Page 100 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

“Oh, I’ve got big plans for you, believe me. But they’ll have to wait.”

“Not too long, I hope.” When I have four pretty gold necklaces and four pretty gold hearts around my neck, I let my hair down.

“You could also just put all of these pendants on one necklace, I guess. Right?”

“Yes.” I kiss him on the right cheek. “I can.” I kiss him on the left cheek. “So, you told Grammie you were coming?”

He nods. “She good at keeping a secret?”

“A little too good. It’s disturbing.”

Shane takes a deep breath. “It still smells like cherry vanilla in here,” he says.

“Have you been here before?”

“No. You told me about it. When we met.”

“I can’t believe you remember that.”

He looks at me so seriously all of a sudden. “I know I got your name wrong at first, but I was really tired. I remember everything about that first time I met you. I remember everything about every second I’ve spent with you. I want to spend all the seconds with you. Don’t take that job. I want you to live with us, and I want you to make your own perfume, and I want you to feel good about being with us. I want you to live with us as my future wife.” He pulls another small box out of his blazer pocket.

Oh my God. I was so excited to see everyone, I didn’t even notice that he’s wearing a blazer, button-down shirt, and a skinny tie! I look down at his feet. And the high-tops!

I’m so excited that he’s dressed up like Greyson again for me that when he opens the box and I stare at a beautiful diamond ring, it takes me a few seconds to understand that it’s an engagement ring. For me.

“I am so in love with you, Willa Todd. I want you to know that you’re the first. I asked Margo to marry me because I got her pregnant and I cared about her and it was the right thing to do. I’m asking you to marry me because you’re the only woman I’ve ever been in love with, and my kids love you, and one day when you’re ready, I want to get you pregnant. And you’re the only woman I want to go to sleep with and wake up next to for the rest of my life.”

Shane Miller is looking at me like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world, but I feel like a twelve-year-old dork. My mouth is dry. My hands are trembling. My right eye might be twitching.

“Yes,” I blurt out, at the same time that he asks, “Will you marry me?”

He laughs, and as he takes my hand to slide the ring onto my finger, his index finger touches the pulse point on the inside of my wrist, and once again I don’t see our future life together, but Ifeelit. Comforting and exciting and romantic and light and important and there’s a home and kids, and…I feel it all in this moment, and this time I know that he feels it too.

TWENTY-EIGHT

SHANE

Most days, I think it’s ridiculous that I get paid so much to be a good-looking funny guy. Today, I am incredibly grateful for everyone responsible for overpaying me, because I’m able to afford a chauffeured SUV, two suites in the nicest hotel in Detroit, and a nanny to look after my kids in one of them. In the other one—that is not next door but across the hall—I get to undress the love of my life.

Willa called to turn down the New York job before we left Grammie’s house. For the past forty minutes, I’ve been doing a half-decent job of pretending to be an attentive father who enjoys listening to his kids sing along toSingin’ in the Rainand who definitely isn’t thinking about sticking his head under his fiancée’s dress. But as soon as I pull Willa inside our suite, I lift that dress up over her head.

This dress. I will always think of this as the dress she wore the first time I saw her naked and the one that she wore on the day I asked her to marry me. Andunderneath the dress—four necklaces, a beige full-coverage bra, and granny panties.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you today,” she explains, covering her face. “And I definitely didn’t expect you to propose to me. or I would have worn something a little less geriatric.”

“You are making this ensemble work, I promise you.”

She groans. “I’m humiliated.”

“I can fix this.” I swiftly remove her bra and panties, taking in her beautiful naked body. “Better?”

“You tell me,” she mutters.

“It’s better than anything.” Honestly, I’ll never get tired of looking at and touching and kissing this woman. “We need to plan on another little vacation when Margo is back and the kids are with her.”

“Maybe don’t talk about the kids when I’m completely naked and you’re squeezing my ass.”

“Mmm, you’re gonna have to get used to talking about all kinds of things when you’re completely naked and I’m squeezing your ass. I told the twins that you’ll be sleeping with me from now on and that they aren’t supposed to bother us if the door is closed. I plan to spend a lot of time in the bedroom with my naked fiancée.”