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“Is something wrong?” Her voice was hesitant.
“No, nothing. It’s right, for a change.”
I watched her shoulders relax. The corner of her mouth lifted. “Good. And you’re happy?”
That was my opening. I was going to take it.
“For the most part. The hours are long, the clients and cases are different, interesting in a different way. The traffic sucks beyond anything I ever imagined...and I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. I was going to text when things got settled, and then...” she trailed off, letting out a bit of a breath, like she was trying to find the words.
“I walked into your studio.”
“You did.”
I reached out and took the wine glass out of her hand, setting it down beside us. I didn’t want her to use it as a security blanket, something to put between us, or even worse, something to throw in my face.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking...”
“Since this afternoon?”
“Since before that...since before the move, actually, about my life and what I want in it and most importantly who I want in it. And you were right, too, in a way, about the way I was before, with relationships, they weren’t really… They were just...people fulfilling a role in my life in a short space of time, and then I’d let them go...”
She nodded, her gaze intent on mine, like she was taking everything in, everything to heart.
“You know why I let them go? Why I kept finding ways to break up with them, hell to even make them break up with me?”
She shook her head, her eyes on mine.
“They weren’t you, Abs. Not a single one of them was you or close to you. And that trip made everything crystal-clear to me. And when I saw you freak out about Dominique, I started to clue in and I knew there were feelings on your side, too.”
“Okay, I was maybe a teensy bit insecure...”
“Not jealous.”
“Not jealous,” she repeated with a small smile.
I took a deep breath, pulling the ring box out of my pocket. “Good. Because right now, she’d probably be incredibly jealous of what I’m about to do.”
I went down on one knee, fumbling to open the ring box.
Abbie’s hand flew up over her mouth, and I strained to hear the garbled words.
I took a shaky breath, then said the words I’d been waiting a lifetime to say.
“Will you marry me?“
She stared at the ring, blinking, then pointed to me. “That’s your grandmother’s ring.”
“It is.”
My knee started to hurt—the deck was harder than I expected. But I stayed put. I wasn’t moving ’til she answered me one way or the other.
“Abs?” I ventured. Her silence had gone on so long, I wasn’t sure what she was thinking. If it was a no, it would have been quick wouldn't it, like pulling off a Band-Aid?
“You’re serious?”
“About you. Yes.”
“Your mom wants to be a grandmother.”
“We can work on that later...or get her a dog...” I looked at her. ”Or we get a dog...”
“You’re really serious?”
“Abbie...”
“Because if you’re as serious about me as I am about you, then yes.” She stepped forward and cupped my face in her hands, pressing her lips to mine. “Yes, yes, yes.”
The End
