From his front pocket, he holds out the engagement ring.
“I am desperately, hopelessly, crazy in love with you, Charlee Bag of Dicks. There’s no denying it, and there’s no stopping it. I was born with a piece of your soul inside me, and I want to claim it. Right here, right now.” He takes a step forward and takes my hand in his as hot tears stream down my face. “I love you, Charlee. I think I’ve loved you ever since you tried to kick me out of an office supply convention. I just didn’t know it at the time. And that’s because I’d never fallen in love before. I’m sorry for everything I put you through, but I won’t ever apologize for trying to get closer to you, because that was one of the best decisions I ever made; it brought me you, all of you.”
Kneeling down, he holds my hand and says, “Please tell me you’ll do me the honor of being my real fiancée, my forever bride, my one and only girl.”
Unable to see through my blurry eyes, I nod my head.
“Fucking hell,” he says, standing abruptly and taking me into his arms. He doesn’t kiss me. Instead, he holds on to me with a death grip, as if he let go, I’d float away. “Are you serious?” he asks, in disbelief.
I nod against his chest and gently push away so I can look him in the eyes. “I . . . I can’t imagine . . .” I sniff and pull myself together. “I can’t imagine what it would be like moving on without you. I thought about it all last week, convincing myself that moving on would be the right move, but every time I thought about having to say goodbye to you, to never seeing your handsome face again”—I shake my head—“I couldn’t even get through the thought without crying, which told me one thing. Even if I was hurting, you were still the cure to help me heal.”
I run my hand up to his strong jaw and cup it, reveling in the coarse hair that caresses it. “You’re all I want in life, Rath, just you. You’re the love of my life. I tried to convince myself you weren’t, but I knew it was all a lie. I knew there was no way I could deny my feelings anymore. I love you, Rath. I love you with all of my heart.”
A lonely tear falls down his cheek and I quickly catch it on my finger. He leans down, takes my head in his hand, and gently presses a kiss across my lips, testing it out before he dives deeper, demanding more, taking everything I’m giving him. Our tongues clash, our bodies cling to each other, and our breaths mix as we search for each other and air.
“I can’t tell you how fucking happy I am right now,” he says between kisses and then pulls away and takes my hand in his. “Come on, we’re taking the day off.”
“Wait,” I stop him. “What does the note say?”
Smiling, he nods at it. “Open it up.”
Feeling oddly nervous, I open the note and read it.
Charlee’s to-do list:
Forgive Rath and let him love you.
Smiling up at him, I reach into my purse, take out a pen and check off the box that’s next to the task and hand it back to him.
“All complete, boss man bridegroom. Now what?”
Pulling me in close, he kisses me again and says, “Now we get ready for the wedding.”
Epilogue
RATH
“It’s not a competition,” I say, annoyed with Bram.
“I know, but seriously, way to show us up with your romantic and intimate wedding. I can’t stop thinking about the candles and twinkle lights. I’ve never been in more of a dreamy atmosphere.”
It’s the morning after our wedding, my wife is tucked under my arm, and we’re enjoying brunch with our friends at our apartment.
Since we were in no hurry to get married—you know, because Grandma wasn’t really sick—we held off our plans for a year so we could get to know each other more deeply. Tuesday quickly became tell-all Tuesday, thanks to my office confessional I lined up for Charlee. So, every Tuesday night, we eat tapas and tell each other stories about our past. We’ve learned a lot about each other, maybe too much at times—Charlee getting her first period at her boyfriend’s house and having to use his underwear as a backup. But it was all worth it, because when I saw her walk down the aisle last night, in her grandma’s dress, I knew everything about the woman walking toward me.
I knew there was no way I could ever let her go.
I knew that despite her quirks and love for office supplies, I couldn’t live without her.
I knew that, because of her incredible eye for detail and talent, Westin Enterprises was about to unveil its own Westin Internal Planner. Color-coded. With a Spotify list for Fridays.
I knew after watching her delight my parents—who love her like she was their own daughter—that she was my future. I was a fool for not introducing them earlier on and it was one of the ways I was holding back from her, but then again, Vanessa was the only girl I had ever introduced to my parents, and everything turned to shit between us. Almost felt like a bad omen. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Charlee. Looks like I went through the heartache anyway.
And I knew that even though she knew almost everything about my past, she still loved me for me, making me the luckiest guy on the planet.
We kept our original plans—a small wedding, super intimate, and we also kept crab cakes off the menu—don’t even get me thinking about them. I still become nauseous from the thought of that day. And even though the wedding was simple and small, it was perfect because it was all we needed.
“Your wedding was beautiful,” Charlee says. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t there for the whole thing.”
“Be sorry that you had to see a repeat of Roark’s dancing last night,” I say.
“What the fook is wrong with my dancing?” he asks, nursing a chocolate milk like the rest of us.
“You can’t Irish jig to Lizzo, it just doesn’t work.”
“I can Irish jig to whatever the hell I want, right, Sutton?”
She rubs her growing stomach and says, “Oh yeah, you were so great last night.” She calmly rolls her head side to side. She’s due any day now, and I know they’re both growing impatient about meeting their little guy.
Speaking of which . . .
“Where did Sunny go?” I ask, looking for my niece.
Bram waves his hand. “Probably chewing on some electrical cords somewhere.”
Julia elbows him in the stomach. “She’s taking her morning nap.”
“I was just kidding.” He laughs and kisses her head and then turns to me. “When are you two going to add to the family?”
I look down at Charlee and say, “Sooner rather than later. We don’t need her grandma faking death again just to get a great-grandchild out of us.”
Charlee chuckles next to me and says, “After last year, I wouldn’t put it past her.” She grips my hand and says, “Hopefully soon.” And when she looks up at me, those beautiful eyes staring into mine, I can read exactly what she’s trying to say, hopefully this month.
We’ve been trying. We both want kids, just two, but we want them, and when we came to that realization on a tell-all Tuesday a month ago, we started trying immediately.
She’s been a few days late, so who knows . . . maybe.