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“Dean,” Lexi said, suddenly sounding as worried as Jenna and I were. “Dean, what are you—”
But at that moment, Dean showed us exactly what he planned to do as he swiped up with the knife, clearly with the intent to cut off the cork rather than opening it normally.
But it failed.
“Aw,” he said, looking at the bottle, spinning it in his hands. “Why didn’t it… oh! That’s why.”
“What’s why?” I asked, but Dean was already taking up his position again as the girls both took a step back and covered their faces.
“I was holding it wrong,” he said, then looked back at us with a slightly unhinged grin. “Here we go!”
He swiped the knife up, and this time, the cork—and the top inch of the neck of the bottle—came off in a clean cut. As champagne began to pour out freely, Dean motioned for me to bring the glasses over. I held them underneath the stream, which stopped rather quickly, but Dean simply poured the wine like a civilized person.
I looked at the bottle, which was nearly empty after the initial spray had sent so much of it into the lake, but Dean didn’t seem to care. In fact, he simply turned and took two glasses from my hands, handing one to Lexi, and raised up his glass.
“A toast!” he said in the most dramatic way possible. “To Lexi. My fiancée. I love you more than I knew I could, and I am so grateful that you agreed to be mine.”
“Why wouldn’t I, you lunatic?” she asked.
Jenna wrapped an arm around my waist, and I draped one over her shoulder as we clinked our glasses together.
“They’re pretty cute together,” Jenna said to me quietly.
“Yeah,” I said. “And I never thought I’d use cute and Dean in the same sentence, but there you are.”
“Technically,” she said, “I used them. You just agreed.”
“Right you are,” I replied, leaning down to give her a kiss.
But right at that moment, Lexi rushed over to us to give Jenna a hug, squealing.
“Can you believe I’mengaged?” she gushed.
“I can honestly say, if I hadn’t seen it myself, I really wouldn’t believe it, Lex,” she said with a laugh. The girls began to talk, slightly pulling away from me, which was fine.
I sidled up beside Dean, who was watching his fiancée and sister talk.
“I have to admit,” I said reluctantly. “Thatwaspretty cool. And I’m sort of jealous I didn’t get to do it.”
“I have another bottle if you want to later,” he said, winking at me.
“Nah,” I replied. “No use wasting more good champagne when we could be drinking it and celebrating. Congratulations. Really. That’s so amazing.”
“Thanks,” he said, tapping his flute against mine. “So… you and my sister.”
“Me and your sister,” I said. “You’re not going to try to give me ‘the talk’ again, are you?”
“No,” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re really in it to win it, and that you’re not just seeing this as a fling.”
“I assure you,” I said. “She has a much better chance of breaking my heart, I think, than I do of breaking hers.”
“Good,” he said, then we sank into a silence as we continued to watch the girls talk and laugh and look at Lexi’s ring over and over.
“You know,” I said. “I have an idea.”
“Yeah?” Dean said, looking at me. He knew this tone, and it meant I was brewing up something big.
“Yeah,” I said. “But I need you on board to really make it work.”
