Page 8 of Nice to Meet Boo (Seasons of Sizzle #4)
GRANT
The bar hasn’t changed much in a year—same strings of orange lights, same paper bats sagging from the rafters, same sticky spot near the jukebox Cyrus swears he’s mopped a hundred times.
But I’ve changed.
I’m not the man who walked in here last Halloween planning to drink one beer and get out. I’m not the man who thought he was safer alone. Not anymore.
Tonight I’m a mouse. Which is humiliating, sure, but worth it to see Stacey in her glittery black cat ears, tail swishing every time she glances over her shoulder and smirks at me like she’s already won.
“You make a pretty good prey animal,” she teases as we squeeze through the crowd.
I lean down, brush a kiss over her temple. “I’d let you catch me any day.”
Her grin softens into something that still knocks me sideways. It always does.
Cyrus eyes us from behind the bar, shaking his head.
“Couples costumes again? You two are ridiculous.”
But he slides us two drinks without waiting for an order. He’s been rooting for this since the beginning, even if he’ll never admit it.
We don’t sign up for the contest this time. Stacey waves the clipboard off with a laugh.
“We’ve already got our trophy.” She flashes her left hand, a little Angel ring we won from one of those prize machines on a road trip we took last summer. It catches the light from above.
She loves that damn cheap plastic thing.
But she deserves more. She deserves a diamond. A real one that was fitted just for her and won’t make her fingers turn green if she wears it for more than an hour.
She deserves the real ring her sister-in-law, Heidi, helped me pick out with her brother’s blessing.
The ring that is burning a hole in my pocket right now.
“Wanna go for a walk down Main Street?” I murmur.
Her eyes sparkle. “Deja vu?”
“Something like that.”
I lead her toward the door, to the place where it all started. My pulse pounds harder than it should for a man who’s about to do the most certain thing of his life.
At the threshold to the door, she turns to face me, about to say something playful, when I pull the small velvet box from my jacket pocket.
Her breath stutters. “Grant…”
I drop to one knee. Not because the crowd has turned to watch. Not because Cyrus is already cursing under his breath about proposals in his bar.
But because this is the only way I know how to make it clear: I’m not running. Not anymore.
“For a long time, I didn’t know who I was or where I wanted to be,” I tell her.
“I wasn’t just hiding behind a costume last Halloween.
I was hiding behind my work and my loner life.
But you… you tore it right off me. You made me laugh.
You made me want to stay. And I don’t ever want to do another Halloween—or any other night of the year—without you. ”
Her cat ears tilt when she nods, tears bright in her eyes.
“So…” I clear my throat. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes. God, yes.”
My hands are steady sliding the ring onto her finger. Steadier than they’ve been in years. When I stand, she launches into me, arms tight around my neck, mouth pressed to mine as the room erupts in cheers.
I kiss her deep, ignoring the whistles, ignoring Cyrus’s, “About damn time” and her brother’s cat call.
It’s just us, like it always is when I’ve got her this close.
I brush my lips over her ear, my voice rough. “Nice to meet you, Boo.”
She laughs, happy and teary all at once, and for the first time in a long time, I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Seasons of Sizzle series for more steamy curvy girl/mountain man holiday fun.