Page 103 of Picture Perfect Mistake
“Two minutes,” she warns, but she’s smiling.
Pierce pulls me through the crowd toward the back of the store, where a small restroom offers temporary refuge from the chaos. He locks the door behind us, and suddenly, the noise fades to a distant murmur.
“Pierce, what?—”
“I need to tell you something before you go up there,” he says, his hands cupping my face with gentle reverence. “I am so incredibly proud of you. Everything you’ve accomplished, everything you’ve overcome— You amaze me every single day.”
“You’re going to make me cry before my speech.”
“I’m not done.” His eyes are suspiciously bright. “Eighteen months ago, I was a miserable man in a colorless apartment, convinced I didn’t deserve happiness. Then you crashed into my life with your sticky notes and your disasters and your absolute refusal to let me stay hidden behind my walls.”
“Pierce…”
“You taught me that mistakes can be beautiful. That chaos can be art. That it’s never too late to chase your dreams.” He takes a shaky breath. “You made me brave enough to start my architecture firm, brave enough to believe I deserved love, brave enough to build a life that actually makes me happy.”
My heart is pounding so hard that I’m sure he can hear it.
Pierce smiles, and then he sinks to his knees on the restroom floor.
Oh.Oh.
“I’m not sure reenacting our first hookup is going to help me go out there all calm and collected.”
He laughs, reaching into his jacket pocket. “I like whereyour head is at, and I will never not want to go down on you, but this is not one of those times.”
“In my defense, you’re on your knees in a restroom.”
“Fair point.” He pulls out a small velvet box, and my heart stops entirely. “Thatcher Edward Charles III?—”
“Oh god, my full name.”
“—also known as Meatball, also known as the most chaotic, beautiful, talented man I’ve ever met.” He opens the box to reveal a simple gold band with a small diamond that catches the light. “Will you marry me?”
The tears I’ve been holding back finally spill over. “You’re proposing in a bookstore restroom.”
“Seemed fitting, given our history.”
“It’s perfect,” I manage through the tears. “You’re perfect. Yes. Obviously yes.”
Pierce slides the ring onto my finger, and then he’s standing and kissing me, and I’m laughing and crying at the same time. When we finally break apart, both of us thoroughly disheveled, I can’t stop staring at the ring on my hand.
“We should probably get back out there,” Pierce says, but he makes no move to unlock the door.
“Probably.” I kiss him again, softer this time. “Thank you. For believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. For being my safe place in all the chaos.”
“Always.” He straightens my tie, smooths down my hair. “Now go give your speech. Your adoring public awaits.”
When I step onto the small stage at the front of the bookstore, I find Pierce immediately in the crowd. He’s standing with my family, and the sight makes my chest so full that I’m not sure how my heart contains it all. I guess I’ll become Thatcher Dellcourt sooner than I dared to hope.
“Thank you all for being here tonight,” I begin, my voicesteadier than I expected. “This book is about a character who turns disasters into adventures. Who finds magic in mistakes and beauty in chaos. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been living that story my whole life.”
I find my father’s eyes in the crowd, then Uncle Jack’s, then Alli’s.
“I spent years thinking I was too messy, too chaotic, too much. But then I met someone who showed me that all those things I thought were flaws were actually my greatest strengths.”
Pierce’s smile is so bright it lights me up from the inside out.
“So this book is for everyone who’s ever felt like a mistake. Who’s ever been told they’re too much or not enough. You’re exactly right, just as you are. And your story is worth telling.”
The applause washes over me as I step off the stage, but I barely hear it. Because Pierce is there, pulling me into his arms, and my family is surrounding us, and somewhere in the chaos and the noise and the overwhelming love, I realize something.
My life isn’t perfect. It’s messy, unpredictable, and full of near-disasters.
But it’s mine. It’s ours.
And it’s absolutely, completely, picture perfect.
