On our relaxing Sunday drive to the suburbs of Philadelphia, I roll down the convertible top, and Mia throws her hands up in the air. She glances over at me, flashing a smile at me that lights up her entire face. I pulled the old Mustang out of storage for the occasion since it only seemed fitting to recreate every memory of our past.

Mia lowers her arms, drops her hand to my knee, and squeezes. “Where are we going?”

The wind blows her hair in front of her beautiful face, billowing around her head. I tuck some of it behind her ear so I can get a better look at her. “Patience, little lamb. It’s a surprise.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, pushing up her perky tits, and pretends to sulk. “Stupid wolf,” she mumbles under her breath, even though I can hear her.

I laugh. “Would you let me plan something without nagging me to death about every detail?”

“I’m an investigative journalist. It is my job to ask questions.”

I nod in agreement, a smile tugging at my mouth.

After giving up the Old City Records case, Mia found her big break. She followed a tip from one of her sources and landed a front page spread with her story on a local politician’s campaign tampering. I couldn’t even contain my joy over seeing Mia’s picture accompanied by her article on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Wait…Are you taking me to my parent’s old house?” She turns her head from side to side, her mouth opening wide in shock. “Why are we here?”

My mother moved back to Boston after my father’s death. She said Philly never felt like home, and she missed being able to visit my brother’s grave.

“I want to do something,” I tell her. “For old times sake.”

She smiles when I pull into her parent’s old driveway and turn off the engine, but it fades. “We’re not breaking into the house.” The seriousness of her tone causes me to laugh. “I will do just about anything for you, but I am not getting busted for breaking and entering.”

“Don’t be silly. I asked for permission.” I open my car door, and Mia follows suit.

She comes around to my side of the car, meeting me in front of the two-car garage. “I don’t get it.”

I hold up my finger to her mouth. “Shh…Let me do what I came here to do. Okay?”

She nods, and I pull my finger away from her lips. Slipping my fingers between hers, I grip her hand tight and lead her into the backyard. I stop in front of the swing set that is showing it’s age. The metal bars are rusty and the seats are worn, but this is still the same place where I fell in love with the girl next door.

She smiles up at me as if she knows what this means. At least I got her here without ruining the surprise. The Tiffany’s ring has been burning a hole in my pocket for months now. It was only a matter of finding the right time to pop the question. But I always knew the place. I’d marry her right here in this backyard if I could.

I grab the metal rope and hold out the swing for Mia to sit. She does as I want and without complaint, kicking up her feet as I push her off the ground.

“Tell me something good,” I say to her.

Her face brightens. “You,” she says in her singsong voice. She stops moving and plants her sneakers on the ground, the same kind of Chuck’s she wore when she was a kid. “It was always you.”

I bend down on one knee in front of her and place my hand on her thigh. “You were always mine. If only I had told you that when we were younger.”

She shrugs. “Ancient history. All that matters now is that we are here together, creating new memories of our own.”

“Exactly.” I reach into my pocket and remove the blue box.

Mia’s hand flies up to her mouth, and her eyes widen with surprise. “Oh my God! You’re doing this.” She lowers her hand, her body trembling in the process.

“I thought we should start our life together where it all began.” I flip open the box to reveal a five-karat diamond ring.

She stares down at the diamond. “It’s so beautiful.”

“My mom helped me pick it out. You like it?”

“I love it. I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby.”

She leans forward to kiss me on the lips, a tear falling from her eye and onto my right cheek. “Yes, a thousand times yes.”

I shake my head, laughing. “I didn’t even get to ask you yet. Would you stop being so impatient?”

She wipes away the tears with the back of her hand and sniffs. “Sorry. I got a little excited.”

“We met in this backyard over twelve years ago. I was at the worst point in my life, on drugs and unable to function, and you brought me back to life. Every conversation with you helped to heal me, but I still wasn’t good enough for you. Leaving you behind was one of the hardest moments of my life. I was an ass for a long time because I still knew I wasn’t good enough for you. It also didn’t help that you are Will’s sister, so there’s that. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. So was my condo flooding.”

I love you, she mouths, and I say it back.

I clasp the ring, drop the box to the ground, and take her hand in mine. “Mia Elizabeth Roman, I have loved you since I was eighteen, and I will love and worship you for the rest of my life. Will you be mine?”

“I am yours,” she mutters. “Forever. Always.”

She touches my cheek with her thumb, as I slide the ring on her finger. I get up from the ground, sit on the swing next to her, and slip my fingers between hers. We kick our feet off the ground, the metal bars grinding under our weight.

“How did you pull all of this off?” Mia asks me.

“Easy. The owner of the house flipped out when he saw me on his doorstep. He’s a big-time Flyers fan. I told him about how we met and offered to pay him to bring you here for a few hours. But he didn’t want money. He settled for a bunch of autographed memorabilia from the team and me and pictures of us in gear.”

She laughs. “You got off easy.”

“Tell me about it. I would have paid him anything to make this moment special for you. This house, this backyard, all of it means something to us. I wanted you to be able to look back on this day and remember it the same way you did the first night we met.”

“I remember thinking you were the hottest boy I had ever met,” she says, blushing. “I had an instant crush on you.”

“And now?”

“Still the hottest boy I ever met. Only now you’re a man. My man.”

The corners of my mouth turn up into a smile.

“One more thing,” I say, nervous about how she will react. “Since I had to ask your dad and your brother if I could marry you—”

“You did?” She claps her hands together and laughs. “Was that Will’s idea?”

“Of course. You know your brother. Goddamn pain in my ass. I had to ask him over dinner like we were on a fucking date.”

She shakes her head. “He’s insane.”

“If you only knew.” I think of all the crazy shit Will and I have done over the years, some of it locked away in a mental vault I will never open again, mostly for Mia’s sake. “That wasn’t what I wanted to tell you, though. Since Will is my best man, he already started planning my bachelor party.”

She rolls her eyes. “What if I had said no?”

I smirk. “Look who’s got jokes.”

“Whatever. It could have happened.” She glances down at her ring and smiles. “So, where is Will taking you? On a tour of every strip club in the world?”

“Would you let me go?”

She laughs. “Not like I could stop you.”

“I would do anything for you. If you didn’t want me to go, I would tell Will no. But you’d have a very angry brother to deal with. Will has been looking forward to my bachelor party ever since I told him I wanted to marry you. He even booked our rooms in Vegas.”

“Vegas, baby,” she says, throwing her arms above her head. “I’m coming, too. I can have my bachelorette party there.”

“Are you serious?”

She shrugs, nonchalant as if hijacking my bachelor party isn’t a big deal. “Yeah, why not?

“Because your brother will have a stroke. No women allowed.”

“Same city, different parties. Let me handle Will.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Mia grips my hand, and a pulse of electricity dances up my arm. She smiles as if she can feel it too. We swing higher, matching each other’s pace. No more words are necessary. A perfect end to an imperfect beginning.