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Eli goes to his sister and puts his arms around her, and Seth pulls them both into his side as he shiftsthe ring boxto his other hand. Meanwhile, I stare at them, my own arms still halfway out in front of me and my jaw stuck on the faux wooden floor.
“Jenna, I love you,” Seth says, and OH MY GOSH it is actually happening. He smiles softly at me and reaches for my hand, which basically hangs limp inside his because I can’t move. If I do, I think this will all disappear, and I’ll wake up staring at my ceiling fan. “I love youandI love your kids. I wasn’t planning to do this tonight, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I know that this isn’t some elaborate proposal, and I didn’t prepare any super romantic speech, but I asked these two little hoodlums if it was okay to marry their mommy. They both said yes. So… Will you be my wife, sweetheart?”
My lip trembles. “For real?”
Laughter lines crinkle the corners of his gorgeous blue eyes, and he squeezes my hand. “Yes. For real.”
“Mommy, say yes!” Ella shouts, her tiny hands clasped under her chin.
Eli bounces on his feet, one hand on Seth’s side for support. “Yeah, Mommy!”
“Okay,” I whisper as tears start falling. “I say yes.”
My children let out squeals that nearly bust my eardrum and start dancing around the kitchen as Seth’s shaky fingers fumble to get the ring from its throne in the black velvet box. It’s a beautiful oval solitaire in a gold setting, and the sun streaming through the window over my sink catches it perfectly, making it shimmer.
Seth pauses just before he slides the ring over my finger, both of us still kneeling, and looks at me uncertainly. “Is the ring okay? It was my mother’s, and I was keeping it for the woman I love, but I know it’s not fancy or—”
“Iadorethe ring, Seth,” I say, smiling through the tears I can’t stop. “Not nearly as much as I adore and love the man giving me the ring, of course. And I’m honored I get to wear something as important as this. Your mother would be so proud of you, Seth. So proud.”
That does the trick. He slides the ring over my knuckle—it may need to be sized down a bit, but I’ve never seen a more stunning ring in my life—and then pulls us up to a standing position. He tugs me against him as his lips cover mine, both of his hands on my lower back. The kiss doesn’t last very long (definitely not long enough) before there are two little bodies trying to worm their way between us.
Seth smiles against my mouth. “We’ll finish this properly later,” he says in a very low whisper, kisses me once more, then steps back.
He squats and lifts both kids into his arms, making their faces light up as they all three beam at me. Ella insists on seeing the ring, and as I hold my hand out to her, Seth smiling tenderly at me, I realize our love story isn’t normal.
It’s not perfect. It’s a little bit slow and a little bit fast and a lot unconventional. It’s strong yet fragile, like a beautiful glass figurine.
But the best part of it all?
It’sours.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Seth
Idon’t think I’ve ever been as spontaneous as I was when I proposed to Jenna a few hours ago. Sure, my relationship with Sierra was a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t say it was necessarily spontaneous. Even my proposal back then would’ve been more thought-out and planned as opposed to today.
But watching Jen with the kids as the late afternoon sunshine streamed through the window, highlighting the messy but happy kitchen, I couldn’tnotdo it. I’ve been carrying the ring with me all week, hoping it would give me an idea of how or when to propose.
Honestly, thinking about it now, I don’t think there could’ve been a better time.
“Do you think we’ll finish the house this week?” Luka asks, not glancing up as he helps Ella slide her barely toasted marshmallow onto a graham cracker.
I turn my own marshmallow in the dancing flames. “We’ll finish it, yes. But the mayor insisted on having it staged before revealing it to anyone, so we can’t do that until the furniture comes in.”
“Don’t they just take all the furniture back out after, though?” Colin asks, his mouth full of his s’more. He’s in the chair directly across from mine with his hood cinched around his face, but his eye has started healing from the fight with his father a few weeks ago. “Seems like a waste of, well, everything. Time, money, muscle.”
Mazzy squishes her marshmallow between two halves of a waffle cone. “Yeah, but it makes it look better than when it’s just an empty house. It looks lived in.”
“Um, not quite,” Jenna says with a laugh, gesturing over her shoulder to the back door of her house while simultaneously assisting Eli with his s’more. “Go look at my house. We cleaned this morning, butthatis lived in. Staged homes appeal to the buyer’s eye, not actually represent what it’ll look like when someone lives in it.”
“She has a point,” Marshall agrees with a nod. “I mean, unless you don’t touch anything, then yeah. It won’t stay looking like that.”
Colin pretends to bow, though he doesn’t try very hard considering he stays slouched in his lawn chair. “See? My point exactly.”
“According to what the mayor said when we last spoke, each of the four of you will get a small percent of the cut when the house sells,” I say, unable to keep from grinning at Colin. “But if you’d prefer they try selling it un-staged and for a lower price, I’m sure the city wouldn’t mind. Since they’ve been footing the bill and all.”
Technically, I’ve pitched in some towards the renovation with the money I inherited last year. But nobody needs to know that outside of the mayor and myself. As far as anyone else knows, it was an anonymous donor. I was against using the money because of the original stipulations tied to it, but this project felt right. Moreover, making sure the teens are reimbursed for their work is necessary. They might’ve brought their own slew of issues and attitudes, but all four of them have put in some serious labor during their summer break, often in the heat. That hasn’t gone unnoticed by me nor by the mayor.
