Page 96 of No One Does It Like You
Tom dizzily walked toward the edge of the stage as Rosie put her things away and approached from the audience. She folded her arms on the edge of the stage and made big eyes up at him, the same face she made when she pulled a perfect birthday gift out of hiding. Waiting for his reaction.
“Hey, don’t we have security? How’d you get in?” Ximena called before Tom could say anything.
Rosie shot her a quick smirk. “Showed them my boobs. Same way I got Tom into bars freshman year.”
“That’ll do it,” Tom breathed, a giddy wave of relief floating up from his toes.
“So we only have to worry about stalkers with good boobs?” Ximena groused.
“I can live with that,” Boyd said confidently.
Tom waved at them to shut up. This was important.
“Did Adrian drive you down? Are you guys moving in?” he asked.
Rosie nodded. “He and Caroline are unloading her SUV at your apartment right now. Though Caroline was disappointed to miss rehearsal. She made me promise to get some good pictures of you making out with Boyd for the Christmas card this year.”
“Did you get any?” he asked, throat feeling tight. “For our Christmas card?”
Rosie nodded slowly, a shy smile spreading across her face. “Though I’m not sure they’ll make the highlights after we host BoyCon this summer. I was thinking the theme could be Vikings. You know: Bonfires. Feats of strength. Roast meats. I started putting together a Pinterest board on the drive down. Snowy’s been in touch.”
She nervously tucked her hair back behind her ear. A glint of metal during the movement caught Tom’s eye and froze him again.
“I want to hear more about your vision,” Boyd said. “I love roast meats.”
Tom lovedher. His heart filled his entire chest, choking him speechless for once in his life.
“Guys, I know you’re having a moment here, but let’s not just brush past the security concerns,” Ximena said. “Are we really going to live with groupies wandering in and out like they did on the island?”
“Actually,” Rosie said, clearing her throat and looking up at Tom with a shy tilt to her head, “I didn’t flash my boobs. Security checked my ID. They may have thought I was your wife?”
She made it into a question. As though he actually had the opportunity to say it now and make it true: Rose Kelly Wilczewski was his wife; she was his, and they were going to be together for the rest of their lives, the way they should have been from the moment they first met. Tom’s pulse started to pound, so fast he wondered whether he might be the next one to pass out onstage. “I think you are too,” he said.
The corners of Rosie’s pink lips trembled upward. “I guess that means we’re married?” she said tentatively.
Tom finally vaulted down off the stage and grabbed Rosie’s left wrist so that he could examine her hand. He recognized the ring on it, even though it was so large on her dainty little ring finger that it was in danger of sliding off.
He retrieved it and slid the ring back onto his own hand. Still fit perfectly. But that left her without one.
“I’ll get you a new one,” he promised Rosie. “Boyd’s probably got a corporate sponsor who’ll give me a discount. I could even get you something made of real gold this time if you don’t mind a logo for a testosterone supplements company on it.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever given me a ring, but I got a watch made of space-grade titanium last week,” Boyd immediately offered. “And it’s waterproof to two hundred meters. Do you want that?”
Rose looked at her bare hand. “No, I think I have something that’ll work,” she said.
She bent to rustle through her purse, coming out with a ring of door keys. “Just in case you gave me your only copies, I made you a bunch of spares,” she said. She carefully peeled the keys off a little steel spiral, then slid it onto her ring finger.
And just like that, it was done. The entire arc of Tom’s life snapped back into place like a broken bone that had finally been set. Rosie held up her hand, displaying the band of cheap metal.
“Ready to go home?” she asked, body tense but tone casual.
Rosie loved a big moment, and she loved a party, and she’d loved his first proposal, with a sunset and a real ring and Adrian taking pictures. But she’d done this for him so that he’d know there were no tests to pass, no apologies to deliver, no more promises to make.
After a decade, he was finally going home.
Rosie’s small, hopeful smile spread into a real one as he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her against his body. They had a bit of an audience right now, which made it even better when he rolled her over his hip and bent her backward in a move he’d been working on since they were eighteen. One perfect kiss, projecting love from every angle, dramatic and over the top and totally, totally sincere.
Rosie’s tiny fists curled in his shirt as he savored the endless moment with her lips against his.
“That! That is what you’re supposed to be doing,” the director yelled to Ximena. “Do what he’s doing there.”
Couldn’t be done, Tom thought smugly. Nobody did this like him andRosie.
