Page 108 of Perfect (mis)Match

“Aw,” I thrust my bottom lip out. “You’re going to make me cry instead!”

“You ain’t seen nothing,” he muttered, pointing at the telescope. “Now let’s check out some stars.”

I tuned out while Vincent explained the mechanics of the telescope until it was time to look through the lens.

“You’re going to see Perseus and Andromeda first,” he said as I peered in.

“It’s all black,” I said, squinting hard into the eyepiece. “I don’t see anything.”

“Huh,” Vincent said. “Let me check.”

He bent over and peered into it. “Well, I see the stars perfectly! They’re close enough to touch. Look again.”

I squinted into the eyepiece again. “Nope, still nothing. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

“Oh, I know what’s happening now,” Vincent said while I stared into the eyepiece. “One of the stars actually fell out of the sky.”

I jerked away from it and scowled at him. “Huh?”

He walked to the front of the telescope tube, reached up, and pulled something from it.

A small black box.

My heart thundered in my chest. What was happening?

“Vincent…” I breathed as he walked back to me, clutching the box. “What…what is that?”

“It’s a symbol as beautiful and perpetual as the stars above us.”

He dropped to one knee in front of me, and tears instantly sprang to my eyes.

“Piper,” his voice cracked on the two syllables, which sent tears down my cheeks. “I can’t even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have you in my life. You changed me for the better, and I don’t even want to imagine how empty my world would be without you in it.”

I sniffled as he cracked open the box to reveal a heart-stoppingly huge diamond ring.

“I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy.” His eyes were shining as he gazed up at me. “Piper Doyle, will you marry me?”

I was nodding before he could even finish the sentence, and bawling by the time he did.

“Are you speechless?” he laughed, and I continued crying and nodding at him like a lunatic.

Vincent took the ring out of the box and held it up. “May I?”

More ridiculous nodding and crying as I held my hand out. And now I was hiccupping too.

He slid the ring on, and of course it fit perfectly. I gazed at it through bleary eyes.

“Vincent,” I breathed as I shifted my hand back and forth to take in the ring. “It’s so beautiful. I can’t believe this is happening!”

He finally stood up and wrapped me in his arms. I buried my face against his neck, breathing in the warm, woody Vincent scent I craved like a drug.

“I am so incredibly happy,” he whispered to me. “I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He brought his hand up to caress my cheek as he stared into my eyes.

“I love you, Piper,” he murmured.

I reached up to the back of his neck to pull him closer for a kiss. “I love you too, Vincent. You just made me the happiest person on the planet.”

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