Page 744 of End Game

“I love you too.”

Later, Dex pulls Cami onto the dance floor.

She laughs as he spins her badly, and Griffin moves toward the bar while they're dancing.

I notice because his attention never really leaves her.

He watches Cami with a softness I recognize.

I step beside him. “You okay?”

Griffin glances toward me, then back toward Cami and Dex.

“Yeah. I am.”

His voice doesn't match the way he's still rubbing his ring, so I wait instead of asking again.

After a few seconds, Griffin exhales.

“I've been thinking about your ceremony.”

I follow his gaze toward the dance floor, where Dex has attempted some kind of turn that Cami barely survives.

“When Cami and I got married, it was the right thing to do,” Griffin continues. “I don't regret it. I wouldn't change it.”

“I know.”

“But she needed something from me then. Insurance. Stability. Something practical enough that saying yes wasn't just about whether she wanted to marry me.”

His thumb moves across his empty ring finger, and his eyes stay on Cami.

“I think I want to propose to her for real,” he says. “And do it right this time.”

There isn't shame in his expression, and there isn't regret. He isn't looking at Micah-and-Dex's wedding as proof that his own marriage failed some test.

Watching today just gave him a comparison he didn't have before.

He wants to ask Cami when there's no crisis to solve.

No insurance deadline.

Nothing she needs from him except whatever answer she wants to give.

I look back toward the dance floor.

Cami is laughing against Dex's shoulder now, the two of them barely dancing anymore.

“I think she'd like that.”

Griffin finally looks at me. “Don't tell her.”

“I won't.”

His shoulders settle slightly.

Then his eyes drop to my ring.

“Congratulations, man.”