Page 108 of Legal

Perry nodded and raised her glass. “We’ll ring in the new year together.”

Chase opened his arms for me, and I curled into them. “Will you be on my team?” I asked.

“Always.”

I leaned over and set up the game. We probably would run out of questions soon, and then what? I wondered if there was another version. I divided up the cards into different stacks and took out the timer. I no longer missed the original; the new one had accumulated even better memories.

We actually got a few rounds of the game in before things careened off track. Considering we were all a bit tipsy, that was longer than I expected.

“The blue whale is the loudest animal on the planet,” I read.

“I’m going with fact,” Perry said. “At least for the females, since the males have the biggest boners on Earth.”

“What?”

Perry picked up a card. “A banana slug has the same penis length as an average human.”

I snatched the card away. “That is not one of the questions.”

“We watched a special the other day on animal schlongs. I’m just sharing my knowledge.”

“No,youwatched it, Perry,” Stephen said, stuffing a handful of chips in his mouth.

“Oh, you’re just jealous of barnacles.”

I went over to throw more logs in the fire. The mood was completely different in a house with no electricity. Or maybe it was all the champagne bubbles in our brain, especially Perry’s.

“Fact,” Chase said. “To the banana slug question.”

“Correct!” Perry clapped.

I turned my head and laughed. “How would you even know that?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“So you probably also know about that one duck—”

“I think we’ve talked enough about animal dick, Perry,” Stephen said. “And just what do they consider an average human?”

“Well, less than a barnacle, that’s for sure.”

I giggled as I snuggled back up to Chase. “And to think, we could’ve missed all this and had the night to ourselves,” I whispered.

He squeezed me tightly. “There’ll be many more nights for us, love.” He broke the hold and stood up. “Stay right there. I want to give you something before it turns a new year.”

I cocked my head, watching him stick his hand into his coat pocket. Perry and Stephen were still going on about some wacky thing, but they stopped dead when he walked over with a box.

What the…?My heart started hammering. Okay, it wasn’t the right size. It was longer and flatter than a ring box. I wasn’t a big jewelry person, so I doubted he’d get me something else.Breathe in. Breathe out.Not that he couldn’t be sneaky and use a bracelet box because a ring would definitely fit in there. But why would he do something foolish like that?So, settle the fuck down, Jillian.

Chase bent down, but not on one knee. More like two. Then he sat back, so that was good, right? He handed it to me and impulses were firing off everywhere. The box was fuzzy. Was that good or bad? My head was fuzzy. I knew that was bad.Okay. More deep breaths.If it was a ring, I could handle it. It was too soon, but I also loved him more than yesterday. And what was that saying? I loved him less than tomorrow. Yeah, that was it.

I definitely loved him enough to handle whatever happened.

I pried open the top slowly, knowing Perry’s eyes were bugging out on me big time. All I saw was white. I popped it open further, my heart leaping around the room. It was… an index card?

Huh? I paused for a moment, feeling… something. Then I took it out and flipped it over. There was writing on the other side:Third cup lime juice, half cup olive oil, Lunacy Sauce—

My face broke into the biggest smile. “This is it? The whole thing?” Chase nodded. “You finally gave it up?”

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