Page 88 of Truly

My cheeks flush.If they only knew…

“Are you going to be in Nashville next week?” I ask Kate. “Did that meeting get set up?”

“Oh, yes! I am. I get there on Wednesday. When do you go back?”

“Tuesday. Why don’t you stay with me? I have a great view and lots of wine. And you can get your sweater back that I borrowed last month.”

“Sold!” she says, laughing.

Kennedy sits at a barstool and plucks a cookie off the peanut butter board that Megan is putting together.

“Dammit,” Luke says from the dining room. “Where the hell did I put it?”

“Put what?” I ask.

“I had a box in my pocket, and it’s gone.” He frowns. “It could be anywhere.”

“Do you need help?” I ask.

“I can’t see under the table. It’s too dark.”

“Here. Use my phone as a flashlight.”

I go into the dining area and hand him my phone. But instead of taking it, he takes my hand instead.

The whole family stands silently around the kitchen with big smiles. Megan gives me a sneaky thumbs-up.

Oh. My. God.

Luke takes the phone from my hand and sets it on the table. Then he gets down on one knee.

There’s no buildup.I just cry.

He gazes up at me with a sincerity that hits my heart so hard that I can’t breathe.

“First, I want to point out that I realize we have a crowd, and I know you explicitly hated the last proposal you got in front of a crowd,” he says. “But my mother would’ve killed me had she not gotten to witness this since Chase proposed in a mud puddle outside of The Wet Whistle.”

Everyone laughs, including me, through my tears.

“I love you,” he says. “I could try to add on a bunch of random phrases like more than the moon and stars or more than the universe. But none even begin to capture how I feel about you.”

“Oh, Luke. That’s so sweet,” Maggie says before getting shushed by our family.

“You don’t have to marry me soon,” he says, rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand. “And you don’t have to marry me in public. We don’t even have to get married if you don’t want to.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the point of asking her to marry you?” Gavin asks.

Luke sighs and looks at his brother. “You’re missing the point. I want her to know I’m not pressuring her to do anything. I’m just stating my intention that I plan to be with her forever. And she can do what she wants with that information.”

“Stop talking to Gavin. Talk to me,” I say, laughing.

He clears his throat. “Right. Sorry.” He takes a small wooden box out of his pocket and opens it. The most beautiful, simplest, most perfect ring I’ve ever seen sits proudly in the center. “Laina Kelley, will you marry me?”

“I love you,” I whisper, getting a shy grin in return.

“Is that ayes?”

I laugh, shaking my finger at him. He slides the ring on just before I launch myself in his arms.