“I met you on this same field almost a year ago.” I give him a watery smile as it finally hits me what I think he’s doing right now. “Asking Cooper to throw the ball long during warm-ups is the best call I’ve ever made?—”
“Hey!” I shove at his shoulder with a laugh.
“Baby, you had to know it wasn’t a coincidence. I wanted to meet you. Get to know you. Even after that day, I needed to know you. Needed you in my life. I struck out on multiple occasions but still I flirted, begged, probably annoyed the hell out of you, and yet, you finally caved. Being your friend was the best and hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But there’s not a single moment of our story that I would change. OurLove Story?—”
I point my finger at the sky. “Is that the song?Love Story?”
He laughs, shaking his head. “How do you not know this song?”
“I don’t listen to her music!”
“That’s not important. What is important, is this,” he says as he digs his hand into the pocket of his pants, fishing out a small black velvet box.
My hands fly to my mouth on a gasp, my heart pounding along with the beat of the song still playing over the loudspeakers.
In a blink, Ryan drops to one knee in front of me and flips open the lid on the box. Nestled in the box is a sparkling diamond ring. Cushion cut with smaller accent stones set into the silver band.
“Ryan…”
“I love you, Isa. I love you so much that I never want to have to spend another day without you. For the rest of our lives. With the last of our twenty questions, I wanted to ask… Isabella Gianna Rossi, will you marry me? Make me the happiest man alive and say you’ll spend your life with me.” His eyes sparkle with unshed tears and so much love.
My eyes well with tears of my own. I swallow past the thickness in my throat. Somewhere in the distance I swear I hear my brother shout, “Say yes!”
I nod my head emphatically. “Yes, yes, yes. Of course, yes,” I say as I drop to my knees, falling into his arms. He chuckles as he pulls me tighter to him, kissing my hair.
Distantly, I hear the sold-out stadium crowd cheering, but all I’m focused on is Ryan in this moment. No one else exists to me.
I pull back to get a look at his tear-stained face. “I hate that you just did that to a Taylor Swift song in front of the entire stadium.” I hiccup.
“We’re not hiding anymore. I want the whole world to know you’re mine,” he says with a tilt of his chin behind me. I look over my shoulder and see Annie standing with one of the Sports24 cameramen, filming the entire thing. I look back at Ryan, jaw dropped. He places a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “It was quite the thorough plan. If I had it my way it would’ve been during myactualwalk-up, but I already had to pull enough strings to get them to let me do this in the first place.”
“You are unbelievable.” I laugh, shaking my head.
“Unbelievably in love with you,” he says, grabbing my hand from where it was resting on his shoulder. He carefully pulls the ring from the cushion, lining it up with my ring finger. “So, just to be sure. That was a yes to spending the rest of your life with me?”
I smile, moving my hand so it pushes the ring onto my finger. “I couldn’t imagine spending it with anyone else.”
THE END
