I didn’t have a choice at that point, because I shot.He held me tight, and when I was done, my head fell back against his shoulder, and he pressed his face against me, breathing me in, because that was what he went for.
“Guess that answers my question,” he said.
I sighed and closed my eyes.
“Normally, we’d make these decisions together,” he said.“But we weren’t engaged when I made this one.”
What?I blinked.“Weren’t what?”
“You know that cottage you’ve been looking at on your laptop for the last few months?The one you’ve been using as your desktop background?”
“Yeah.It sold three weeks ago.”
“I know.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a set of keys, and put them in my hand.“I bought it.For us.”
“We can’t afford the mortgage.”
“We don’t have a mortgage.I bought it for cash.It’s ours.”
“We...how, Eddie?”
“Remember that movie I went to Hollywood to shoot?”
“Yeah?”
“They paid me really well.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
I looked at the keys.Heavy.Real.“Well, I am.Shit, Eddie.”
He let me go, so I twisted around in the chair.“It’s really ours?”
“Yeah.And I thought maybe we could get married there.”
“...what?”
“We could get married at our cottage, by the lake,” he said.“You want something special for our wedding, right?Somewhere private?”
It was the only thing I wanted that he hadn’t given me.Till now.And I just stared at the keys and started sobbing.
Then I felt him tug on my necklace.
“What are you doing?”
“Hold still.”He picked the knot apart and pulled up the cord.Our rings slipped off and fell into his cupped hand.He put the little wooden one on.
“Stand up,” he said.
I got up and faced him.
He held out the gold ring to me.“Will you marry me, tapper?”
No fancy speech, no fancy venue.But he didn’t need one, because I knew he meant it and, like,finally.
