“You are my heart, Amelia Moore. You are my peace and my fire. You are the woman I want beside me in every life I have left.”
Her lips tremble.
I pull the ring from my pocket, and the diamond catches the firelight.
“Amelia,” I say, “will you marry me?”
For half a second, no one breathes.
Then Livy explodes.
“SAY YES, MAMA!”
The room bursts into laughter.
Even Stefano laughs hard enough to wince and press a hand to his healing chest.
Amelia laughs too, tears running freely now.
She looks from our daughter back to me.
Then she reaches for my face with both hands.
“Yes,” she whispers.
My lungs forget how to work.
“Yes?”
Her smile breaks open.
“Yes, Maverick. I’ll marry you.”
The room erupts.
Livy screams.
Skip yells something about needing a big cake.
Stefano says, “Finally,” as if he’s not spent the last several weeks telling me to be patient.
I slide the ring onto Amelia’s finger, right next to her missing pinky, with hands that are not as steady as I’d like.
Then I rise, pull her carefully from the chair, and kiss my future wife in the middle of our family.
Our loud, impossible, scarred, beautiful family.
Olivia squeezes herself between us as soon as I let Amelia breathe.
“Group hug,” she announces.
I lift her carefully with one arm, mindful of the cast, while keeping Amelia tucked against my side.
Olivia wraps her good arm around my neck and presses her cheek to mine.
“Now we’re official,” she whispers.
I look around the room.
