Page 151 of Almost Not Quite Engaged

“That’s all I get?”

“For now. Talk more.” She says it with a smile that makes her stunning eyes crinkle. I’m rubbing her hands as I stand back up.

“I have an idea,” I say.

“Yes,” she says.

“You haven’t heard it.” I say.

“Will you be there? Doing whatever your idea is?”

“Yes.”

“Then my answer will always be yes.” She smiles the perfect smile and says, “And we don’t have to get engaged or married, right?”

“Unless that’s important to us.” I stroke her cheek and continue, “I mean, we really are almost, not quite engaged, but if you want to make it official.”

“I do.” Which surprises me.

She circles around the booth and climbs onto my lap facing me, pints spilling behind us as she bumps the table. I move a big curl behind her ear and she kisses me slow and deep. “And I recently checked my calendar and aside from a couple of surprises, it is clear for the conceivable future.” She smirks like I’m supposed to get that joke.

I let her know all of it. “I promise with all my heart, not to marry you. And that I’ll never love anyone quite as much as I love you, Kat. Katy. Harpy. Whatever you want to be called, as long as I can call you mine.”

“Yes! Yes to all of it. I love you so much.”

“I gathered that from eternal email.”

“I don’t know, since you’ve flown across the world chasing me twice, I thought maybe I’d say it out loud.” She shrugs.

“By all means, don’t let me stop you. Say it as often as you like.”

“I love you,” she says.

I kiss her again. “There will never be a thing or a person I love more than you.” I put a finger on her lip and say, “But quick clarification, you flew across the world chasing me first.”

She leans back a little bit, “I guess I did but not today, of course.”

“No, not today. But go on.”

“But, hear me out. Perhaps, maybe, someday we could almost not quite get married?”

I put up one finger and she sucks it immediately into her mouth. I pull it out and laugh at her. I put it back up and she mirrors my finger and adds two more as I say, “One, if we both want that. Two, our own family, how we define it. Three, if it’s forever.”

She smiles and whispers, “Three reasons why you’d get married someday.” I nod.

Her voice isn’t as sassy. There’s reverence in it.

She clears her throat and puts my finger back up. I count off her reasons.

“One, you are everything and have shown me I’m everything I need to be already. Two, you are my path. Three, I think I’m pregnant.”

My heart seizes, tears spring to my eyes as I say, “Three reasons why we should probably do it sooner than later.”

Epilogue

Zane

Rhinebeck