Page 38 of Roundabout

“Yeah. I got reckless.” My gaze drops to her hands holding the ring box out to me. “Just like you.”

“I was reckless…but not exactly careless.” She opens the box, revealing what’s inside.

I look from it to her, tears making it hard to see but not impossible. That’s definitely the engagement ring I gave her last week.

“I chose you. You’re the one that taught me the definition of unconditional love, both giving and receiving it. Your heartbeat is the best music I’ve fallen asleep to, and the only sound I crave waking up to. Your eyes…” She pauses, swallowing. “Your eyes are the sweetest treat I’ve ever been addicted to. I fell for them before I even saw them. Even behind a visor, I could feel you looking at me. It’s the same feeling I get now, ten years later. No amount of time will ever change that because ours is the first happily ever after I’ve ever believed in. I choose you, Coty.”

Goddamn, what a speech.

But I have to know.

“How did you…”

“I never sold it. I wouldn’t. I just didn’t wear it to the mediation because I didn’t want Nora to see it and get any ideas. It’s my ring and will forever be my ring, just like you’ll forever be my husband.”

“Husband?”

“We can use whatever term you want, as long as you’re mine,” she says through a slight grimace, quoting me from a long, long time ago.

“I’m yours. You know I’m yours. Have been since I laid eyes on you,” I repeat back to her, somehow meaning it more now than I did back then, and I fucking meant it then. “You also know what term I want to use, but only if you’re ready.”

“If I’m ready?” She arches an eyebrow. “Coty Walsh, will you make me the happiest woman to ever walk this planet by marrying me and becoming my husband?”

“Yes. Hell yes.” I drop to both knees in front of her, taking her face in my hands. “When are we talking?”

She smiles, saying, “Now.”

“Now?”

“Are you busy?”

I laugh. “Nothing could keep me from marrying you today.”

“You don’t mind sharing an anniversary with my birthday?”

“I don’t mind sharing anything with you.”

Doubt clouds her eyes as they narrow.

“I have nothing to offer you in return.”

“Money comes and it goes, but love, our love, that’s forever. All I need is you.” I pull her to me, but just before kissing her, I add, “And maybe a ring because you just proposed to me with yours.”

Her lips spread against mine.

“I can’t afford one.”

“We can. Everything that’s mine is yours, including my money. No more separate accounts, no more separate anything. I want to share everything with you.”

Angela’s hands cover mine, and she says, “Let’s start with your last name,” then kisses me using more conviction than a speech ever could.

CHAPTER 11

Angela

“Okay, the Christensen crew should be here any minute. And Beckett and Marc are on their way over now,” Paige tells me from the front seat, her long legs stretched out of the open door, on to the ground.

“Beckett? I thought he was officiating?” The last few hours have passed in a blur of activity to pull this wedding off, one of which Beckett was supposed to be using to get ordained online.