Page 122 of Love Me Forever

I was grinning from ear to ear.

"This is perfect," I murmured. "The cupcakes. What is even that shell where the ring was in?"

"Ah, that was something Liz experimented with. I insisted on some sort of case around the ring so in case you decided not to share the cupcake with me, you wouldn't accidentally swallow the ring or hurt your teeth."

I could feel myself blush. He knew me well enough that he suspected I might use evasive maneuvers to avoid sharing it and thus having to cut it in half.

"I wanted it to be this day because it marks six months since we met."

I hadn't even realized it. He was right. I'd never believed in luck, but I had to say that evening was lucky for both of us.

He started to slide the ring onto my finger.

"Aren't you supposed to ask me the question first?" I asked in an uneven voice.

He cleared his throat. "True. Question first, ring later."

"Depending on my answer," I teased.

“We never followed the rules, though.” He squeezed my other hand, looking me straight in the eyes. "Bonnie, will you be my wife? I want to have the privilege and honor to love you every day, to call you mine officially and unofficially. Say yes! Make me the happiest guy on the planet. Hell, I'm already happy because you're here with me anyway. I want to share my life with you, to build our future together. I promise to watch your favorite TV shows with you, pretend to agree on your favorite seasons—”

“Hey—”

“And provide you with cupcakes on demand."

"You're bribing me to say yes?"

He winked. "I'm sweetening the deal."

“Yes," I murmured. My eyes welled with tears. These days I wasn't even trying to hold them back. My propensity to tear up seemed to grow at the same pace as my belly. I wasn't going to fight it. Lena had assured me that it was absolutely normal.

He slid the ring onto my finger, kissing the back of my hand afterward. Then he lowered himself on his haunches, resting his forehead on my belly.

"Baby girl, I hope I have your blessing too. I promise I'm going to take great care of you and your mom."

I needed to grasp the table to steady myself. I was truly swooning.

"And I promise we'll give you a great name. I’m not going down without a fight," he added in a whisper as he rose to his feet.

"Aha. What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. We'd been engaging in a battle of names ever since we found out we were having a girl. I had a long list. He'd vetoed every single name I had, but he couldn't even come up with three decent options.

"Exactly what I told her."

"You didn't like any of my names."

"I'm sorry to be so blunt, but they suck. They sounded made up."

"They're from fantasy books."

"Exactly. We can't do that to our daughter."

I pouted. "Fine. Then you come up with more options, but not Jean and Simone. Those are plain boring."

His eyes glinted dangerously. He stepped closer to me, putting a hand on my belly and the other one on my shoulder.

"When do you want to have the wedding?" he asked.

"To include a belly or not, that is the question.”

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