Page 103 of Trusting Mr. Sterling
“Tessa Thorne,” he said, “will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said. “Absolutely yes.”
He slid the ring on, and it fit like he’d been planning this longer than she’d known him. Maybe he had. Maybe he’d been planning this since he was sixteen, and she was just now catching up.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, holding up her hand to catch the light. The diamond scattered light across the walls. “Where did you find this?”
“It’s beautiful.” He was still holding her hand, like he couldn’t quite let go. “I spent two weeks visiting jewelers, looking at options. Lucy helped me. When I saw this one, I knew. It felt right. Classic but not boring. Like you.”
She laughed through the tears streaming down her face.
“Of course Lucy threatened you.”
“She threatened to burn down my building if I hurt you.”
“Of course she did.”
She held up her hand again, watching the ring catch the light. The diamond threw fire across the candlelit room.
This was real.
He was real.
They were real.
“So,” she said, a laugh catching at her mouth. “Paris for the honeymoon?”
His laugh was surprised. “Is that a yes to everything?”
“It’s a yes to you, you idiot. All of it. The honeymoon is just logistics.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
Later, after he’d called Knox and Ronan, after she’d called Lucy who screamed loud enough that she could have heard her three feet away, she curled against his chest on the couch and let herself breathe.
TWO WEEKS LATER
The engagement party was controlled chaos—the good kind, the kind that came from everyone who mattered crammed into an apartment with champagne and opinions about flower arrangements.
She was wearing emerald, the dress Gabriel loved, and when she caught him staring from across the room like she’d invented light, he raised his glass.
She turned back to Devney.
Knox appeared with a drink in hand and a scowl that could cut glass.
“You’re disgustingly happy,” he said to Gabriel, and she watched her fiancé’s shoulders shift with laughter. “It’s unnerving.”
“Therapy and love,” Gabriel said. “I recommend both.”
“Hard pass.”
She caught Knox glaring at Lucy across the room, who was arranging the cake she’d made with the focus of someone defusing a bomb.
Lucy caught him looking and returned a look that could curdle milk.
Knox raised his glass in mock salute.
