Page 175 of Always Us

The waiter leaves and Harper scans the dining room, looking for Sean.

Jade’s checking out Harper’s plate. “Why do you have all those strawberries with yours?”

“Sean probably put them there because he knows I love strawberries with anything chocolate.” Harper picks her fork up, still searching for Sean. “We should wait for him. I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”

I’m sitting next to Harper and something on her plate catches my eye. “Harper, you might want to take a look at those strawberries.”

“Why?” She looks down at her plate and sees it. She drops her fork. “Oh my God!”

“What?” Jade drops her fork, too. “What’s wrong?”

“Harper.” Sean appears at our table wearing a tuxedo. He looks really nervous. His body’s stiff and he’s breathing fast.

Harper turns to him, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes already wet and ready to spill tears.

“Harper.” Sean takes her hand and gets down on one knee. “I know I’m not the richest guy, or the most sophisticated guy, but I’m a guy who loves you more than anything. I love your beautiful smile and your beautiful eyes and your beautiful spirit. Everything about you is beautiful to me. From the first day we met, I knew I’d never be able to get you out of my head. And I was right. Since the first moment I saw you, I’ve never stopped thinking about you. Even when you’re not around, you’re always with me, in my mind, and in my heart. I love you, and I would love to spend the rest of my life with you. Harper, will you marry me?”

Harper now has tears streaming down her face. “Yes.” She nods. “Yes! I’ll marry you!”

He kisses her, then takes the ring from the strawberries and places it on her finger and they kiss again.

My arm’s around Jade and I look over and see that she’s crying, too.

“Happy tears?” I whisper in her ear.

She nods, sniffling. “Yes.”

Sean goes around to the tray stand and comes back with a dozen long-stem red roses and hands them to Harper.

Jade and I stand up, startling Harper. I think she forgot we were here.

We exchange hugs and congratulations, and when everyone calms down, we finally eat our dessert.

“Did you practice that proposal?” Jade asks Sean.

“Only about a million times.”

“You did?” Harper kisses him. “That’s so sweet.” The two of them are sitting so close she’s practically on his lap.

“That was an amazing proposal,” Jade says.

“Hey.” I look at her. “You didn’t say mine was amazing.”

“Yours was more than amazing.” She kisses me. Her lips taste like chocolate and it reminds me of all the times chocolate has led to us having sex. My gaze wanders down to her cleavage and the tight red dress she’s wearing, then back up to her beautiful jade green eyes, and it makes me wonder how I got a woman this gorgeous and this incredible to say yes to my proposal.

“I love you.” She whispers it in my ear, then smiles and goes back to eating her cake.

“This ring is so beautiful.” Harper holds her hand out to look at it. “When did you get it?”

Sean smiles at me from across the table. “Right after Christmas.”

I smile back. I’ll keep his secret. Harper doesn’t need to know he bought it months ago. It might freak her out. Back then, she wasn’t ready for a proposal. Someday he can tell her the truth.

“It’s perfect.” She admires her ring again, then hugs him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” They kiss again.

I notice the people at the table across from us pouring champagne. I check my watch. “Only a minute until midnight. Is anyone going to make a toast?”

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