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“I’ve missed you too,” Curtis whispered. “I never forgot about you. I kept waiting and hoping you would come back. I loved you then and that never changed. I still do.”

“I love you too.”

We stared at each other. My heart began to beat faster. Was I crazy? I had come here to congratulate Curtis on his engagement and to apologize for being such a terrible friend. For running away when he had needed me. And here I was proclaiming my love for him!

“Truly, I know when I wrote that letter, I said that you are worth waiting for,” Curtis began.

“But?” I asked apprehensively.

“But I don’t think I can wait any longer. I need you in my life. I couldn’t bear it to lose you again.”

He knelt down and pulled out a ring. “Will you marry me?”

My mouth fell open. What? How could this be happening so fast? I knew that I loved him. Of course I knew. Just as he had said his love for me had never waivered, neither had mine. All these years later, any time I imagined myself married, it was always Curtis beside me. It was as though I had been hoping all this time, for just this to occur, but now that it had, I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there, dumbstruck.

Merely twelve hours before, I hadn’t even dreamed I would be attending the ball. My mind had already accepted that Curtis would never be in my future, even if my heart was still struggling with that concept. And then there had been the whirlwind of finding Curtis’ letters, coming back to the palace, reuniting with him, and discovering Curtis still loved me… Was I ready to move forward?

Curtis winced, and I realized he had been uncomfortably kneeling while my thoughts had raced through my mind. “Curtis, I don’t think you need to keep kneeling. You can stand up.”

He didn’t move. “You didn’t answer my question. Will you marry me?”

“Curtis, I… I don’t know.”

Fear crept into his face.

“I’m not saying no!” I said hastily. “I just… I just need some time to process all of this. This afternoon I still thought you were going to be running off to Avivia to marry Aria.”

He slowly stood up. “I guess that would be a bit of a shock,” he conceded. “But you said that you loved me.”

“And I do!”

“So marry me!”

I hesitated.

“Truly. When you left, it was like a part of me died. Every day since then, I have wished that you would come back. I need you back in my life. You make me a better person. You give me a reason to wake up in the morning and be the best I can be. If you walk away tonight, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I can’t live without you anymore. Marry me.”

“But…” my thoughts were a blur. So many questions tumbled around in my mind, and finally I stammered, “H…how long have you had the ring?”

He held the ring up to catch the light. It was beautiful, a delicate golden band with diamonds cloistered at the top. It was a ring worthy of a princess. “I got it about the time that the ball was announced. I made sure to tell one of the couriers where your house was so that he would be sure to invite you. Just to be sure, we invited every girl in your town.”

“I thought every girl in the kingdom was invited.”

Curtis shook his head incredulously. “The castle would have been overrun!”

“But, the invitation said…”

“That was just another tactic from the Council. They had us pick out a few towns nearby, and we sent invitations exclusively to them. We couldn’t possibly accommodate all the thousands of girls that would have showed up otherwise. So I picked your town, and Hubert picked another. I think he threw a dart at a map to pick.”

I laughed, marveling that Curtis went to such great lengths to make sure I was invited to the ball. Now the smaller number of girls I had noticed milling around the ballroom made sense. He hadn’t wanted every eligible maiden in the kingdom. He had wanted me. He still loved me. I had never been able to stop thinking about him, after all these years. I loved him too. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Yes?”

“Yes, I will marry you.”

Elated, Curtis slipped the cool band onto my finger. We gazed into each other’s eyes, lost in the moment. We were going to get married. I was going to be my best friend’s wife.