Page 119 of Gravity of Love
For the love of Pacey Witter!she thought as he held up his phone like a proud dad at a spelling bee, his expression a mix of “I knew this was coming” and “this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Frankie wanted to strangle him and hug him at the same time.
When she looked back at Liam, hoping to telepathically communicate that they could talk about this another time, he dropped to his knee, and her entire universe seemed to collapse into a single, blinding moment.
She gasped so loudly several people jumped. Her hands flew to her mouth, eyes wide as saucers. Liam looked up at her, the vulnerability in his face almost breaking her in half.
“I don’t have a ring,” Liam said, and she could hear the apology in his voice.
Before she could even process that, Yaya—never one to miss an opportunity for drama—shouted, “Here! Here! Here!” and produced a ring out of nowhere.
It was astunningvintage solitaire diamond set in a delicate band, and the sight of it triggered a hazy memory from Frankie’s childhood, a thing of beauty she’d once admired but forgotten.
When she handed it to Liam, and Frankie got a closer look, she remembered it being in her jewelry box when she was little. She also remembered her plan to plant it on Mr. Santino.
She turned to look at Yaya, part incredulous, part amused. “Seriously?”
“I keep for you!” Yaya waved at Liam. “Keep going! Go! Go! Go!”
Liam, who now held the ring with a trembling hand, looked up at her with the kind of earnestness that made it impossible to remember anything but this moment.
He smiled, and it was the rare, full-strength, unguarded version that she’d only glimpsed a handful of times in her life. “I know that this might seem impulsive, or out of the blue, or crazy,” he stated, voice thick with emotion, “but the truth is it’s none of those things. It’s the most sane, rational, premeditated thing I’ve ever done.”
Frankie blinked back tears, her grasp of reality feeling like it was slipping further by the second.
“All my life you’ve been my home, Frankie,” Liam said, and the words landed with a solid, comforting weight. “If this day has taught me anything, it’s that you never know what’s going to happen, and Ican’tgo another day without you being my wife.” He took a steadying breath, then continued, “Six months ago, I bought a house without seeing it because it had the art room you said you’d have in your home, and I knew if I had a chance,any chance, of ever having a place that felt like it was home, it had to be withyou.”
Liam turned for a moment, looking over his shoulder at Tristan. “Sorry, man.”
Frankie glanced over to find Emmanuelle resting her head on Tristan’s shoulder, crying, clearly swept up in the romance of it all. Beside her Tristan was grinning from ear to ear, clearlyhappy for his brother, and maybe even for Frankie. “You’re good. It’s all good.”
Liam turned back to Frankie, determination etched in every line of his ruggedly handsome face. “I hadn’t even spoken to you in over a decade, but I knew that. So,thisisn’t impulsive or crazy. Buying the house might have been.”
There was a quiet rumbling of laughter as Frankie smiled, and two tears spilled over her bottom lid then fell down her cheeks.
“Youare my home, Frankie. You always have been. You have my heart.” He pressed his hand over the spot where his Mighty Mouse tattoo was. She nodded in understanding. “You own it. It’s yours. I’d like it if I got to live with it, so that’s why I’m asking, Francesca Lydia Costas, will you make me the happiest, luckiest man in the world and marry me?”
Time stopped. The air shimmered with electricity and anticipation. Frankie willed herself to breathe, to speak, to do anything but stand there like a glitching robot. And then, before she could let logic or fear jump in, the answer burst out of her like a shooting star across the sky.
“Yes, yes, yes! Yes I will marry you.”
Liam didn’t hesitate, he slid the ring onto her finger, stood up, scooped her into his arms, and swung her around in a move so cinematic she almost laughed. The entire waiting room erupted into applause, a sound so loud and joyful it drowned out the beeping monitors and intercom buzzers and even the distant yelling of a security guard somewhere down the hall.
Frankie caught a glimpse of her mom, who had both hands clapped over her mouth, but she could see her smile from behind her palms. Niko and AJ high-fived, while Yaya grinned like the Cheshire Cat, already plotting the wedding feast in her head.
She felt herself spinning, literally and figuratively, Liam was holding her so tight. She could barely breathe and she realized,in the wildest, most unexpected way, that this was exactly how it was supposed to be. That all the heartbreak and chaos and awkward conversations were worth it because they led to this—her, in his arms, grinning like an idiot in front of her entire family and half the hospital staff.
Frankie tipped her head back so she could Liam’s face, every ounce of her trying to memorize this moment. “I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered.
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I can’t believe it took me this long,” he murmured, then kissed her in front of everyone—softly at first, then with a gathering urgency that would have made her knees weak if she was standing and that had at least three nurses fanning themselves with clipboards.
And she knew then and there that the curse was officially broken. She had her family, she had her best friend, and the only man she ever loved just asked her to be his wife. Frankie Costas was the luckiest girl in the world.
THE END
