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I squeezed Billie’s hand under the table one more time, and then spoke. “Billie and I are in a relationship, and it’s my intention to marry her. Not right away. I have a business venture I’m trying to get off the ground first. I have some things to sort out. But I want you to know right off the bat how serious I am. I’m in love with her, and I know it might come as a bit of a shock, but we’ve been making each other happy, and I hope that you two will be happy for us.”
Silence fell, everyone staring at us. And then Billie said, sounding shocked. “Are you saying…”
I grinned. This part, this part I had been excited about. I had decided to hell with talking to Morgan and her parents ahead of time, and to just go for it. I knew where Morgan stood, anyway.
Getting up from the table, I pulled the ring box out of my pocket and got down on one knee in front of Billie.
“Billie Adams, will you marry me?”
32
Billie
I’d had no idea that Pike was planning on doing this. I’d known that he was going to announce our relationship. We had talked about that and decided that just ripping the band-aid off was going to be the best thing, especially if we could do it before Morgan got there and spun this whole story about how it had gone that made Pike look awful and me irresponsible.
But Pike hadn’t said anything about proposing.
I stared at him as he announced his intention to marry me, to spend the rest of my life with me, and then I watched, mouth open, as he got down on one knee in front of me and opened up a small black velvet box.
“This whole time I’ve tried to fight how I felt about you, and forget you, and it didn’t work—and now that we’re back together I can’t imagine a single day without you in my life. You’re a spitfire who never lets me or anyone else get away from bullshit. You’re generous and hilarious, and you give as good as you get. You’re smart, and you go after what you want. I love you, I’m in love with you, and I hope that we can build a family together.”
I found myself clapping my hand over my mouth, my eyes brimming with tears. I wouldn’t have expected myself to be the kind of person who cried when she was proposed to, or just cried when she was happy in general, but here I was, about to turn into a blubbering mess.
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He was in this for the long haul.
God, I wished that I’d been able to tell him earlier in the kitchen about my pregnancy. I wish he already knew, and now that he was here in front of me with a ring, I didn’t know why I had been so worried about telling him. Pike had made it clear from the beginning that he was the one committed to this. I’d been the one who’d been unsure.
Oh, fuck, Pike was still waiting for an answer.
“Yes,” I blurted out. “Yes, of course I will, I love you, yes, of course!”
Pike grinned, his eyes shining, and he slid the ring onto my finger. It was lovely, silver with a small princess cut diamond. Not too over the top, but classy. Exactly the sort of ring I would’ve picked out. Pike kissed me, and kissed me again, and I started laughing, the sound bubbling up in my throat helplessly.
“How did you get this?” I asked. “On such short notice?”
Pike winked. “Remember how I said Amber owed me a favor for pretending to be her boyfriend?”
She must have helped him pick out the ring. Possibly even helped him buy it, if he didn’t have the funds at the moment. Hey, I didn’t care. Amber had money to spare and she sure did owe him for making him parade around as her boyfriend again, acting like an asshole for her parents.
My mom was grinning in delight. “I knew that something was going on between the two of you,” she admitted. “But you didn’t seem ready to tell the world and I wasn’t sure how committed you two were, so I didn’t want to say anything. I’m so happy for both of you.”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it,” Dad said, looking shocked.
“Oh, Dave, she’s had a crush on that boy since she was a kid,” Mom replied.
“Mom!” I could feel myself blushing.
“Aww, babe, you had a crush on me,” Pike said, quoting Parks and Rec. “That’s so embarrassing.”
“We are literally engaged.”
“Still.”
Then Dad turned and looked at Morgan. “Did you know about this?” he asked, sounding curious but also lighthearted. As if of course Morgan had known about this and Dad was more curious as to how Morgan had kept it a secret this whole time than he was about anything else.
