Page 98 of The Criminal

“But your house is gorgeous,” Sydney said, passing me back my phone.

“Not to live in. As a flip. I think he misses having a project.”

“I like it.” Quinn pointed at me with her cup.

Sydney and Kira also agreed it sounded like a good idea. Extravagant but good. It wasn’t like I was paying cash for the fixer-upper. I had a line of credit all set up, and Derek and I could decide how we dealt with the buying, paying, and selling later. Right now, I had to have something impressive to give him on Christmas Day. He and Sara wouldn’t have scrimped. I was thinking watch, because of the irony, of course.

“Okay then, here goes nothing.” I texted my real estate agent, telling her to submit the lowball offer that we’d talked about the day before. The place had been on the market for like a year or something.

I almost instantly got a notification to e-sign a document. Shit. I was doing this.

“I guess I’m putting in an offer.” It was disconcertingly easy to click a few buttons and send it in.

“Way to go, Santa!” Quinn held up her cup. We all clinked ours together.

Derek

I tossed back the dregs of my third holiday margarita. I should have stopped at two. Nerves were a bitch. But I’d been suffering from them since I picked up Lee’s ring from Sara. And the way things went at the last holiday party where I tried to propose, it was little wonder they were getting to me.

“Okay, enough liquid courage for you.” Steel took my cup and tossed it in the garbage. “You doing this?”

I’d envisioned something like a scene from a classic movie. The pianist playing a flourish to get the guests’ attention. Me looking debonair in my crisp suit. Everyone toasting our love with crystal glasses of champagne.

Instead, she was getting a cheesy Christmas carol playlist and tequila in plastic cups.

What is that saying about how men plan and God laughs? I was the butt of a cosmic joke.

“Now or never.”

Steel reached behind him and turned down the portable speaker, cutting Mariah Carey off mid-croon. I put my finger between my lips and whistled. Heads turned to me, everyone single person smiling.

The room was full of my found family, not two hundred hard-to-impress strangers. I had no reason to be nervous. I let out a whoosh of air from my tight chest and let most of my crazy ridiculousness go with it.

“Lee, can you come here?”

She stood and shoved her phone into a back pocket. The slightest hint of a blush tinged her cheeks.

When she met me in the middle of the Smith Agency break room, it was like the rest of the world fell away. They were no more important than a muslin backdrop behind the actors on a stage. Lee and I were the stars.

I took her hand and kissed the back of it before lowering to one knee. Her eyes grew incredibly wide, and she clutched my hand with a death grip.

“I love you,” I mouthed as I settled into position and fished the ring box from my pocket.

She was already nodding. I took it as a good sign.

The last nerves melted away, and elation overwhelmed my lingering fears. I’d finally found everything I wanted and so much more in a woman. A woman that challenged me and supported me. That seduced me and wanted to be seduced. We were complements to each other in ways we were still learning. And I dreamed of a lifetime with her. Time to make it official.

“We’re both old enough to know that when life gives you something good, you grab on with both hands. Lee, you’re the best thing to come my way in decades. I’d like to have you beside me for the rest of my life.”

I popped open the little velvet box.

“Marry me?”

She nodded faster and cupped my cheeks. She bent at the waist and said, “Yes,” before pressing her lips to mine. She pulled me to my feet without so much as a glance at the ring. “Absolutely, yes. A hundred times, yes.”

Around us, the room broke into applause and wolf whistles. I pulled her close and dipped her back over my arm, kissing her like no one was watching. Damn, I loved this woman.

When we finally broke apart, unshed tears glistened in her eyes, and my chest felt ready to burst from happiness. I had everything a man could ever want and more with her in my life.

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