Page 54 of The Wedding

Yet when Etta got down on one knee, her hair and complexion awash in the soft violet light, Jamie tasted nothing but air in her mouth. “Etta, what are you…” The thorns on the rose stem cut into her skin, and she could do nothing but ignore it.

“I’m doing something I should’ve done a while ago… but in my folly, I didn’t truly appreciate you. I apologize for that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for anything.”

Etta took her hands, soft skin so tender that Jamie had a hard time believing she was really there. “Yes, I do. I have to apologize forevery time I made you angry, sad, or uncomfortable. I don’t want you to feel that way. I love you, Jamie. I want you to be happy until the day you die. Until that day, I want you by my side, always.”

She swallowed, hard. “Okay.”

“Do you want to be with me until that time?”

Etta almost sounded uncertain… as if a woman as confident as her… a woman who could have anyone she wanted… would be uncertain whether Jamie would want to be together for the rest of their lives. “I want to be with you, Etta.”

Etta kissed Jamie’s fingers, lips lingering over her knuckles as she curled her hand into a fist. “Then marry me, Jamie.”

The world came to a complete stop. The lights stopped twinkling. The stars stopped shining. The water stopped flowing and the flowers stopped swaying in the breeze. Jamie stared at Etta’s face, and then beyond it, into a void that screamed at her,“These things don’t happen to boring people like you.”

Except it had.

Exceptthey did.

“Oh, my God.” Jamie could barely hear her voice as Etta stood up, hands taking her by the wrists. “Oh, my God!” She snatched her wrists and covered her mouth with her hands, her shock so great that it took all of Etta’s strength to get her to release her lips again. The woman holding the felt box opened it, revealing five rings to match Jamie’s tennis bracelet.

“Choose one. If you’ll say yes.”

Jamie gaped at all five diamond rings. One was huge, gaudy, and deliriously beautiful. Another was understated and classy. Yet another was a mix of the two, with one prominent diamond and two tiny ones on either side. None of these were Jamie’s favorites. She was instantly attracted to the two in the end. They were identical, except one had two tiny sapphires on either side of the small diamond in the center while the other was a bare, silverband.

Jamie picked the sapphire one out of the box. Finally, things began to sparkle again.

Etta brushed the hair away from her cheek. “Is that a yes? Will you marry me?”

Jamie looked between her and the ring. Two things she never thought she would have in a million years. Lightyears, even.This really isn’t happening. This can’t be happening. How could it be? I’m nobody. Etta could do so much better.

Better, like Adele. The only other woman Etta ever proposed to. Except she said no.Did it happen like this?Was Etta truly trying again… in the same manner?I don’t know if that would be great or terrible.

Jamie looked her in the eye. What did she see in Etta’s soul? The woman she loved. The woman she adored. The woman she went through hell and back for. The woman who cut her most important business asset out of her life when she found out what that asset was doing to the people she cared most about. The woman who never said she loved Jamie until all of that was said and done.

A broken woman. A woman desperate to believe in true love again.

“Yes,” Jamie whispered. “Yes, Etta. I’ll marry you.”

They embraced, Etta suffocating her. Jamie felt ten tons of love explode against her, Etta’s heart thumping wildly in her chest as she squeezed her girlfriend – her fiancée – for all her worth and kissed her throat. Jamie’s dress wrinkled beneath her touch. She didn’t care. All she wanted was to feel her body against Etta’s, even if other people – strangers – watched in either indifference or awe.

“You’ve just made me the happiest soul in the…” She glanced up. “Cosmos.”

Jamie brushed something from her eye, but she wasn’t sure what. Surely it wasn’t a tear. Definitely not a tear, for who would cry as hergirlfriend took a gorgeous ring and slipped it onto her ring finger?Not my girlfriend anymore. Etta’s my fiancée now.That sent the lump plummeting down her throat and landing in her stomach, never to be seen again… that night.

“Shut up and kiss me.”

They didn’t go as wild or as passionate as they may have liked in present company, but it was a good, tender kiss to start their engagement.

“The night isn’t over,” Etta whispered in her ear, the excitement palpable in her voice. “I’ve arranged dinner for us as well.”

Jamie pulled away from her, although she remained locked in a loving embrace. “I knew I smelled Italian. You may be full of surprises, but your surprises are full of the same old Etta.”

“Last I checked, you loved Italian food too.”

“Indeed I do.” Jamie rested her hand on Etta’s shoulder, her eye going straight to the small ring on her finger. “Not as much as I love you.”