Page 108 of Why Not Both?

Six.

“With a speech like that, how can I not?”

Five.

“You are terrible. And I love you.”

Four.

“I love you, too.”

Three. Two. One.

“Yes!” She launches herself toward me and I slip the ring on her finger, kissing her as everyone shouts, “Happy New Year!”

When we end the kiss, everyone comes over to hug and congratulate us. When Daze and Sophie come over to inspect the ring, Daze gives me a look.

“So you didn’t buy my sister an engagement ring?”

“Daze,” Lis says. “I love this ring. It’s perfect.”

“I know it is,” she says. “But I can still give him a hard time. He’s going to be my brother-in-law, after all.”

“Actually,” I say, pulling the other small box from my inside pocket. “You’re right. I didn’t buy an engagement ring. I bought this instead.”

I open the longer box to reveal a platinum chain with a clip on it.

“You forgot the charm on that necklace,” Sophie points out.

I fasten it around Lis’ neck and then remove the ring I’d just put on her finger. “I know you won’t wear rings while cooking. So I got you this, made specially, to keep it safe while you’re in the kitchen.” I clip the ring onto the necklace. “This way, you don’t have to take the chain off to put the ring on it. And it’ll stay safe, and right next to your heart.”

“Okay, that’s a little too sweet,” Daze says.

Lis is speechless. She just lifts the ring from her chest to look at it, tears standing in her eyes.

“I see you, firecracker. It doesn’t need to be one or the other. You can have both. You can have everything.”

She kisses me, pulling me against her. She breaks the kiss and whispers, “Take me home.”

Epilogue

Spencer – Three Months Later

I’m sitting in my office when someone barges in as though he owns the place. And I am surprised to look up and see my father.

“What’s this I hear about you getting married?” he asks, waving the invitation around.

I stop what I’d been working on and steeple my fingers together. “I’m not sure what’s confusing about this. The invitation has all the information on it. Shall I mark you down as coming or not?”

“I talked to my lawyer and he said you haven’t come to him for a pre-nup.”

“Why would I go to your lawyer for anything?”

“So you went somewhere else for your pre-nup?”

Beckett hasn’t sat down, so he’s towering above me, an intimidation technique that I hate. I lean back in my chair as though none of it matters. And really, it doesn’t. I’ve gone long past letting this man hurt me.

“What do I need a pre-nuptial agreement for, Dad? The only thing I have of value is the condo I own. And if something were to happen between me and Lis, I’d want her to have half. It’s her home as much as it is mine, even though I’m the one who pays for it.”

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