He glanced at his driveway and, noticing that Lola wasn’t home yet, grabbed the envelope of keys that he’d picked up just an hour before. He felt sick to his stomach. Like he’d run a marathon after eating five cheeseburgers and was about to throw them all up just as he crossed the finish line.
She’ll say yes. She has to say yes. His mind reeled. Fuck. What if she says no?
He stepped out of his car, slammed the door behind him just as he saw her pulling up into the driveway. His heart began an anxious tick in his chest. Suck it up, dude. Glancing at his watch, he noticed that he still had thirty minutes until everything would be ready. How the fuck was he supposed to act normal for thirty minutes? He was about to ask the woman of his dreams if she’d marry him, and he had thirty minutes to kill. Maybe he’d just show up early?
“Hey!” she said, opening her door. The bright smile on her face made his heart thump in his chest, but surprisingly, seeing her, being near her, calmed the full-blown panic that he’d been about to succumb to.
While she reached into her car to grab her handbag, he looked at her, felt his chest tighten with need, and his throat clog with emotion. She was wearing her favorite overalls. Her hair, which had been shaved at the back in the hospital so that the doctors could stitch her, had been restyled into a fashionable pixie cut that was longer at the front than the back, and that only accentuated her big, brown eyes and broad smile.
“Hi.” Stepping up to her once she’d closed the door, he wrapped his arms around her waist loosely and bent his head so that he could brush his lips across hers. Lilacs and sunshine flooded his mouth, and he bit back the groan that rose in his throat. As much as he would love nothing more than flinging her over his shoulder and marching her up to the bedroom, he knew that he didn’t have time for the distraction.
She let out a small, contented groan and looped her arms around his neck, the scratchy cast on her right arm rubbing against his skin as she deepened the kiss. His pants grew uncomfortably tight, and he broke the contact on a long exhale before taking a solid step back.
She frowned at him. “Are you okay?”
He looked at her, saw the concern in her big brown eyes, and reached out a hand so that he could touch her cheek. “I will be.”
“Jake? What’s wrong?”
“I have to show you something.”
Her brow creased with worry, and she replied, “Anything.”
Without saying anything more, he pulled open the door to his car, waited for her to slide into the passenger seat before closing her inside and walking around to get into the driver’s side.
He ignored the fact that his hands were slick with sweat and drove the short five miles to their destination—the short five miles that seemed to take an age to drive. When he pulled into the wide, sprawling driveway and looked through the windshield at the double-story craftsman, he felt his heart settle more firmly in his chest.
It feels right.
“Where are we?” she asked, turning in her seat so that she could look at him.
Jacob noticed the paint-splotched overalls that she was wearing over a white tank top that showed off the smooth skin of her slender sides. He loved that despite the extensions she’d received on her commissions, she’d insisted on going to her studio every day so that she could keep laboriously painting away with her left hand, loved that she’d been happy with his compromise to keep her apartment as a studio and move in with him fully. Finally.
“Come on.” Taking her hand, he led her past the short driveway, through a perfectly manicured front garden to the front door.
The dark green house was offset with maroon trim that drew the eye to the hand-crafted panels and beams that supported the A-frame structure and shaded a big, front porch. The front door was huge, a Spanish-style, walnut focal point with wrought-iron studs and a square top. The first time that he’d seen the door, he’d know that what lay inside was special.
When they came to stand on the front porch, Jacob thought he heard something thump inside, and he gripped Lola’s hand tightly in his own.
“Jake? Are you okay?” She touched one cool palm to his face. “You look kind of pale. Are you sick?”
“No.” He caught both her hands in his, brought them down so that he could look at her without distraction. He took a deep breath, to still his ticking heart, and asked, “What do you think?”
“Of?”
“Well, this for starters,” he replied, pointing down at the base of the front door.
He watched her eyes drop, saw the moment that recognition flashed. He’d stolen her Garfield welcome mat from her studio that morning, just so that he could put it outside the front door. She looked up at him, her caramel eyes wide with surprise. “What?”
Without answering her, he pointed to the key lock box on the front door. “Why don’t we go inside? The code is 1847#.”
She reached out tentatively, punched in the code with shaking hands. “Did you…”
The box popped open. Instead of a set of house keys, which he had in his pocket, a black, velvet box sat in the lockbox, its lid open to reveal a square-cut sapphire with three winking diamonds on each side.
She didn’t say anything for a full fifteen seconds, didn’t move, didn’t breathe. Jacob felt his heart trip in his chest. Had he been wrong? Was it too soon?
Well, too late now. With one final prayer to whoever was listening, he knelt on the Garfield mat outside of the house that he’d bought for them. “Lola Marie Micha-”
“Yes!”
Jacob breath caught in his throat, and he exhaled in relief. She said yes?
She said yes!
Grinning, he stood and pulled her into his arms, inhaled the scent of her as his heart raced in time to hers. “I’m in love with you. I have been since you opened your door and let me into your life.”
“I’m in love with you too,” she said. She rested her cheek against his heart. “I have been since you stumbled into my apartment. And offered me full police protection. And saved me from a psychopathic serial killer.”
With one arm still around her, he reached into the lockbox and pulled the ring out of the velvet cushion. “Since you haven’t let me ask yet…Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” She smiled up at him as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
“Oh, finally!”
Lola gasped and jumped back in surprise, accidentally bumping Jacob. Big hands wrapped around her upper arms to steady her, and even that close contact sent her heart soaring. Looking up, she saw Maggie standing in the doorway, her smile wide despite the dark rings under her eyes.
Grinning, Maggie pulled her into a big hug. “Jesus, we were standing on eggshells in here,” she said, indicating inside the house. “I totally thought you were going to say no for a second there.”
Lola peered around her so that she could see inside the foyer. Phil, June, Hudson, Zac, and Sarah all stood inside, grinning at her, their expressions equally mischievous. “What are you all doing here?” Lola asked. Without waiting for a reply, she walked inside the house so that she could give them all quick hugs—except for Gracie, who she gave a smacking kiss because she had learned that the sound sent the infant into hysterical giggles.
Jacob came inside the house behind her. “I needed their help getting the house ready.”