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Screaming at the top of my lungs, I let loose. “Sam, Jude, and Cyrus! I am on my last bit of sanity and the edges are crumbling! If you don’t get your asses out here right now, I’m getting in my truck and driving to spend the night in a hotel with anyone who will have me and a bucket of fried chicken! I mean it!”
Paulie came sprinting around the side of the house a few seconds later. “Stop yelling already, Poppy. Your chariot awaits.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Follow me, idiot.”
I followed him, but I wasn’t happy about it. Around the house and down toward the lake, he led me toward the dock at the back of the property that we never used. “If this is your plan to murder me, it’s not going to work. I have a whole lot of anger and years of listening to your girlfriends complain about the size of your penis through my bedroom wall to work with. I could channel that shit and take you out without breaking a sweat.”
It was the muffled laughter and overly loudshh’s that gave them away. Hiding behind a stack of old canoes that needed to be restored were most of the people I’d been looking for.
Paulie grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward the boat dock. “There you go. Go find your men, you little shit.”
I smacked his arm before I heard a “now” and watched as water started pouring from a tree in front of me. Cyrus, Jude, and Sam ran out from behind a tree to stand under the water. My mouth fell open as I watched them wince and immediately start to shiver.
The water came down in big streams, one so pronounced it knocked Sam’s glasses off. I heard them sputtering and couldn’t understand what I was looking at until after watching the guys nearly drown, the water started falling in a pretty drizzle. It even misted around them and formed this magic little world with a streak of the setting sun cutting right behind them.
“Good job, team. That went exactly as we’d hoped. You’re all hired on for our next project of being electrocuted before the Christmas lights blink on this Christmas!” Cyrus wiped his eyes and then looked up at me. “Hey, baby.”
My heart was raging in my chest. There were my three men, all dressed in white dress shirts that had immediately gone see-through and all looking about as edible as I’d ever seen them. They were pullingThe Notebookon me. I looked down at the blue dress I’d worn after they’d all but thrown hissy fits about me wearing a dress for them, and back up at them.
“You shits! Does this dress even look good on me?” I slapped my hand over my mouth and doubled over as laughter erupted from behind the canoes. I straightened and shook out my hands. “I mean, hey! Wow!”
Sam grinned at me and pulled a crushed bouquet from behind his back. The poppies had probably been very beautiful before the buckets of water killed them. “The dress looks fucking stunning on you. I brought you flowers. Your brothers can’t install a sprinkler system to save their lives, though, so it’s their fault the flowers are all broken.”
“Not our fault! You should’ve asked for help a week ago!” Johnny’s voice came out loud and proud from behind the canoe.
“Shut the hell up, peanut gallery!” Jude pulled out a tube of chapstick from his pocket. “I brought you that chapstick you really like from that store that only sells things made of goat butts and dinosaur plasma.”
“It’s organic and vegan, you fool. There’s nothing nutty about it.” I really did love that chapstick, though, and it wasn’t something I ever bought for myself. I was still mentally poor.
Cyrus reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a ball on a string. It took me a moment to understand what it was and I guess he read it on my face and started laughing. “And I brought the gag.”
“Cyrus!”
“You wanted it spelled out in flowers while kissing in a rainstorm, babygirl. You can have all of that with us for the rest of our lives. You can have the romance and anything else you want. As long as you never stop being the loud-mouthed, ball-busting lunatic that you are. We love you for every bit of you, Poppy. From the way you argue about everything with your full heart, to the way you love hard enough to leave us breathless.”
Sam unfolded a card from the stem of the flowers and stared down at it. “We’ve each loved you since the day we met you. You made your home in us and you’ve given us a place to call home since then too. You’ve given us everything, Poppy. We’ll never be able to give you as much as you’ve given us, but maybe this could be a start.”
I looked closer at the streaky card and I couldn’t help it. I burst into a fit of laughter and threw my arms in the air. Pure joy overwhelmed me and I may have even danced a little. Written across the card in quickly streaking ink was just one simple message.Marry us, written in anything but roses.
Jude finished rolling on some of my chapstick and threw it to me. “You wanted to kiss in the rain when we asked you to take our last names, Poppy.”
I grinned. “Is it cold?”
Cyrus growled. “Is it cold? Poppy, if you don’t get your sexy little ass over here, I’m going to spank it in front of everyone.”
I giggled. “You’re shivering! I don’t want to be cold.”
Sam dropped the flowers and stalked toward me. “You wanted to kiss in the rain? You’re kissing in the rain. Get over here.”
I ran into his arms and locked my legs around him. “I was coming. I was just taking my own time.”
He carried me under the drizzle and lowered his mouth to mine. His kiss was gentle and loving, so full of feeling that I wanted to curl up in it. When he broke away, his eyes were shiny. “Marry me, Poppy.”
I hugged him tight and nodded. “Yes, I’ll marry you! You know I would’ve said yes on that night four years ago.”
I went to Jude next and his kiss left me breathless. He stroked my wet hair out of my face and gazed into my eyes as he smiled. “You want to marry me too?”
