through, it had been him all along. I was going to be Mrs. Zachary Haven. And I couldn’t imagine a better happily ever after than that.
Epilogue
