Page 93 of Not Part of the Plan

I shook my head. “Nobody did. Are you okay that our families are going to be connected?”

“We kinda already are.” She cleared her throat. “Actually, I’m a bit miffed.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because if anybody was going to propose to a Voss woman, I wanted to get there first. Dad kinda stole my thunder.”

I tried to untangle her words. Was she saying what I thought she was saying?

Eliza put down her whisky glass, then took my hand. Before I knew what was happening, she dropped to one knee.

My breath caught in my throat.

This was actually happening.

Oh my fucking god.

“Poppy Frances Voss. You make me very happy, and I know now that you’re my soulmate. We got here the long way, but we made it. I bought our cottage, and I want to live in it together. Which means it only seems right to ask: will you marry me?”

For a moment, the world went absolutely still. The fire held its breath, while outside, the moonlight froze. My heart thumped so hard I was certain it would wake the entire town, but somehow I managed to find my voice.

“Yes,” I whispered. Then louder: “Yes, you brilliant, ridiculous woman. Of course, yes.”

Eliza’s face broke into the most radiant smile I’d ever seen as she stood.

“This was a spur of the moment thing, so I don’t have a ring—”

I launched myself into her arms and stopped her words with a hot kiss. Our first as a newly engaged couple, but definitely not our last.

We held each other tight, swaying slightly as the fire crackled back to life, and I could feel her laughing against my neck. This woman who’d smoothed out the corners of my chaotic life, who’d shown me what home really meant, who’d just given me everything I never knew I wanted.

She pulled back and looked at me, shaking her head. “You are the biggest surprise of my life, you know that?”

“In a good way?” I asked, head tilted.

“In the best possible way.”

THE END