Page 100 of Bad for Business
“Cami,” he begins, his voice hoarse.
My heart starts to race because of the intense way he looks at me. He always looks at me with so much love, but this look is different. The love and adoration is almost pouring out of him as his eyes stare into mine.
“Waking up next to you this morning, knowing I was starting the year with you, I…” His words fall off for a moment as he gathers his thoughts. “I just have never been so happy in my life.”
I smile because there is something special about knowing that we’re starting the year by each other’s side. We didn’t get the chance last year, but this time, we will.
“I’m so happy too, baby,” I tell him. I truly have never been happier in my life. Everything has fallen together perfectly. Some mornings, I wake up and can’t believe any of this is real.
Ryker’s dad has spent months getting him ready to take over Davenport Media, and he’ll officially step down next week and hand the company over.
I took Ryker’s idea and ran with it. I created some incredible relationships while in the Hamptons. Pembroke had an amazing pool of potential new clients. It was easy to create my own PR firm. Everyone else knew what my dad didn’t. I was a damn good publicist. There’s already a waiting list of potential new clients for me now that my current workload is full.
Life has been crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Ryker and I have been by each other’s side the entire time. There have been good days and bad days, but we handled it together.
I’m working my dream job, in my dream city, and I have my dream guy. The last six months have brought so many changes, but I’m thankful for every single one of them. They’ve led me to this moment right here.
“I had all these plans on how I wanted to do this,” he begins before taking a deep breath, “but I woke up this morning and didn’t want to waste another second.”
He drops to a knee and all the pieces click together.
“Ryker,” I whisper, emotion already clogging my throat at the sight of him on one knee.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a blue ring box. The color reminds me of the hydrangeas at the Hamptons house. The ones planted by his mother.
“I thought I could wait until this summer when we were back in the Hamptons. I thought that would be perfect since that’s where it all began for us. But then I was thinking this morning, as much as I love how our story unfolded in the Hamptons, our story really began one year ago. On New Year’s Day. Right here. And then I thought about it and I couldn’t wait any longer to ask you this.”
He opens up the ring box and I gasp.
The most stunning ring sits inside. It’s a large, oval-cut diamond on a gold band. I try to look at the ring, but I only glance at it a moment before my gaze moves to Ryker’s once again. I can’t look at anything but him.
“I love you, Camille. I love you in a way that completely consumes me. No one’s ever made me feel the way you do. My heart is yours. It’ll always be yours. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want the rest of my life to start right now. Say yes. Be my wife.”
Tears pool in my eyes before falling down my cheeks. I try to open my mouth to speak, but I can’t even form words. I thought I was prepared for this moment. I envisioned how he’d propose so many different times. I thought I knew exactly what I’d say back to him and how I’d keep it together.
But I can’t.
I cry tears of happiness. I look at the ring—the one I recognize as being his mother’s—and a wave of joy consumes me.
My shoulders tremble and my words come out shaky. “You haven’t even asked the question yet,” I point out, wiping the tears on my cheeks.
He laughs as his eyes go wide. “Fuck,” he mutters, his cheeks turning pink. I love that he blushes for me. I love everything about this man.
He takes my hand. I don’t know if it’s mine or his that’s shaking, but our intertwined hands tremble. “Camille, will you make me the luckiest guy in the world and marry me? Please, baby?”
I smile and nod my head, dropping to the ground with him as I press my lips to his. “Yes,” I mutter in between peppering kisses against his lips. “But just because you saidplease.”
He laughs and kisses me back with an intensity that I feel throughout my entire body.
I don’t know how long we kiss on the living room floor. Time seems to still and everything else fades away as I kiss Ryker Davenport—my future husband. The love of my life. My forever.
Eventually, he pulls away and slides the ring onto my finger. We both stare at it for a moment, tears staining both our cheeks at this point.
“She really would’ve loved you,” Ryker notes, his thumb brushing over his mother’s ring on my finger.
“She’d be so proud of you,” I respond, something I try to mention often because I know how much making her proud matters to him.
“I love you,” Ryker tells me, the truth of it evident in his voice.
