Page 140 of Best In Class
“Ours.”
“Good for skinny dipping,” she notes.
“And burying bodies,” I add.
She laughs, rolling her eyes. “You’re such a?—”
“I love you, Moonbeam.”
That stops her.
Not because she doesn’t know, as I’ve said it a hundred times now, but because something in my voice makes her look at me.
She’s aware of what’s coming.
I’ve warned her many, many times.
I reach into my back pocket and pull out the small, velvet box that Mama gave to me months ago.
Her eyes widen.
“Dom,” she breathes.
“I’ve been waiting for the moment I thought was perfect,” I admit. “But then I realized, it doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be us.”
I open the box.
Inside is Mama’s ring—the one that my father gave to her.
It’s vintage, delicate, and modest. Not flashy. Not new. But full of history. Like us.
“I don’t have a speech,” I say, my voice a little rough. “I don’t think I need one. Because you know who I am, Luna. You always have. Even when I didn’t.”
Her eyes fill with tears that catch the settingsunlight.
“I want every morning with you. Every argument. Every design review where you call my work too ornamental,” I say. She lets out a shaky laugh. “I want the hard days and the soft ones. I want your hot temper, and your cold feet warming under mine. I want to build a life with you. No hiding. Only honesty. Just you and me—partners. Always.”
I pause. “Will you marry me?”
She stares down at the ring, then up at me.
She waits a long, endless moment before she nods, tears slipping down her cheeks.
“Yes,” she whispers.
“Moonbeam—"
“But you didn’t go on one knee,” she complains.
I arch an eyebrow. “You want me to go down on one knee.”
She nods vigorously. “It’s tradition, and it’ll be a good story to tell our kids.”
I sigh elaborately like it’s a lot of work, before I make a production of getting on one knee. “Happy?”
“Now, you have to ask me again,” she says primly, smiling wide.
“Bossy, bossy,” I murmur, my heart ready to leap out of my chest because I’m so happy. “Luna, the love of my life, the most beautiful and sexy and brilliant woman I know, will you marry me?”
