Page 101 of Risktaker
“That place we went to last year was good,” Julie said. “And they’ve got a Devin-friendly menu, and heisthe one who just won a trophy.”
“Works for me,” Marta agreed. “I’ve had the occasional fantasy about those chili fries.”
“Same,” Alex added.
“Big fan of food,” I said. “But I actually had one more plan before we go.”
“Oh?” Devin looked up at me, green eyes sparkling in the sunlight, pretty as ever despite smelling of river water and being covered in dirt.
“Well, I was thinking,” I said, bracing myself.
Was I really doing this?
I was really doing this. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to domore.
“I was thinking,” I repeated, running two fingertips along Devin’s jaw. “That, umm. If you wanted. I might ask you to marry me?”
Devin blinked up at me. The bubblegum-pink tip of his tongue darted out, didn’t quite wet his lips, and then disappeared back into his mouth.
A heartbeat passed, and then another, and I started to worry. Was he searching for a way to let me down gently?
“I want,” Devin said after a moment.
What?
Oh. Oh. Right.
“Do it right,” Julie hissed beside me, tugging my elbow.
Devin smiled a tentative, hopeful little smile.
I dropped to my knees in front of him with all the elegance of a three-legged newborn foal, but at least I’d gotten there.
“Devin,” I said, grabbing both of his hands, looking up into his wide, pretty eyes, eyes I’d fallen in love with a hundred times over, eyes that looked at me as though I was the best thing that’d ever happened to him.
I cleared my throat.
“If love lives in the heart, then I must be heartless, because you hold my heart in your hands. If it lives in the soul then I am soulless—you keep my soul in your eyes. If it lives in the mind, then I am mindless, with love, for you.”
The silence was suddenly deafening.
“Marry me?” I asked, voice rising a half-octave.
Devin squeezed my hands tight.
“Duh.”
Laughter broke out all around us, but I was too busy grinning to laugh.
This was the best thing that’d ever happened to me.
“That’s what he gets?” Alex asked between bouts of disbelieving laughter. “He recites you this beautiful poem and he gets aduhin response?”
Devin shrugged. “Morgan loves me even if I’m a big dumbass when it comes to poetry. Who was that one by?” he asked, stepping back to help me to my feet.
“Oh, uh.” I stood, trying not to leantooheavily on a still-exhausted Devin. “That was all me.”
Devin stared.
“Seriously?” Alex asked a second later. “Seriously.”
“Seriously.” I scratched the back of my head. “Was it… was it okay?”
Devin threw himself at me, knocking the breath out of my lungs and nearly tipping both of us off-balance as he jumped into my arms, legs wrapped around my waist, confident now that I could take his weight.
“It wasperfect,” he said. “And I can’twaitto marry you.”
