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“You’re the smartest, most beautiful, funniest, kindest, most generous… You’re everything, Jane. I’d give away all my billions if it were a choice between the money and you. You’re already mine, but I mean to make it official. I mean to put a ring on your finger so the whole world knows who you belong to.”
She looks down at the large rock, the ring glistening, a rock that she deserves. I know she’ll always have her moments of feeling like she doesn’t belong—those pinch-herself instances when she questions if a girl like her from an orphanage, a nobody as she sometimes feels, can have all of this, but she’s not a nobody. She’s everything to me.
“I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving to you how much you’re worth,” I tell her. “Not just money, but love, attention, support, and protection. Everything a man can give to a woman, I’m going to give to you. Jane, my beautiful-in-every-way Jane Stevens… Will you marry me?”
She looks at the laptop, the flashing message, the same words spelled out.
Will you marry me?
Turning back, she yells, “Yes, of course I will!”
I cheer as I take the ring and slide it onto her finger. She offers her hand with a flourish, and when our eyes meet, I know why. I bet she practiced that flourish before when she had a crush on me when all of this seemed like it could never happen, but it is happening. Soon, our life will be even sweeter than our dreams.
After slipping the ring onto her finger, I leap to my feet and sweep her into my arms. Kissing her has never felt so right, with so much belonging and perfection. She jumps into my arms, and I catch her, my hands sinking greedily into her ample ass as she wraps her legs around me. Stumbling backward, I end up on the couch with my woman—my fiancée—straddling me.
“So this had nothing to do with the job?” she says, not seeming disappointed.
She’s breathy and excited, a flush spreading from her cheeks down her neck.
“It did,” I tell her, leaning up and kissing her neck. “I just thought I’d sneak a little surprise in there, too. I want you to shadow me for half days and work in the pit coding for the other half. You’ll learn the business from the top down and the bottom up. How does that sound?”
She leans down, kisses me, and says, “A dream come true, but this…”
She holds the ring up, grinning. “This is more than I ever could’ve wished for.”
“It’s less than you deserve,” I growl. “Everything I give you, Jane, will be less than you deserve, but I’ll always try. I’ll always keep getting better to be the man you—”
“You’re already my perfect man. I love you. You don’t have to prove anything to me. Just holding you, being close, knowing you love me too, that’s enough.”
“I do,” he says, “love you more than anything, and I’ll never stop.”
“Are you done with all the romance talk so we can come in and say congratulations?” Mom yells from the hallway, her words coming out in one long rush.
Jane laughs. “Yes, Isla, we’re done.”
“Then congratulations!”
Suddenly, they’re all running in here and turning it into a party, with Kenny grinning at me as he claps me on the arm.
EPILOGUE
THREE WEEKS LATER
Jane
“How are you feeling?” Lois asks, looking at me through the steam of her coffee mug.
We’re sitting in her garden, the sun rising. I’ve made a habit of swinging by here before work on the days Luke gets up earlier than me.
I get up at what seems like an early hour—six-thirty—but some days, Luke is up at five, heading to the gym before the office. We always make time for each other in the evenings or at lunchtime at work. On the weekends, we’re addicted to each other all over again.
“I’m okay,” I say, pushing my coffee mug aside. “Just wondering how to…”
Tell him.
I can’t keep the excitement out of my voice as I say this part. It’s like Lois couldn’t stop her excitement when she told me Christopher was almost ready to come home. Lois is like the friend I never had, the one I always imagined… but that’s a theme with me. Dreaming, hoping, wondering if I’ll ever be able to have a genuine connection, and then, boom, there it is, in real life.
“What is it?” Lois leans forward. “Last night, you said you felt ill, but now it’s like you’ve won a million bucks.”
I smile as a memory touches me. I used the same phrase with Luke a few nights ago, just in passing.
It’s like we’ve won a million bucks, finding each other.
Then he chuckled and told me I never needed to worry about a million.
“When you divorce me,” he joked, “you’ll have roughly twelve billion to your name.”
