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“I came prepared. I brought it with me from home. I bought the bread from the Mocha Moose, but I toasted the bread and made the sandwiches myself. I sweet-talked Celeste Blessing into letting me use Angel’s Rest’s kitchen.”
She laughed out loud. “My hero!”
He hesitated, then asked, “Am I?”
“My hero? Yes, definitely. You are always there for me. You always know exactly what I need.”
“I hope so. I hope I’ve read you right.”
His voice sounded tight. Molly sensed a change in the mood of the moment, and she stared at him intently.
Mason cleared his throat. “I was going to wait until after the picnic to do this, but the suspense is about to kill me.” His smile went a little shaky, and he took both her hands in his. “Mary Elizabeth Stapleton, I love you. I love your warm and generous heart. I love your silly jokes. I love that wicked smart brain of yours. I love the way you complete me. You are the most beautiful woman in the entire world, not just because you blow right past ten on the hotness scale, but because of who you are inside, too.”
“Oh, Mason.” That was the sweetest thing any guy had ever said to her. “I love you, too. I—”
“No. Let me finish. We both have big changes in front of us. Lots of big decisions to make. I know we haven’t talked about this much and that you are gun-shy because of your parents’ split. Still, I’ve analyzed all the data, and I think we’ll be happier in the long term if we make these decisions together.”
Molly melted inside. Her beloved engineer was such a nerd sometimes.
But then he dropped down on one knee and caused Molly’s heart to thunder. She steepled her hands over her mouth and waited.
Mason pulled a black velvet ring box from his pants pocket and opened it to reveal a sparkling solitaire set in a platinum band. “Molly, will you marry me?”
Marry.Mason wants to marry me.She’d dreamed about this possibility. She thought she wanted to be Molly Malone more than just about anything. Yet, here at the moment of truth, a ribbon of uncertainty fluttered through her. Her parents had once been head-over-heels in love. Look at them now? Look at all the pain they’d experienced. The pain thatshe’dexperienced. What if—?
Then Mason, because hewasMason and knew her so well, loved her so much, said the words she needed to hear. “Be brave, Molly. Believe in us. I do.”
“You do?”
“I do. Marry me."
Yes. Yes! She could do this. She would do this. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes her mother and father had made.She threw herself into Mason’s arms. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you, Mason. I want to marry you and make a home with you and someday have your babies.”
“Thank God. Me, too. Except…emphasis on ‘someday’ in regards to those babies,” he clarified. “Not right away. Right?”
“Right.” She laughed. “We have plenty of time for babies. Besides, I want you all to myself for a while.”
“I want that, too. I also want kids. But before we have them, we’ll need to buy a house and build up a 401K and college savings account. We haven’t talked about children very much, either. How many do you think you’ll want? If we want more than two and with optimal spacing between pregnancies, we should—“
“Kiss. Kiss me, Mason.” Molly planted her mouth on Mason’s, and for a time, the passion of the present erased all thoughts of the future from their minds.
Eventually, broke apart, poured the champagne, and dove into the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The conversation returned to their future, their hopes and wishes and dreams. When he mentioned how thrilled his parents would be about the engagement, Molly thought about her mom and dad.
A gray cloud drifted across her sunshine sky. She glanced down at the sparkling ring on the third finger of her left hand. Sadness and a measure of anger rippled through her. She wanted to share her big news with the people she loved the most—her parents.
But her parents weren’t together, so she couldn’t share her news with them in a single call. She had to choose which parent to call first. Whoever she didn’t call first would have their feelings hurt. Oh, they wouldn’t say it aloud, but she’d know it. She would feel guilty.
She shouldn’t have to feel guilty today. Not about this. The fact that she would feel guilty torqued her. At significant moments like this, the sorry state of her family broke her heart.
“What’s wrong?” Mason asked, his brow knitting in a frown. “You’ve gone all stiff. What’s the matter? You don’t like the ring? You said you liked the ring!”
“I love the ring,” Molly assured him. She smiled up into his worried eyes. “I love you.”
“Then why do you have a look on your face like somebody canceled Christmas?”
She shook her head. She wouldn’t talk about Mom and Dad. This was a moment for marriage, not divorce. “I’m sorry. I’m just feeling emotional. This is an emotional time for a girl.”
“You’re thinking about your mom, aren’t you? I can always tell. Want to call her? I’ll bet we could find a decent cell signal with a little effort.”
