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“And what about Maggie?”
“We’ll do it when she’s older.”
Olivia snuggled into his shoulder. “I like it when you talk about the future.”
Charlie’s heart rate picked up. “You do?”
“I know we’re in a good place. It’s not like I worry about it. But it’s nice to hear you say that you’re on the same page as I am — that you mean for us to be together as much as I do.”
“Of course I do,” he told her. “It’s all I want. I wouldn’t allow anything to get in the way of that.”
She’d given him a better opening than he could have dreamed of. He reached into his pocket and palmed the ring box.
He had always pictured getting down on one knee for this moment, but suddenly, he didn’t know why. He didn’t know why people did that. He was sitting under the stars with the woman he loved in his arms, relaxing against his chest with her head on his shoulder, and he had no intention of letting go of her so that he could adopt some ridiculous position.
Instead, he tightened his hold on her and brought the ring box around in front of her so that she could see it.
“Olivia,” he said quietly, “will you marry me?”
She chuckled, low under her breath. “I married you already.”
She hadn’t noticed the ring. She didn’t realize how serious he was.
He flicked the box open with his thumb and the diamond caught the light.
“Olivia,” he said.
She gasped, noticing it. “Charlie…”
“I know the road has been crazy,” he told her. “But this time, I want to do things the right way. I want you to be my wife. Tell me that you will. I want us to be together forever. I want us to have a wedding where you wear a big white dress and your mom and Izzy dance and eat cake with us. I want Maggie to grow up feeling sure of how much her mother and father love each other. Marry me. Be my wife.”
She turned slightly in his arms to look at him. “You really want this?”
“More than anything,” he murmured.
Her fingertip brushed the diamond. “Truth be told, I thought you’d never ask,” she whispered.
“I had to work up the courage.”
“You didn’t have anything to be scared of.”
She turned fully in his arms now, arranging her legs alongside his on the bench and pulling herself forward so that she could embrace him fully.
“Of course I will,” she said softly. “Of course I’ll marry you, Charlie.”
She pulled herself into his arms and met his lips in a passionate kiss.
There were no fireworks tonight, but no fireworks could possibly have competed with the explosion of love, passion, and gratitude that Charlie felt as he wrapped his arms all the more tightly around the woman who was now to be his wife — the mother of his child, his best friend — and lost himself altogether in the sweetness of her kiss.
The End