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It was clear by now that Erin considered Donal and I family and wanted us to remain a part of her life. Sometimes when I stopped to count all the blessings this year had brought, it took my breath away.
Six months ago I’d had no family at all to speak of, and now I had not only Erin but Donal too. Because of them, my extended family had grown to include all of Donal’s family and Erin’s as well. And soon there’d be a new baby to bring us all even closer together. By finding me through that DNA registry, Erin had brought so many gifts into my life that I almost didn’t know what to do with all my good luck.
“Tess.” Marie elbowed me as I closed the box containing the blanket. “I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s a very attractive man lurking outside your office with flowers and some kind of sign.”
“What?” I turned around and laughed when I saw Donal peeping in the door of my office across the hall. Marie knew very well who he was because we’d had dinner with her and Matt twice in the last several months. “Oh my God, what is he doing?” I wondered out loud.
“I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out,” Marie said as she came around the desk for a better look. “Should I go get him?”
“No, I’ll do it.” The poor guy was gazing up and down the hallway with a dejected look on his face. No doubt wondering where I was.
Grabbing the box with Erin’s blanket, I opened the door of Marie’s office and leaned out. “Excuse me, sir. What’s your business here?”
Donal spun around, his face lighting up at the sight of me. As I went toward him, he dropped down on one knee and held up his sign.
My name was written at the top in thick hand-drawn letters outlined with glowing Christmas lights poked through the poster board. Beneath it was a poem, written in colored markers, with stars and planets decorating the edges.
Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.
Wish you may, wish you might
Be my date onpromreunion night.
The word “prom” had been crossed out in red with “reunion” scrawled above it.
“What exactly is happening right now?” I asked in bemusement.
Donal proffered the bouquet of flowers with a flourish. “Teresa McGregor, will you be my date for our thirty-year high school reunion next month?”
“Is that glitter?” I asked, still marveling at the sign.
He got to his feet and looked down at it proudly as he came toward me. “Maddy, Jack, and Erin helped me make it. Promposals weren’t a thing when we were in high school, so I recruited assistance from the younger generation to make sure I did it right.”
“I don’t understand.” I hugged the box I was holding to my chest as I smiled up at him. “It’s just a high school reunion. You didn’t have to make a big production out of it.” I hadn’t even thought he wanted to go, since he’d always seemed so unenthusiastic about the reunions in the past.
“I think it’s adorable,” Marie said beside me. “Hi, Donal.”
“Hi, Marie. Thank you. I think it’s pretty adorable too.”
I leaned up to give Donal a quick kiss before hooking my hand around his arm and towing him toward my office. “I’ll see you later, Marie.”
“You kids have fun!” she called out.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I said as I closed the door and deposited Erin’s blanket on one of the extra chairs.
Donal held the flowers out to me. It was a bright-colored bouquet of yellow roses intermixed with pink and orange daisies. “Since I never got to take you to prom like I wanted, I thought maybe we could use the reunion as a do-over.”
I looked up from admiring the flowers. “What did you say?”
He turned his back to me and propped the sign on the chair behind the box holding Erin’s blanket. “I never told you this, but I’d been intending to ask you to prom before everything between us went sideways.”
“Really?” I said, staring at him in surprise.
“I was crazy about you.” He turned around finally, letting me have his eyes, which were so bright they could have lit up all the buildings in Chicago. “I wanted you to be my girlfriend, Tess. I didn’t want to hide our relationship. I wanted to give you my class ring and have you wear my letter jacket while we walked through the school hallways together holding hands. I was trying to work up the courage to tell you that.” His expression turned rueful. “I just wasn’t fast enough.”
“Donal.” I tugged him into my arms and stroked his jaw as our lips brushed together. “I was crazy about you too.”
“You haven’t answered my promposal yet.”
