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The business was thriving to the point we were able to open a bigger facility, which was what we had been able to officially open up that afternoon.
The dinner had been great, with plenty of banter and laughter being shared all around, though I had to admit, I was looking forward to having Alex to myself that evening to ask him if he, too, noticed how much Angela and David were making eyes at each other.
I was confident Teresa had also seen it, but she knew better than to say anything right then, and I wasn’t going to get the chance to talk to her privately until tomorrow, I was sure.
After the flame was put out and the dessert had been served, I was ready to dig in. The pregnancy was making me crave sweets more than I ever thought possible, and while dinner had been delicious, I had been looking forward to dessert all day.
But just when I was getting ready to dig in, I was stopped with another waiter coming to the table with a cart. I hadn’t been expecting that, nor the presents that were sitting on the cart, either.
“What’s this?” Teresa asked, and Angela looked at me with inquisitive eyes as well. I could only shrug and shake my head as I turned to Alex for an explanation.
“I thought I would add to the dinner by giving you ladies a little present,” he said with a nod.
The waiter placed the gifts in front of each of my sisters, along with one in front of Lucy.
I was still confused. We hadn’t talked about getting gifts for anyone, and even though Alex had met my sisters on a number of occasions, I didn’t know if he knew them well enough to be able to get them something. Not that they were hard to please, but it was confusing to me why he would go through the trouble of getting them something without telling me when I could easily have picked them out something myself.
It was even more confusing with the fact Lucy had gotten something as well.
“Open them!” I said as I clapped my hands. “I’m just as much in the dark as you are, and now I want to know what’s going on, too.”
At my encouragement, my sisters opened up the gifts, and each gasped. Lucy had done the same, but she didn’t seem to know what she was looking at.
“Tiaras?” Teresa asked. Then, her eyes went wide, and she put her hand over her mouth. I had been too busy watching them to notice that Lucy had gotten down from the table, and Alex wasn’t sitting next to me anymore, either.
I turned, and my hand went right to my own mouth.
There, on his knee, was Alex.
He was holding out a small box in his hand, with Lucy standing next to him, a small box in her hands, too. She had her tiara already on her head, and she looked to her father for more direction. My heart melted as I realized they must have practiced doing this, but now that it was time for the moment, she wasn’t sure what she was doing.
“Do I say it now, Daddy?” she asked.
“Yes, pumpkin, go ahead,” he told her. “And open your box, just like I showed you.”
With a wide grin, Lucy used both her hands to open up the box before she fixed it, balancing it on one palm as she presented it to me.
Inside was a dainty bracelet with a charm on it reading the wordMommy,and my heart leaped to my throat.
“Will you be our princess?” Lucy asked.
“And our queen?” Alex chimed in, this time being the one to open the box he held in his hand. There was a large diamond ring in the center of his box, and I could hardly think straight as I took in the entire scene.
“Put it on,” Lucy cried, running to me with the bracelet in her hand.
I slipped it on and took her in my lap, navigating her around my growing belly as Alex continued.
“Cassie, thanks to you, I know what love really is. I have thought before that I knew. I thought I had found it and lost it. But I was mistaken. I had never known what real love was before I met you. You have shown me how to love someone despitetheir problems and despite the issues that lay before them. You have taught me how to look at the positive side of things and how to cling to the good that’s in life. Most of all, you have shown me what it means to be a family, a real family.”
He paused for a moment, and I swallowed hard.
“I didn’t know if I would ever find anyone who would be able to fit the role I needed in my life. I didn’t just need a partner. I didn’t just need someone who could watch Lucy. I could find those things, sure; I could pay for some of them, but I couldn’t buy a wife or mom. And for the longest time, I didn’t think there was anyone out there for me, either,” he said.
“But then I met you. You came into my world, and you changed everything. You have shown us both so much love and acceptance; you have been there through the good times and the bad, and you have shown me that you will be there. You’re not after the things money can buy. You’re not with me for the status you might get. You aren’t with me for any reason but love, and while it has taken me some time to get used to that, I know without a doubt that you are here to stay. I can’t wait for our child to be born and to grow our family even more, but right now, I don’t want another day to pass before I ask you one important thing…will you marry me?”
By the time he had finished his speech, there were tears pouring down both my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw both my sisters also reaching for napkins to dab their eyes, and I knew they were right there with me, being moved with emotion. But, as I gently put Lucy down on the seat next to mine and rose to my feet, it was like Alex and I were the only two people in the room.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I’ll marry you! Oh God, I thought you were never going to ask!”
