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Mom puts her hand over her mouth to muffle her cry of excitement. She turns to Dad, her eyes shining, as she grabs his arm. “Oh, James! That’s wonderful. Isn’t it wonderful, Richard?”
Dad taps his phone against the table, pursing his lips. “It hasn’t even been a year.”
“Oh, don’t be hypocritical,” Mom says. “We barely dated for a month before you proposed.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Seriously? I thought it was a couple years.”
“That was the official proposal.” She smiles at my dad, who sighs, shaking his head. At least the expression on his face is fond. “We discussed it very soon after we started to date. What did you say again?”
Dad kisses her cheek. “I said that I was going to marry you one day.”
“And you were quite determined, I remember.”
“I knew what I wanted.”
“And I know what I want,” I say. “We’re not going to get married right away, but we know we’re it for each other, so why not make it official?”
Mom sighs happily. “You’ve always had a romantic side.”
I take a seat at the kitchen table. Dad doesn’t look horrified, or anything, but it would be nice if he stopped looking at me like he’s expecting me to backtrack and say I was just joking. Mom reaches over and squeezes my hand. “How are you going to do it? Do you need a ring? You could use my mother’s ring; the emerald is just gorgeous. I always planned to offer it to you, or perhaps Cooper, when you were ready.”
Dad snorts. “You’ll be waiting quite a while if you’re hoping Cooper will take it.”
“Oh, shush,” Mom tells him. “Cooper will find his way eventually.”
I pull out the ring box and set it on the table. “Save Grandmother’s ring for Cooper. He’ll appreciate it. I picked something out for Bex before we came down.”
Mom opens the box, gasping when she sees the ring. Dad raises an eyebrow after taking a peek.
“That’s quite the ring,” he says. “Tiffany’s?”
“What, the box didn’t give it away?”
“She’s going to love it,” Mom says. “A circular diamond works perfectly for her.”
“It’s a bit close to the start of the season to propose, don’t you think?” Dad says. “You need to be focused.”
“I thought we agreed that you’d let me handle my work-life balance myself,” I say.
It’s taken us a while to get to this point, and I’ll admit that I am still nervous about making my NFL career work alongside a fulfilled personal life, but at the end of the day, I need to work on it myself, in my own way. I know that the steadiness of my relationship—a fiancée, a house together—will help remind me what I’m working for every day, but given my track record, I don’t blame my father’s hesitation.
Dad, for his part, leans back in his chair. “Just make sure you feel good about it.”
“I do.”
“Then I’m happy for—oh, Bex, hello.”
I grab the ring box and shove it into my pocket as Bex walks into the room. She’s in the middle of putting her hair into a ponytail, and her blue and white tie dye bikini shows off her curves beautifully. She’s going to look amazing with my ring on her finger, but it’s not time yet. When I propose, it’s going to be special, not while we’re standing in little more than underwear in a kitchen with my parents.
“Hey,” she says, cocking her head to the side. “Am I interrupting?”
“Nope.” I stand and kiss her cheek. “I just realized I forgot my sunglasses upstairs. I’ll go grab those and meet you on the beach.”
I bound upstairs before she can say anything else and hide the ring. By the time I actually find my sunglasses and grab sandals and a towel, Bex is sunbathing next to Izzy. The two dots floating in the ocean way out from the shore are Seb and Coop, I assume.
She shades her eyes as she looks up at me. “Hey, babe. There you are.”
I pull her up. “Come swim with me.”
