Page 123 of Vivacity

Ethan licks his lips, his expression tense and watchful. He glances at Jamie like he’s unsure of something.

‘Read the answers out loud!’ Jamie sing-songs, and I chuckle. He’s ridiculously sweet.

‘You. Me. Will. Marry.’ I stop and freeze. Jamie said I was guessing them in the wrong order, didn’t he?

You. Me. Will. Marry.

I look up from the screen.

Ethan is smiling at me. He’s a handsome man, a beautiful man, but I’ve never seen his face so radiant with love, with a bright hopefulness.

‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers, and the world stands still.

My entire body begins to shake. Tears spring from nowhere and tremble on my lash line. ‘What?’ I’m officially a dumbass. ‘Are you serious?’

He reaches across the table with both hands and sandwiches my hand between them, his touch warm and sure. ‘I’ve never been more serious in my life.’

The words tumble from my lips. ‘Well, yes! Of course I will! Oh my god! Oh my god!’ I’m weeping, shivering, as feelings hit me like an emotional hailstorm.

He wants to marry me.

We’re going to get married.

I’ll be hiswife.

He’s out of his seat and rounding the table, kneeling beside me and covering my face with kisses as I laugh and cry and grab his head in my hands.

‘You’re going to be my husband,’ I say, like a fool, and he rubs my nose with his.

‘That’s the plan. You’re going to be my wife. God, I like the sound of that.’

‘And you’re going to be my stepmother,’ Jamie pipes up from across the table, and we both burst out laughing as I glance up at him. He’s wriggling, looking a combination of mortified and tickled pink.

‘Oh, shit! Can I be a very wicked one?’

‘No way,’ Jamie says, just as his dad adds, ‘Be my guest, sweetheart.’

Later,I lie in the huge bed with my fiancé, two commas curled inwards as we gaze at each other from inches apart.

‘I railroaded you, didn’t I?’ he asks, dragging a hand down his face.

I circle his wrist, pulling it away. ‘No! You surprised the hell out of me, but you didn’t railroad me.’

He groans. ‘I wasn’t sure about whether I should spring it on you so soon, and I definitely wasn’t sure about doing it in front of Jamie in a public place. The Lynx app was just supposed to be a present for you. It started out as a fun project for the two of us, and it spiralled from there. And then Jamie had the idea of proposing to you via the clues, so I had to include him.’

‘Wait—it was Jamie’s idea?’

He nods, bashful.

‘That’s amazing!’ My heart swells. The sweet little guy.

‘To be honest, that was what spurred me on. I was nervous about how he’d react to my remarrying, especially since the past year has been so tough on him. I didn’t want to undo all the work we’d done on our relationship, but he was all for it. He likes you. And he likes how happy you make me. So that was him taken care of, and then I just needed to worry about you running for the hills.’

I smirk. ‘So you proposed on a small, remote island?’

‘Yeah. Exactly.’

I snuggle in closer. ‘I’m not going anywhere. And, while I didn’t expect to leave Malaysia as your future wife’—saying italoud again has me suddenly feeling shy—‘I’m ready, babe. I’m more than ready. Bring it on.’