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“I… Um… it’s…” Alissa’s hands fluttered around as she tried to gather her things. “I’ll… I have to go.”
Alissa stumbled over her feet, leaving her purse behind for a second before rushing back to get it.
“You want a to-go box?” Willis asked, calling after her.
“I’ll be back later!” she called back.
She ran back to The Outlet’s office, bursting through the door. Josie wasn’t at her desk. Alissa pushed open the door to Dane’s office, as if he were hiding there. He wasn’t. So where was he? She pulled out her phone to see if he had texted or called her, but he hadn’t. She texted him a bunch of question marks since her brain hadn’t quite processed what she had read.
She wracked her brain for where Dane might have been. His car was still in the parking lot, so he hadn’t driven home. Maybe he was back in town?
She walked back into town since she’d worn herself out between her excitement and her run from The Crab to the office again. This time, she went to the boardwalk, scanning the crowd for him. He was always easy to spot—tall, auburn hair, and usually dressed more formally than most. But he wasn’t on the boardwalk.
She popped into some of his other usual haunts—Tidal Wave Coffee, the library, and a small trail that led to a cozy part of the beach where they’d had picnics. He still wasn’t there. She stopped on the boardwalk, checking her phone again. Still nothing from Dane, though he usually didn’t check his phone during the day. But he’d set this up. Surely he’d want to hear from her.
Alissa went back into town, her feet aching. The last place she thought of was Sandy’s Grocery, where he shopped a few times a week, so she went there. She genuinely thought that he’d gone home, but she saw him standing near the front. He was chatting with Sandy and Daniel as if nothing unusual was happening. As if her whole day—maybe her whole life—hadn’t been flipped upside down.
“Dane?” Alissa asked. She was still clutching the paper.
Dane looked up, a nervous smile on his face. “Hey.”
“This…” She held up the paper. “This article. What is it? Is it… I thought it was supposed to be a recipe.”
Dane approached her, prying the paper out of her hands. The paper was damp from her sweaty palms, so Dane set it aside, lacing her fingers in his.
“Wait, I mean… it’s supposed to be the special?” Alissa continued to babble. “Not a recipe. Or maybe a recipe. I don’t know what the article is about.”
“What does it look like to you?” Dane asked, his voice gentle. Alissa blinked back tears as she watched Dane sink down to one knee. He pulled a velvet box from his pocket. “Alissa, will you marry me?”
She threw her arms around Dane so forcefully that she nearly knocked him over. Dane laughed, catching her and standing up.
“Yes!” Alissa said, her face buried into his chest. “Yes, I’d love to be your wife!”
Dane lifted her chin and kissed her, a smile bigger than any she’d ever seen on him across his lips. She was still so shocked that she was trembling, but her smile was splitting her face in half.
“Do you want to see your ring?” Dane asked, a hint of shyness in his eyes.
“Oh! The ring!” Alissa put her hand to her forehead. “Yes, of course!”
Dane picked up the velvet box, which must have gone flying when Alissa jumped into his arms, and opened it up. It was a circle cut diamond on a white gold band, glinting in the light streaming in from the front windows.
“I wasn’t sure what your ring size was, so it might not fit. I can take it back to the jewelers to re-size it.” Dane pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto Alissa’s finger.
“Perfect fit,” she said, gazing down at the ring. “I love it.”
She was going to marry Dane. She’d dreamt about this moment, especially in the last month or so, but the way he had done it was so perfect. Now it all made sense—the weirdness of the article, the way Josie had been avoiding her, Dane’s nervous energy.
She picked up the paper again from where she dropped it. She already knew she was going to frame the article and keep it forever. It was poetic. The thing that had brought them together was the perfect place to announce the next chapter of their lives.
“Congratulations!” Sandy said. “Can I see your ring?”
“Thank you.” Alissa had been so swept up in the moment that she’d forgotten they were in the middle of Sandy’s store. “And of course!”
Alissa showed off her ring with a smile.
“It’s so beautiful!” Sandy said. “Nice job, Dane.”
Dane chuckled. “Thank you. The owner of Rhiannon’s Jewelry Shop had to deal with me waffling between a few choices for days.”
