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Mara jutted her chin out, a defiant look in her brown eyes. “I find the couch quite comfortable.”
“Liar.” At the affronted look she sent me, I laughed. “The massage you needed after the Super Bowl says otherwise.” After too many nachos and too much celebratory beer, she’d passed out on top of me and refused to move only to wake up sore and complaining the next day.
“Maybe I was just trying to roleplay?”
“Maybe you just refuse to admit that couch is a torture device.” She was stubborn as hell, but rarely when it counted, and the banter was excellent foreplay.
“If you two are done flirting,” Sophie said, her voice loud and bossy.
“Just a moment,” I told her and turned back to Mara, grabbing her hands in mine. “I was thinking we could get a new sofa.”
Her blond brows dipped in confusion. “Why would we buy a new couch when we just spent an arm and a leg on that one?”
I laughed. “My cheap little love, we don’t have to buy it. We can put it on our wedding registry, along with lots of other cool things and force our friends to buy them for us.” It wasn’t exactly how I planned to propose, but the ring had been burning a hole in my pocket since it came in last week.
Mara gasped. “Our registry?” She was shocked and confused, two looks she wore well. Very well.
I nodded eagerly. “I wanted to wait until next week because Valentine’s Day was the day we got together, officially, and all that. But all this talk of everyone else being married, I figured this was the perfect time, surrounded by our friends.”
“Holy shit.” She smacked a hand over her mouth, staring at me like she didn’t get it. “Xander, seriously?”
I pulled the ring from my pocket, knowing she would love the simple, non-traditional tension band with three smaller diamonds that appeared suspended between them. “Yes, Mara, I’m serious. I love you more than anything. We already live together and the only way things could possibly get better is if we had a big party to celebrate our love.”
“A party,” Chris snorted and shook his head. “What a selling point, man.”
“Shut up, I know my woman.” I turned back to Mara with a smile. “What do you say, babe, you want to be my wife?”
Tears pooled in my eyes but I refused to let them fall, and it had nothing to do with all the people around. I had to spend forty-five minutes getting my hair and makeup done, and I wouldn’t ruin this moment with racoon eyes. “Do I want to be your wife? That’s how you propose to me?”
I nodded, suddenly unsure this was the way to go. “Yeah?”
I smiled up at Xander and nodded. “I absolutely cannot wait to be your wife, Xander.” He slid the ring on my finger and then I flew into his arms and kissed him, hard and fast. “We should do it before the baby comes, since we’re doing our Valentine’s Day surprises early.”
Xander wore a shocked look that slowly spread into a grin. “Seriously?” The word came out on a soft, gravelly whisper.
I nodded, feeling happier than I felt the first time I loved this man. “Totally seriously. Looks like we’re getting our happy ending after all.”
“Speaking of happy endings, maybe we should get out of here and celebrate?” I wiggled my eyebrows in an effort to tempt her, but Mara only laughed.
“Go on,” Eva groaned. “The moment you got engaged will make for excellent marketing materials. Congratulations.”
I grabbed Mara in my arms and carried her towards the park exit, our friends’ words of congratulations at our backs. “Thanks,” I called back to them.
“Engaged,” Mara sighed. “I’m engaged to my high school sweetheart. How cliché.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her tone. “Wanna double down on the cliché? We can consummate our engagement with a ticket for public indecency.”
Mara glared.
“Too soon?”
“Hell no,” she smiled. “Only this time you’re taking the fall.”
“Sweetheart, I fall for you more, every damn day.”
She rolled her eyes but I didn’t miss the blush that stained her cheeks. “Cheesy but I’ll allow it. For my fiancé.”
“I prefer husband-to-be.”
“Me too,” I grinned and wrapped my arms around him. “I prefer him to any other man.”
“Now that was cheesy,” he growled and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“Shut up and kiss me, husband-t0-be.”
“Gladly.” Right there, in the middle of Pilgrim for all to see, he kissed me.
Want to dive into Joss’s Romance?
Then check out the following excerpt from, Misbehaving Curves.
Preview: Misbehaving Curves
Secretly dating the boss has never been so hot!
Crushing on my boss wasn’t the wisest thing I’d ever done.
Neither was signing up for a matchmaking service.
Or moving to a small town with no real plan.
But there I was, doing all of those things.
None of them successfully.
