“You love me?”
“Yeah, Katy, I love you. More than words. More than anything.”
More tears spill from her eyes. “You love me?”
“He loves you, Katybug!” Kai shouts from behind us.
“But…you’re not freaked out?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“Honestly? I’m the opposite of freaked out. I’m all in, babe.” I smile as I pointedly place my hand on her belly. “I want you and I want this baby and I want our future together. It’s all you, Katy Cat. Just you, babe. It’s all I want and need.”
Her eyes search mine for the longest moment, but then, like the heavens themselves open up just for me, she says the three words I didn’t realize I’ve been longing to hear from her. “I love you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nods. More tears slip down her cheeks. “I love you, Mack. So much.”
Between one breath and the next, she’s in my arms and my lips are on hers. I kiss her with everything I have. I kiss her with everything that I am. And I kiss her with everything that I know we’re going to be together.
“Hell yeah!” I can just barely hear Kai cheer in the background.
“I’m going to be a grandmother!” Melissa exclaims.
“I know my Harry isn’t here with us, but he’s certainly looking down at us from heaven, smiling that big, handsome smile of his!” Gran calls out. “Oh, and Kai, I think you need to try to get some bail money, dear.”
“Ma’am, you’re not under arrest,” a voice I’m not familiar with announces with a laugh. “You don’t need to have your hands behind your back.”
And it’s that voice that has Katy and me ending the kiss to see what’s going on.
“You’re not going to take me to the slammer?” Gran questions, and the security guard is smiling down at her.
“No,” he says. “But just so you know, you need to be three miles away from the coast when you spread ashes into the water, okay?”
“Okay,” Gran says with a shrug and not a single ounce of regret. She’s also quick to move her attention back to Katy and me. “So, do I get to witness a proposal on this ferry too?”
Katy laughs outright. “How about we take this one step at a time, Gran?”
“Honey, just so you know, it usually goes marriage first, then baby.”
“Yeah, well,” Katy comments and smiles up at me, “Mack and I never seem to do things in the typical way.”
“Well, Katy, that’s normally true. But today, it’s not.” I step back from her a bit and then sink down onto one knee. I pull the ring box out of my pocket and click open the lid, my smile broad and brilliant.
“Katy Dayton, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
A titter rings out as the crowd catches wind, and every romantic bone in my body sings with the satisfaction that I’ve done exactly what the billionaires suggested.
Grand gesture moment, here I come.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Katy replies unexpectedly, immediately dissolving into tears and shocked laughter. “My gran just chucked my granddad overboard, and I just found out we’re pregnant less than twenty-four hours ago. Do you think you could give me a little time just to get my bearings first before you freaking propose?”
I stand up as the crowd wavers, completely clueless as to what to do now.
Thankfully, I’m not clueless. Because I know my girl. And I know, despite this shitshow of a grand gesture, she loves me.
I chuckle and pull her up and into my arms until her legs are wrapped around my waist. “Just so you know,” I say and rub my nose against hers, “one day, very soon, I’m going to propose again. And that time, you’re going to say yes.”
“And what if I decide to say no again?”