“Checks are in!” Kelsey yelled, holding a handful of envelopes in the air.

“Hot damn,” Cole said, rubbing his hands together and abandoning his job of helping Tucker install light fixtures in the kitchen.

The remodel was almost done, the kitchen nearly finished. Elliot and his brothers already had their next job lined up, their supplies on order, ready to go the following week. Julia wasn’t sure she was ready to let them go, now used to them underfoot and in her space.

She wasn’t sure she’d know what to do without them.

Instead of rushing toward Kelsey like his brothers, Elliot stayed on the ladder in the kitchen finishing his work. He eyed her every few minutes, but said nothing, just worked. She liked that about him. They were similar that way. Focused and goal-oriented, though he had an easier time taking breaks or a much-needed step back.

It had been two weeks since his cousin Logan’s wedding and everything felt different, yet somehow the same. They still spent most nights together in a nice, normal rendition of domestic bliss, but instead of feeling like she was walking a tightrope of uncertainty, Julia felt a sense of comfort in her own skin.

Elliot did that for her. He gave her that. She finally felt like whoever she was, she was finally enough. She didn’t need to be more or different, she could just be herself.

He didn’t let a day go by without telling her how much he cared for her or how special she was to him. And she tried to do the same for him. It was all new to her, but she knew how it felt when he said the words to her, and she wanted to make sure that he felt that too.

“El!” Cole shouted from the entryway where he and Tucker stood with Kelsey. “Come get your money!”

Elliot did nothing but roll his eyes and send Julia a look that conveyed his annoyance.

Julia liked that he wasn’t rushing for the check. Money wasn’t the most important thing to him. She was. But she already knew that.

Cole hurried in, envelope in hand and stood at the bottom of the ladder his oldest brother was on. “You want this?”

“You can toss it on Julia’s desk,” Elliot told him.

“You want me to toss around a couple million bucks?” Cole asked incredulously. “Like, just toss it?”

“It’s just paper,” Elliot said with a shrug. “It doesn’t have feelings, Cole.”

Tucker swaggered in, looking impressed with himself. “I’d say we could take the rest of the day off. Celebrate a little.”

Kelsey hurried into the office, planting her butt on the edge of Julia’s desk as they watched the Williams brothers talk about their plans.

“Celebrate, huh?” Elliot said, going back to concentrating on the light fixture, his face screwing up to the side as he tightened a nut determinedly. “I’ve got just the thing.”

Tucker and Cole both raised their eyebrows, skeptical. Even Kelsey chuckled under her breath in a near scoff.

“Babe?” Elliot called. “Can you come here a second?”

Curious, Julia stood from her desk and went into the kitchen, wondering what he needed or what he had in mind that constituted a celebration.

“Hi.” He smiled at her when she came in the room and the simple gesture held a world of knowledge. It was kind and understanding, patient and warm. But there was heat there too, a deep-seated heat that burned through whenever they were together.

Julia felt her cheeks heat at the sudden flare of longing that lit inside her chest at the look he sent her.

“Hi,” she responded in a near whisper.

“Remember that thing we talked about?” he asked, taking a step down from the ladder. “The thing about what would happen when we got married?” He took another step down.

Julia’s eyes widened at the memory, a frisson of embarrassment running through her, as well as nervousness.

She shook her head. “Which thing?” Her voice was almost soundless now, just a rush of breath falling from her mouth.

He took the last step down off the ladder and then stood in front of her. His hands didn’t reach for her, instead, hanging by his sides balled into fists.

“The thing where I’m going to ask you to marry me and you’re going to say yes. The part where I’m going to make sure your family is there to see everything, to see you through every step?”

Yes, she remembered. Every word, every ounce of steadfast determination was etched into her heart. She nodded.

Elliot held out a hand, gesturing around the room and when she looked, Kelsey, Cole, and Tucker all stood by her side, smiling. They were in on it, part of Elliot’s plan to make her see that she wasn’t alone. That even if her own blood relatives weren’t behind her, the family she’d made for herself was.

“Your family is here, Julia,” Elliot told her, his voice gruff. His face was hard but not with anger or frustration, with emotion. His gray eyes pierced her as he spoke, conveying how very serious he was.

She needed that. She’d have never wanted a big spectacle or a joke of some kind if he was going to make a grand declaration. She needed tangible love, something she could see and feel with her own hands. Things like her best friend and the Williams brothers, strong and steady, at her back.

“We’re all here,” Kelsey said, her voice wobbling through her smile. “And we always will be.”

“I wanted you to see,” Elliot said, finally reaching out and engulfing her hand in his own, his heat warming her with more than just his body heat. “You need to see that you aren’t alone. I want to marry you, Julia, and be yours forever. You’ll always have me and if you have me, then you have them.” He nodded at his brothers.

“Package deal,” Tucker agreed.

Cole’s hands came to rest on her shoulders. “I’ve always wanted a sister and it looks like you’re it, Jules.”

Overwhelmed, Julia just shook her head. Not to say no, but because she’d never had such a loving display directed at her. She didn’t know what to do with people that loved her.

“This is the part where you ask your question, mate.” Julia’s head spun to see her father on the screen of Kelsey’s tablet in her hands. He smiled at her. “And this is the part where you say yes, love.”

Her eyes swung back to Elliot, who was holding out a little velvet box, his heart in his eyes, but he surprised her by looking at Cole. “This is the part where I tell my little brother how forever indebted I’ll be to him for finding the love of my life for me in a grocery store and forcing me to take a job I didn’t want to take. Without him, I’d have never have figured out that not wanting to fall in love wasn’t the same thing as not actually falling in love.” He looked back to Julia. “You didn’t give me a choice, Julia. You’re everything I didn’t even know I was looking for and I’m so thankful I found you. You make my world a brighter place, somewhere that has colors and shadows and corners and endless surprises around every bend. You bring me questions I didn’t know I needed to ask and answers to those questions I’d never find without you. You are—”

“Please stop,” she whispered, unable to hear anymore. To hear him talk about her like that, to hear words that somehow conveyed everything that she was feeling, was staggering. Almost suffocating.

Cole squeezed her shoulder and she took a deep breath.

“I feel all those things too,” she admitted. “No one’s ever loved me like you love me but I don’t have the words that you do. I can’t say those things and sound half as eloquent about it.”

“I don’t need you to say them,” Elliot told her, squeezing her hand and bringing her knuckles to his lips. “I just need you to feel them and keep showing me how you feel. Words are just that, words. I just need you, baby, open and honest as always. Nothing more.”

“Can I see the ring?” she blurted, curious to see what he picked.

He laughed indulgently and she sucked in a breath when he opened it and dropped to one knee. The ring was exquisite. Antique platinum with a huge diamond. Her eyes cut to his.

“Kelsey helped pick it out,” he said in answer to her unspoken question.

“Sotheby’s,” came Kelsey’s answer from behind.

It was lovely. It was houses and white picket fences and trips to the grocery store and everything in between.

“What do you say, Shorty? Will you marry me and put this hot but awful man out of his misery?”

She let out a breathy laugh at the reminder of what she’d thought of him when they first met.

“I guess I like hot but awful,” she told him with a nod and held out her hand.

She distantly heard the hoots and hollers of their family and friends but it was all secondary. The only thing she had eyes for was Elliot, slipping that ring on her finger and with it, sealing their relationship.

He stood, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her feet off the ground. She leaned in, her lips pressing against his, her hands clasped on the sides of his face.

“You’re stuck with me now,” she told him, her lips still against his.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be, Shorty.” His eyes held a world of promise. “Nowhere else on earth.”

* * *

Did you like Elliot’s story? Did you fall in love with the Williams Brothers?

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