Page 37 of Keeping Happily Ever After

Hadn’t she?

There was a flicker of surprise in her eyes when he asked her again. No, it was more than a flicker. It was downright shock.

“Bella?”

He grabbed her hands. “I just thought….”

“Sorry.” She pulled her hands away and ran them through her hair. “I don’t mean to…I was just…” She looked down at her lap and when she looked up again, she was laughing. “It was a long day, and I think maybe the wine went straight to my head.”

He looked at her completely untouched glass. She hadn’t even had a sip yet, but he didn’t see the point in mentioning it.

“I could have sworn you just asked me to marry you and that would be the most insane thing because—”

“Would it?”

The look on her face told him everything he needed to know. Itwouldbe insane. At least she thought it would be.

She stood and walked to the window. “Jeremy,” she said after a moment before turning around. “Of course it would be.”

No. It wouldn’t be. He felt that in his bones. It wasn’t insane to want to be with the one person you were completely connected with. Sure, societal norms might think it was crazy, but that didn’t matter.

He jumped to his feet and moved to stand in front of her.

“It’s not crazy,” he said slowly. “When you know, you know.”

“I’m about to go off and shoot a movie, Jeremy.” Her voice rose an octave. “You’re about to get busy with your new promotion, too. This just isn’t a good time.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Is it ever a good time? I bet you could ask Faith and Hope what they have to say about that. There’s never a good time to get married. Not really. Look at all the weddings they’ve done last minute, or randomly. I bet they’d agree. The only thing that matters is love.”

She opened her mouth but closed it again before speaking.

He was torn. Maybe he shouldn’t push her on the issue. Obviously he’d taken her off guard. And maybe he shouldn’t have sprung it on her the way he did. He probably could have eased her into the idea, but…no.

Fuck it.

He said exactly what he was feeling and that was always the best policy. Wasn’t it?

“Bella, I know it’s a lot. And…” He blew out a breath. “Don’t answer me right now, okay?” The look in her eyes could only be described as relief and instantly, Jeremy knew he made the right choice. After all, she hadn’t said no outright, and that was a good sign. He took her hand in his and this time, she didn’t pull away. “Let’s just enjoy the rest of our night, okay?”

She didn’t hesitate in her response. “Yes.” The beautiful smile returned to her face, followed by the sparkle in her eyes. “Besides, we need to celebrate someone’s promotion. Official or not,” she added before he could protest again. “Besides, you know it will be soon.”

He couldn’t argue with that.

Together, they moved back to sit in front of the fireplace, where they toasted and drank to Jeremy’s soon-to-be promotion. They were halfway through the bottle before Jeremy pulled out the picnic-style dinner he’d prepared. Or more accurately, had Brody put together. While they ate, Bella filled him in on the updates to the script she’d just received, and she promised to let him hear her practicing the songs for the soundtrack as soon as she felt confident with the lyrics, which would have to be soon, because the studio had decided that the best way to start the promotion machine going early for the movie was to introduce Bella Burton to the world with a showcase of a selection of songs from the film.

“They’re going to do that before even starting to shoot?” Jeremy didn’t pretend to know anything at all about the movie business, but the more he heard about Bella’s project, the more he realized it was going to be a pretty big deal.

“I know, right?” Bella practically bounced talking about it. “And it’s going to be in like two weeks.”

“What? When did you hear about all of this?” He tried not to be hurt that she hadn’t mentioned any of this before, but then again, they’d both been pretty preoccupied in the last few days.

“Lewis mentioned it as a possibility awhile ago, but they just confirmed today.” She grinned. “I know I said I wouldn’t look at my phone, but I snuck a little look on the drive over here.” She was so excited that Jeremy couldn’t be upset with her, even though he had suggested atech-freenight, just the two of them. But then again, it likely wasn’t very practical with everything going on.

He shrugged and admitted, “I looked at mine too. I was hoping for an update on Char.”

“That totally makes sense. We have a lot going on.”

He kissed her again. “That we do, babe. I’m just glad we have this time together right now.”

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