Page 85 of A Perfect Pairing
“Yep, my favorite place to be.” And next to where he’d been leaning, she could still see where he’d carved their names inside a heart. Her hand involuntarily went to the spot. “Well, we won’t be able to come here much longer. I’m meeting a buyer, and Chase has already given the okay to take the offer if the client likes the house.” Natasha frowned, still staring at their names. “I don’t remember the word forever being here.”
“I added it earlier. And the client loves the house.”
She eyed him, trying to process him adding the word below their names. “You added it? Wait. And how do you know what the client likes?”
Instead of answering her, he tucked her hair behind her ear and walked her toward the lake. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
“You might have mentioned it a time or two,” she said, fighting back a smile. “But you still didn’t—” She stopped walking when she saw red rose petals in the shape of a heart. He walked her inside the heart, lowered himself to one knee, and gently took her hand. Her pulse skipped, and her heart started pounding.
“My sweet Tasha. You are everything I’ve ever wanted in a friend, woman, and lover. I never thought we would be here like this, but I’m so grateful for this second chance with you.” He bowed his head briefly before continuing. “I know it’s been only a few short months, but I don’t need years to know that we will always be a perfect pair. Seventeen years ago, I made a promise to you.”
Natasha fingered the ring on the chain around her neck. She hadn’t taken it off since that first night. Her hands shook, and she could feel the tears stinging her eyes. Antonio retrieved a small black velvet box from his pocket and opened it. The diamond solitaire caught in the sunlight and nearly blinded her. “Oh my goodness,” she chanted.
“It’s been a long time coming, but I love you, Natasha Leigh Baldwin, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I added the wordforeveron the tree because that’s what I want with you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” she screamed. He slid the ring on her finger. She was so excited, she launched herself at him, and they both tumbled to the ground. His laughter rang out as he held her tight. She rained kisses all over his face. “I love you, Tonio.”
“I love you too, baby. I do have one request, though.”
“What’s that?” She couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful ring on her finger. The princess-cut stone had to be close to two carats.
“Can we have a short engagement? I’ve been waiting for you for almost two decades, and I don’t want it to be another two.”
Natasha burst out laughing. “We can get marriedtomorrowfor all I care! I just want to be your wife.” She was all for a short engagement. Two, three months, tops. She’d get together with her girls for their help to pull it off. She gasped and scrambled off him. “Oh, shoot. I’m supposed to be meeting a client.” Natasha tried to smooth down her hair and brush the grass and stray rose petals off her crop pants.
Antonio pulled her back down and banded his arms around her.
“Antonio,” she whined. “I can’t let my client catch me out here rolling in the grass like a horny teenager.”
“Sweetheart, you don’t have to worry about that.”
She stopped struggling in his arms, not like it did any good because it was like trying to move steel. “What do you mean I don’t have to worry about it?”
“I’m the client.”
She blinked. “Wait a minute. What do you mean you’re the client? I thought you weren’t ready to buy a house.”
“I couldn’t very well tell you that I was going to buy this house.”
“And why not?”
“Because I hadn’t proposed, and you hadn’t accepted. This is my wedding gift to you. Remember when I told you I’d do anything for you? You have loved this place since you were a kid and dreamed of living here one day. This is just the beginning, baby. I plan to make every one of your dreams a reality if I can, because you mean that much to me.”
Natasha couldn’t utter a word. When she finally got her mouth to work, the only thing she managed before the tears started was “You are my heart, Tonio.” She didn’t think she could love Antonio any more than she already did, but he’d just proven her wrong.
“I can’t stop looking at it,” Natasha said Sunday afternoon as Antonio drove them over to Gabriel and Serenity’s house.
He slanted her a glance. “I’m glad you like it. I wanted to get something a little bigger than the first one.” He’d teasingly told her yesterday after proposing that he was trading the old one for the new one. The look on her face had been priceless. She told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t trading anything.
“It’s bigger, all right. I have to keep my shades on in the house now.” She did a little shimmy in her seat. “Did you know people were taking bets on when we would get engaged?”
“Yeah. Leah tried getting some information out of me the other day, and Nate basically said that since I’m his brother, it wouldn’t look good for him to lose the bet.”
Laughing, she said, “That’s the same thing my friends said. Speaking of family, when do you plan to tell them?”
“We can call them tonight. I wanted at least one day of peace before the town gets in our business.”
“Amen to that. I say we wait two days. But I would like to tell our friends today.”
