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“What?”

“Just look away.”

“All right.” He turned his head toward the pristine kitchen, wondering if he should get back to his feet. Shove that ring away. Hide his head. Cancel the reservation at Ember. Somehow make it home without losing all of his dignity.

“Okay, look again,” she said. “I’m ready this time.”

Link looked at her again. Gone was the towel warmer, her anxiety, and that shocked look. She’d loosed her hair from its ponytail, and she grinned at him.

He smiled back at her. “I will always look again,” he told her. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes!” Misty squealed. She clapped her hands and bounced on her toes. “Link, this ring is gorgeous.” She held out her left hand, and Link slid the ring onto her finger. Then he reached for her, and she laughed as she leaned down to kiss him.

“I love you,” he murmured.

“I love you so much.” She kissed him and pulled back. “I just want you to know I’m not going to be good at this in the beginning. I’m really not. I’m so scared. But I’m in it for the long view too.”

Link got to his feet and cradled her face in his hands. “I think we’ll both have a lot to learn in the beginning.”

“But we love each other.”

He gathered her into his chest. “Yeah, I love you,” he confirmed. “Because you’re so special and so amazing and so brave.”

“And I love you, because you’re hard-working, and calm, and so, so special.”

Link grinned, his eyes dropping closed, wanting and needing to simply be here with her, in this apartment in Dallas they’d never visit again, to feel the love she had for him and the love he had for her.

He could just see the two of them in a new house on the ranch, one with a big sunroom for painting, and bedrooms upstairs for the kids, and a big yard for the dogs who followed him home after work on the ranch.

“Can I text your momma now?” Misty asked.

“No,” he said, stepping back and coming back to the present. “No, because we have our engagement dinner to get to, and you won’t have time.”

She blinked and grinned at him. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Ember,” he said, ducking his head as if embarrassed.

But Misty made that delicious squealing sound again and launched herself into his arms all over again. “You didn’t. Ember?” She searched his face, pure wonder on hers. “That’s such a nice place.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a jacket in the back of the truck,” he said.

“You planned this.” She gave him a look that said she appreciated the work he’d put into this proposal.

“Oh, don’t go thinkin’ you’re special because I called and got us a reservation three weeks ago.” He rolled his eyes. “Let’s go. I don’t want to miss it, and city traffic is not something I’m used to.”

He bent and picked up the towel warmer, and they left the apartment together.

“I am special, though,” Misty said once he’d put the towel warmer in the back and gotten behind the wheel of the truck.

He looked over to her. “Yeah, you are. You’re the special-est.”

“You’re special too.”

“Yeah.” He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. “Okay, now, text my momma and tell her I love you and you love me and we’re going to get married.”

Misty grinned and grinned, pulled her hand back, and said, “Okay.”