Page 121 of Shameless

The hours fly by between the delicious food and a couple of party games organized by Mom.

No matter how many times we tell her that we aren’t kids anymore, she insists on some kind of entertainment, worried that we’ll get bored otherwise.

“Time for the cake,” Tilly claps her hands, excited.

“Hmm, would you mind waiting a couple of minutes?” I ask, after exchanging a look with Stefan and Crew. “Lula, do you mind coming outside for a second?” I take her hand and step out on the deck.

The sun is starting to set coloring the sky with pretty pastel tones, so this is the ideal time to pop our question.

“We needed to talk to you in private,” I begin.

Lula looks at each of us, suddenly worried. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, silly.” Stefan snorts, taking the blue velvet box out of his pocket and handing it to me.

We’ve debated at length about how to pop the question. In the end we decided that we would keep it simple.

Lula gasps when I open the box.

“Lula, we could spend hours making elaborate speeches to tell you how much we love you. But you know how we feel because we tell you every day. Remember last summer, how I told you that one day I would marry you? I hope you will make me the luckiest man in the world.”

Stefan takes her other hand.

“Jumps, I’ve known I would marry you since I was too young to even say your full name and Lula was the best I could do. I obviously didn't know about marriage and grown up stuff back then, but the second I did, I knew one day you’d my wife.”

I step aside for a second to let Crew take Lula’s hand. “Baby, I never even thought I could love someone the way I love you. You took me by surprise but the second you spilled a smoothie all over yourself and almost got bitten by Napoleon, I knew I was fucked.”

I slap Crew’s back. “Dude, way to sneak an F-bomb into our marriage proposal.”

Six months ago, that would have started a fight.

“Sorry,” Crew chuckles. “What I mean is, that I fell for you hard and fast. At the beginning I tried to deny my feelings but I was just fooling myself. I love you. Will you marry me, Lula? Us?”

Lula looks like a deer caught in front of headlights as she opens and closes her mouth without uttering one word. “I—I want to,” she finally says. “But I can’t marry all three of you. And if you’re thinking about making me choose… I just can’t.”

I nudge Crew out of the way, taking Lula’s hand again. “We would never do that. If you agree,” I say, looking at my brothers. “We have a solution. We’re going to have a ceremony for all of us. We already talked to our parents and Mom agreed to officiate. However there can be only one name on the marriage certificate and after some very mature, peaceful debate?—”

Crew cuts in. “We argued about it for two weeks straight. I’m not proud of it, but we all tried to call dibs. Until we realized that there was only one fair solution. These two outvoted me on the fact that you should be a Cutler, so you’d share a last name with two of us.”

Stefan pulls Lula into his arms. “Then Jules and Crew had to admit that it took them some time to figure out that they were in love with you, while I’ve known since I could breathe. So if it’s ok with you, Jumps, I’ll be your legal husband. But that’s just a technicality, we’re all in this together.”

The way Lula looks at Stefan would make me choke with jealousy, if it wasn’t the same way she looks at me. And at Crew.

“Yes,” she says. “I’ll marry you. I know we’re young but I’ve always known I loved you two. And Crew, I never thought love at first sight was possible until I met you. I mean, at first I liked you because you’re hot, but the more I got to know you, themore I realized that the way you look on the outside pales in comparison with your heart. Did you guys had a date in mind?”

We explain that we’d like to have the whole family in attendance. “The earliest Rikki can come back is spring break. So we thought we’d do it then.”

Lula nods. “Then yes. One million times yes.”

I take the ring with the big, flawless oval diamond we chose and slip it on Lula’s finger.

The three of us bicker about a lot of stuff at home and at work, but the second we saw it, we agreed that this was the perfect ring for our girl.

I wait patiently for my turn to kiss my fiancée, but then I call dibs on walking back into the house with Lula on my arm. “I’m the birthday boy, that must count for something. And before you open your big mouth, Crew, let me remind you that you decided to have yours tomorrow.”

Crew chuckles. “It’s fine. Unlike you, sharing is second nature for me.”

He’s right. He and Stefan had no problem sharing Lula. It took me a minute to come around to the idea, but now I’m completely on board. I wouldn’t be able to do it with anyone else, but Stefan and Crew are my brothers. I’ve accepted it to the point that the competitiveness and jealousy I used to have toward him are a distant memory. To the point that I decided not to race him for Eddie’s ridiculously expensive Ducati bike and I gave him the title for Christmas. He likes riding more than I do anyway.

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