Page 9 of Endless Love: Novella

“I’m absolutely chuffed,” Aria told her, then burst out laughing. “Listen to me. I sound like Miles now,” she added, mimicking his British accent.

“When were you going to tell your parents?” Evelyn almost shrieked as she threw her hands into the air. “And don’t tell me either of your mothers could keep something like that a secret.”

I exchanged looks with my fiancée, who shrugged. The fact that we both had the same thought shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was almost unnerving how in sync we were sometimes. “We didn’t want to steal the focus this weekend,” I explained as Rose threw her arms around me.

“I’m so happy for you! Oh my God!” Just as suddenly, she let go long enough to slap my shoulder. “And you can’t tell your own sister? You’re saying even Mom and Dad don’t know?”

“Nobody knows,” Sienna explained. Her eyes sparkled, and she bit down on her lip before she said, “Hold on! Let me go up and get my ring! I’ve been dying to show you!”

“I want to see it right away!” Rose took off behind her, followed by the twins. Their excited chatter was music to my ears. If there was one thing Sienna understood, it was people, what they needed to hear, when they needed to hear it. That quality made her perfect for PR, but just then, I couldn’t help but reflect on how it made her perfect for me.

“I’m calling everybody inside!” Evelyn hurried to the door, beaming. “We’ll have to open some champagne to celebrate!”

“I don’t think we have time for that,” I said, but she didn’t hear me or didn’t feel like listening.

Colton was the first to shake my hand. “Don’t worry about the schedule. This deserves a toast.”

“Man, congratulations.” Evan’s head swung back and forth between Colton and me. “It wasn’t enough for one of you to marry the other one’s sister? You both have to do it?”

“Honestly,” Miles admitted. “We were wondering how long it would take you to sack up and pop the question.”

“Who is we?” I asked with a laugh, looking around at the group. “You have nothing better to do than lay odds on how long it’ll take a guy to propose to his girlfriend?”

“You did what?” Mom barely paused in the doorway leading to the porch. She raised her sunglasses and gaped at me for a second before she flew toward me with her arms outstretched. “I don’t know whether I want to hug you or strangle you for not telling us!”

She went with the hug as everybody else poured into the kitchen, and soon, we went through another round of handshakes just as Sienna came in from the foyer with her left hand held high. “Surprise!” she shouted.

This was what I had looked forward to—watching her soak in the love from the people who mattered to her the most. They gathered around to admire the ring, hug her, and basically give her the same sort of shit they gave me for keeping things quiet.

“I only proposed last week,” I explained while nudging my way through the crowd. “It’s not like we’ve been planning the wedding for months without mentioning it.”

“I’m breaking out the champagne,” Mom announced as she wiped her eyes. “You kids. I’ll be crying my eyes out all weekend at this rate.”

“How did you propose?” Rose asked, sliding an arm around Colton’s waist and resting her head against his chest. For the first time since we hung out on the beach last night, she looked like her usual, happy self.

“The way a person usually does,” I replied, playing dumb. “One knee, ring in a box.”

She groaned the way only a little sister could. “I can see why you said yes,” she told Sienna, who giggled.

“No, really.” The ring sparkled when Sienna placed her hand on my chest. Was she wiggling her finger a little to make the diamond catch the light? Possibly. She had waited an entire week for this and was going to soak up every second. “It was amazing. Noah made up a story about wanting me to look at a property he was looking to purchase in Chicago and flew us out on his company jet. It was all a big charade. He took me to the most gorgeous restaurant for dinner. Then, we took a moonlight boat ride on Lake Michigan. That was when he popped the question.”

“You did a great job with the ring, for sure.” Mom nudged Sienna, beaming. “I raised him right.”

“No arguments here,” Sienna agreed. “I think I’ll keep him.”

“Wait a second.” Evelyn paused in the middle of handing out the champagne. “Where are Lucian and Ivy? We can’t make a toast without them.”

“Oh, no.” Sienna covered her face with one hand while she laughed. “We have to go through all of this again! I should’ve waited until they got down here to blurt it out.”

Leaning down, I whispered, “It was perfect. Like you.”

5

LUCIAN

“Lucian.”

Fuck me. Nobody had ever spoken my name the way Ivy did. She turned it into a song. A prayer she repeated like a litany as I worked my way in and out of her, giving her all of me.

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