Page 93 of My Scorned Best Friend

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want to talk about Cade and Presley. I want to talk about how undeserving I am of you.” I take her head in my hands. “It was awesome. I was so stupid for underestimating you. To think you couldn’t handle yourself. Of course you could.”

“I’ve had years of practice. Maybe not at the national press level, but I don’t care what they say about me. All I care about is what this town thinks of me and, most importantly, how you see me.”

“Will you marry me?” The words pour out of me.

“What?” Her face pales and her eyes well up with tears.

“Jesus, I don’t have a ring, but marry me, Clara. I want you to be my wife, and I want to be your husband. I want to have a zillion kids with you. I don’t want to waste any more time than we already have.”

She laughs. “A zillion?”

“Well… after seeing Presley, maybe three?”

“Xavier, are you sure?”

I bring her forward so she’s straddling me. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. You are my forever.” She hugs me tightly, and I close my eyes, “I’m sorry it’s not the proposal you deserve.”

“It’s okay, X, I don’t care about any of that. All I care about is us. I love you. Of course, I’ll marry you.”

“I love you. Always have, always will.” I smash my lips to hers, then I lower her to the floor to make love to my fiancée. Nothing sounds better than that. Except maybe wife.

* * *

Two weeks later…

The outpouring of love for Clara was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So many go girls, you’re worthy, you’re deserving, damn right. Mark was fired from the magazine for his unprofessionalism, and the article about me has been taken down and retracted, although I’m sure it lives in cyberspace somewhere.

We’re getting out of my truck after celebrating my dad being in remission with the family.

“What’s this?” Clara asks, seeing in the back seat the box my dad gave me weeks ago.

“Oh, my dad gave it to me. He and Marla said they were saving it for us and that we had to open it together. I forgot it was in the back seat.”

She looks suspicious and takes it with her, along with the leftovers Marla demanded we take.

“So, what do you want to do about next year?” I ask as we approach the house.

“I can’t move to San Francisco, but I can come most weekends.”

I’m only staying for two more years. Once my contract is up, I’m done. I’ve made more than I ever thought I would, and if I can retire without injury, I’m happy. Sunrise Bay is where I want to raise our kids, so while two years of a few months of long distance isn’t ideal, we’ll make it work.

“We better work on our FaceTime sex skills though,” she says as I unlock the front door. She walks into the house and drops the box on the kitchen counter, her hands poised to open it.

“Hey, we’re supposed to do this together.”

“Sorry, I can’t believe you just left it in there for how many weeks.” She shakes her head.

I shrug. “I had a lot on my mind.” I kiss her cheek. “Let me put these leftovers in the fridge, then we’ll open it.”

She goes to the couch and positions the box on her lap.

The light shines on her diamond ring. A five-carat solitaire on a platinum band. She says it’s too much, but nothing is too much for her.

“Okay, open.” I sit down on the couch beside her.

She pulls out an old VHS tape and looks at me. Then a photo album. Nothing else is in there. She opens the photo album and gasps. “X?”

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