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“Any idea who set you up?” Grams has the same expression her favorite sleuth gets when she’s hot on a lead.
“Grams, you’re not getting involved.” My tone isn’t sharp, but hopefully it’s still enough to get my point across. It’s a good thing she has to get around in a wheelchair for another few weeks. Otherwise, as soon as I turn my back, she’ll interview everyone in Maple Ridge, dig for their biggest secrets, snoop into their lives. Put herself in danger. I almost lost her once already. I won’t lose her to whoever is trying to ruin Lucas’s life.
“Simone’s right.” Lucas’s warm but firm gaze is steady on Gram’s.
She doesn’t flinch. She just gives him the same innocent expression twelve-year-old Aiden used on her whenever he planned to get into trouble.
“Rose, whoever set me up isn’t playing games. Let the cops deal with it.”
Her frail shoulders lift, but a fire flickers and flares in her eyes. “All right. For now.”
“Good. Now there is a reason I’m here, besides missing your sparkling personality.” Lucas winks at Grams. She giggles like a girl crushing on the high school quarterback.
Here we go.
I open my mouth to explain that Lucas and I are engaged. The words don’t come out. They’re stuck—stuck in my mouth with superglue.
Lucas stands in front of me and takes something from his pocket. He drops to one knee, and the movement jump-starts my heart, hot-wires my tear ducts. I gulp in a lungful of air.
OhmyGod…he’s…Lucas is…
When I discovered I was pregnant with his baby over ten years ago, I fantasized about this moment. Fantasized about Lucas being excited that he was going to be a father. The father of our child. That he would tell me how much he loved me and would ask me to marry him.
But then fantasy and reality crashed head on. Left nothing but crunched and dented dreams.
“Simone, I’ve been in love with you for as long as I can remember. And now that you’re back in my life, I’m hoping you’ll be my wife.” He lifts his hand, revealing the ring box, and flips the lid open. The air in my lungs rushes out in a whoosh. “Will you marry me?”
Stupid tears fog my vision. Tears mourning how none of this is real. We’re not marrying because we’re in love and can’t live without each other.
A whirlwind of emotions stirs up inside me, sweeping me up in stunned shock, heartbreak, awe, regret, joy, guilt, sorrow. Tears stream down my cheeks.
I open my mouth to tell him yes. But instead, laughter erupts from my lungs, loud and uncontrollable.
I slap my hands over my mouth. But it’s not enough. I can’t stop giggling—and that’s making the tears come harder.
I don’t even know why I’m giggling. It’s as if my emotions have no idea what I’m supposed to be feeling and short-circuited my brain.
Since I can’t say the words, I nod, my hands still over my mouth.
Lucas smiles, seemingly not at all confused by my reaction to his news. Or maybe he just thinks I’m that good an actress.
Grams is grinning so hard; her cheeks will be sore for the next few days. “I always knew you two had a thing for each other. I just didn’t realize you’ve been dating all this time.”
“We’ve been keeping it a secret,” Lucas says. “We wanted things to progress at their own pace without feeling any pressure from family and friends.”
Great answer.
He removes the silver ring from the box and slides it on my finger.
“It’s beautiful,” I manage to say between giggles. It’s the type of diamond I would have chosen. The radiant-cut gemstone is big, but it doesn’t scream, Look at me. It says it’s confident in our commitment.
Confident it will fool even the disbelievers.
“Kiss the groom-to-be!” Grams’s high-pitched tone rings like a wineglass being tapped.
My gaze lands on a framed photo on the mantel of Aiden, Lucas, and me. It was taken the summer before they left for the Marines. We were happy. Smiling.
No, that’s not entirely true. There’s something about Lucas in the picture. Something brighter. Like the spotlight on a lighthouse, guiding ships to safety. The beacon in the storm.
