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“She’s got the lungs for it,” Talia mused.
“Hopefully she got them from Piper, not you.” Walker chortled. The twins were adopted and had no blood relation to any of them, but the adoption jokes were frequent fliers in Piper’s family. Last year, Carter had sat down for Thanksgiving and dramatically declared, “I think it’s time to address the elephant in the room.” Then he paused for a long while before delivering his punchline of “I think I’m adopted,” to which Pearl replied by gasping loudly and slapping her hand over her mouth before saying, “If you’re adopted, then what am I?” The only response they received was a few eyerolls before everyone continued stuffing their faces with turkey.
“Mi amor, I’m gonna go check in with Emma, Sam, and Elliot, if that’s all right with you?” Leo ran a hand down Piper’s spine, and she smiled at him with a nod.
“Of course. It’s your party. Have fun.”
“You, too.” Talia nudged Walker’s arm. “I’ll watch the girls. Go bask in the glory.”
“I’m just gonna go find Roscoe,” Walker scoffed and bent down first to kiss Paisley’s forehead then Talia’s cheek before he wandered away.
“Bask in it!” Talia called after him.
“No,” Walker singsonged back. The idea of Walker taking praise from anyone was laughable. Even after he’d hit The New York Times Best Seller list for his recent book release, he still barely acknowledged his considerable amounts of success. Leo had somehow convinced him to throw this party in the first place, and Piper wasn’t sure how, other than through some sort of bribery.
“Stubborn man.” Talia shook her head.
“Maybe you get your stubbornness from your dad,” Piper cooed to Paisley. Paisley smiled up at her, and Piper figured that was as good of an answer as she was going to get. For the time being, her baby cousins were satiating her baby fever, but she couldn’t help but look down at the tiny bundle of joy and, sometimes, fury in her arms and want that for herself. With Leo. At some point in the future.
“I know that look.” Talia smiled. “That’s a wistful look if I ever saw one.”
“Yeah, I’m just…” Piper shrugged, trying to look indifferent. “I’m not in a hurry, but now that the movie is finally done, I can’t help thinking about what’s next. I know Leo’s already got another project lined up, but…”
“You want him to ask you to marry him?” Talia guessed.
Piper nodded. “I mean, our hotel room at the film festival was so romantic, I kinda thought…”
“We barely got to be in our hotel room while we were there. That would have been a terrible place to propose, Piper,” Leo’s voice said from behind her. Piper’s face went beet red. Talia grinned and shot her a wink before snatching Paisley from her grasp and walking away.
“I didn’t mean—I mean, obviously, we can get married whenever you’re ready, and if that’s later, that’s totally fine.” Her blush was still going strong as she met Leo’s eyes in mortification.
“I love it when your face does that,” he whispered and reached up to touch her cheek. “I need to make a thank-you toast. Will you come stand with me?”
“Of course.” Piper smiled and let him guide her to the open area behind the couches in front of a long table of hors d’oeuvres and champagne flutes. Leo grabbed a flute filled with sparkling cider and handed it to Piper before grabbing his own. Then he picked up the only metal spoon on the table. She had the brief thought that he must have really planned out this speech if he had planted a spoon on the table before he tapped metal against glass and the sound rang out, alerting the living room.
Leo cleared his throat like he was nervous, which was silly considering this was a congratulations party. He had already won. “Thank you all so much for joining us to celebrate our Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award.” A few hollers from the crowd had Piper beaming. “There are just a few people I’d like to thank before we celebrate. To Walker.” Leo turned toward Walker and Talia, cradling both their daughters in their arms and standing beside the Winstons. “You wrote something that had me immediately inspired. That had my best friend annoying me with his constant commentary.”
“Woo!” Sam shouted from the back.
“Without you, The Dating Brigade wouldn’t have existed at all, nor would there have been so many bids for the distribution rights.” Walker raised his glass in a salute. “To Sam and Emma.” Leo smiled at their friends. “You brought Landon and Cora to life, and I’m forever grateful for your talent. And to Elliot, for all of your engineering and prop work on this project.” Elliot smiled from beside Emma, who leaned into his shoulder as he bent to kiss the top of her head.
“To Alejandro Moreno.” Piper watched Leo scan the crowd before she found Moreno and his wife on the other side of the room and pointed them out. The hand on Piper’s back brushed up and down in thanks. “Quite frankly, thank you for your money.” The entire room let out a collective laugh. “On a more serious note, thank you for believing in me enough to help me find the funding for this passion project. Thank you for giving me the scholarship that led me here. Thank you for everything.” Moreno lifted his glass in response, and that was when Piper’s eyes landed on someone she had not expected to see. Thea was standing beside her husband Yuri and beaming from ear to ear. Piper’s best friend would have had to fly from Minnesota to be there. She was still assembling the pieces in her head when Leo cleared his throat.
“And, finally…” Leo found Carter in the crowd and discreetly signed something to him. Confused, Piper narrowed her eyes between her brother and Leo. Carter was picking up on ASL way faster than she was, but he had a damn good motivator. “I want to thank my girlfriend, Piper.” Leo turned back to her and set his glass on the table. Piper bit her lip as he reached for her hand and laced his fingers in hers. “Not only for her design skills on the project, but for being the love of my life.” Her heart fluttered in her chest. For a while, she had felt a little guilty that she could feel this happy after her parents’ death, but she knew that they would want this for her. Cole and Paisley would want her to find her person, to be loved the way that Leo loved her. To love someone the way they had loved each other.
Carter made his way toward them and handed Leo something before quickly moving away. Piper’s heart stopped entirely as every stray piece of this evening snapped into place. The sunflowers. Lucia’s comment about grandbabies. The conversation with Talia. Thea. The blue velvet ring box now in Leo’s palm. Her eyes widened as she whipped her head around the room.
“I think she’s getting it now,” Leo said to the crowd in the same way that he addressed a theatre. Everyone laughed as Leo took a shaky breath and met Piper’s gaze with vulnerable eyes that sliced right to her heart. “While I did want to thank everyone, the Sundance award was just a front for the real reason we’re here, for what I’m hoping will be our engagement party.”
Piper immediately felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes as Leo lowered himself down to one knee.
“Piper Lennon Hartrick.” He held up the ring box, flipping open the lid to display the gold sunflower ring seated inside with tiny diamonds inlaid in the center, and she frantically wiped at the tears pooling at her eyes. She reached for Leo’s hand, needing some form of contact to keep herself steady, and just as always, his fingers felt warm and assured as his thumb rubbed gentle strokes into the back of her hand. “I love you. I’m never going to stop loving you. When I think about the future, you’re always there, pissing me off or smiling at me.” Piper let out a choked laugh. “It is shocking how wrong I was about you. I used to think you made me weak, but you’re not my weakness at all, princesa. You’re my greatest strength. You call me on my shit and take it when I call you on yours. You are my person. The one I want to annoy with my movie commentary forever. The one I could listen to tell me the difference between eight shades of the same color green forever.”
“They’re different colors, Leo.” Piper rolled her eyes, remembering their squabble over the paint color in their living room, and sniffed back more tears.
Leo beamed up at her. “I’d love to spend the rest of my life arguing with you over that. I, uh, I asked your dad. He was very quiet and didn’t say much. I took that as a good sign.” Piper broke out into a giggle, shaking her head. “I did ask Walker just in case, though.” The formality of it all was so fervently Leo that it made her grin even wider. “And now you’re smiling at me, so I guess I should get on with it because I’d really love to see that forever.” He cleared his throat nervously and shifted on the ground, setting his shoulders back. “Piper, mi vida, will you marry me? Please?”
Piper’s body reacted before her brain did, though she was sure she had been adamantly nodding her head the whole time. Her knees hit the floor, and she spilled the sparkling cider all over herself in the process. She barely cared as she ditched the flute on the floor and dove forward, wrapping her arms around Leo’s neck and kissing him. She was only vaguely aware of the applause and congratulatory noise in the room when she finally dropped her mouth to Leo’s ear.
