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“But are they huge? Because size matters with flowers I guess,” I said wryly.
“The Beckett men do not disappoint when it comes to size,’ Rory quipped.
When Jeremy and Julie arrived, the food wasn’t quite ready, but we had candles lit and the flowers on the table. Sparkling grape juice stood in for wine.
While we waited for the food to finish cooking, we listened to Julie talk about how her day went and if her back still hurt. She was kind of tired and hungry, and eager to eat. Fortunately, the food finished right at that moment when a pregnant woman was hangry and ran out of patience with us.
We served the food right away, and Rory regaled her with our cute idea to serve the “marry me” chicken. Clearly, she wasn’t following the not-so-subtle hints we were putting down because she was eating roasted potatoes and chicken while Jeremy opened the fancy compound butter for the baguette.
“This has rosemary or something in it. Smells like a pine forest with garlic,” Jeremy said.
“Sounds good. Give it here,” she replied, and spread some on a slice of bread. “Yeah, that’s amazing, you have to try it,” she said, offering me a bite.
We ate and enjoyed the meal Rory had prepared, much to our mutual surprise.
“I love it all. You don’t have to make me a special meal you know. I can eat whatever. When I lived on my own, I ate cereal or a yogurt a lot of nights,” Julie said.
“No way in hell. Not even if you weren’t pregnant,” Jeremy protested. “You deserve better than that. And we are more than happy to make sure there’s good food on the table.”
“Yeah, food that doesn’t come out of a box,” Rory piped in.
“Speaking of boxes,” I said, standing to retrieve a small velvet one from the top shelf of a nearby cupboard. Julie stopped eating, watching us as if she were finally getting suspicious.
“Guys, what’s going on?”
“This,” I said.
“Since Rory’s the one that actually saved your life in the fire, we decided he gets to do the talking,” Jeremy said.
Rory got down on one knee. “This isn’t just from me. This is from all of us. Julie, we love you and we’re so happy you agreed to move in here. We can’t wait to be dads to this baby. She is going to be beyond spoiled. Darren can show you his part of this in a minute. I was in charge of dinner, which, as you see, is spectacular,” he said with a grin. “And Jeremy is the research guy and likes to think he’s the brains behind this operation even though that’s up for argument. He found a jeweler who worked with us on a design until we had what we wanted for you.”
Rory opened the velvet box. Inside it was nestled a two-carat emerald-cut solitaire on a very special band. Four narrow, interlocking diamond bands were fused together, crisscrossing elegantly so you couldn’t tell where one began and another ended.
Then Jeremy and I got on our knees as well.
“This baby is going to carry on the Beckett name, which we already discussed,” Jeremy said. “But we want to make a commitment to you, to marry you and give you our name as well.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked, her fingers pressed to her lips.
“Will you vow to be with us forever, and become Julie Romero-Beckett?” Rory asked. “It’s not going to be a traditional ceremony because, you know, there’s more than two people in this, but we want to exchange vows and put a ring on it.”
“Yes!” she said, her pretty eyes bright with tears. She opened her arms and tried to hug all of us at once. When we all stopped talking over each other, laughing and making plans, we handed her the box and she slipped the ring on her hand.
“It’s beautiful and perfect and I love it. I love what it represents thank you all,” she said, “But it’s also freaking huge!”
“Go ahead, Rory,” I said wryly.
“I said what I said. When it comes to size, the Beckett men do not disappoint.”
EPILOGUE
JULIE - SEVEN MONTHS LATER
It felt like we’d been unpacking for a century. We loved the brownstone so much, but we knew with a baby on the way, we needed a home that wasn’t four floors and some small outdoor space. We found a place outside the city, a spacious two story with a big backyard. Darren had already put in a pergola to shade his outdoor grilling space on the large patio, and I had the nursery almost the way I wanted it.
It had been so sweet that they’d wallpapered and tried to make a space for the baby at the brownstone. I hated to leave it, but we needed a home all our own, a place where we weren’t trying to find a spot to squeeze in all the stuff for the baby. Plus having all of us on separate floors wasn’t going to work out well for middle of the night feedings. I didn’t want my guys falling down the stairs trying to follow the sound from the baby monitor.
