All the way home, I couldn’t take my eyes off my ring. It wasn’t big, three stones in a medium-sized band with a scrollwork pattern like vines over the surface. A sapphire and two diamonds sat in a line in the middle of it and the platinum gleamed like it was lit from inside. I still couldn’t believe that Mike had bought it for me—God, I hoped I hadn’t driven him into debt to do it.

It was beautiful, like him.

The plane landed and I rubbed my fingers over my ring until the seatbelt lights went out and I could stand up and pull my carry-on bag out of the bins. Mom and Dad were supposed to be waiting for me. I wondered what they’d say.

Mom saw me before I saw her. “Lew!” she called and waved her arms above her head to get my attention.

“Mom!” I dodged through the crowd and threw myself into her arms. “I have so much to tell you!” We hugged for a moment, then I reached for Dad and hugged him too.

“Lew!” Mom said in a shocked voice. “Where did you get that ring?”

“That’s my news,” I told her. “We’re engaged.” I let go of Dad and started moving us toward baggage claim.

“Oh, Lew,” Mom gasped. “Are you sure that’s wise?”

I put an arm around her waist as we walked. “I don’t know about wise, but I don’t think it’s wrong.”

Dad put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not crazy about this, you know that. But if you love him and if he’ll be good to you, I won’t stand in your way.”

“Traitor,” Mom said, pointing a finger at him, then sighed. “I suppose I won’t either. But I don’t like it.”

“It’ll be okay, Mom. I promise,” I told her. “We talked. A lot.” The belts at the baggage claim had jerked into motion as we came through the door and I moved up to watch for my bag.

“Talking is easy,” she reminded me. “Doing is where the real work comes in.”

“He’s already doing,” I told her. My bag skated around the corner and I grabbed it quickly before it could slide past us. When I turned around, they were both watching me with concern in their eyes. “Seriously. I’m not just stumbling into this with my eyes closed. And I’m not a teenager any more. He puts a toe out of line, he’s going to hear about it. I’m not going down that road again.” They still watched me with concern. “Let’s go home, okay. We can talk it all out there.”

I followed them out to the car. They never said a word, just unlocked the doors and packed my bags inside, then we climbed in and headed home.

Finally, my mother turned around in her seat. “So, no chicken tonight?”

I shook my head and smiled. “No chicken. Some celebratory ice cream would be good, though.”

“I think I have some in the freezer.” She reached for my hand. “All right, let me see this ring Mike bought you.” She studied it for a minute, while I once more gazed adoringly at it. “This was expensive,” she said thoughtfully. “Are you sure he could afford it? I’d be worried that you’re marrying into a pile of debt—you know the stories you hear.”

“Yeah, I looked into that. Credit cards are all good, bank account are about what you’d expect. He’s auditioning for a couple of new roles for the fall. A TV show, and a movie that would be a big boost to his career.”

“Yes, but you don’t know if he’ll get them,” Mom reminded me. “Can he afford this?”

“He has another payment from this movie coming once filming is done.” I understood her concern—Mike had been pretty damn careless before he left for L.A. and he was used to having money. “I think he’s grown up some. Not all the way, maybe, but I don’t think I can say I’m more of a grown up than he is. I mean, I still live in my parents’ basement, right?” I tried the joke, hoping to lighten the mood. While I’d sort of been expecting this, it was kind of depressing to come home after everything that had happened in L.A. and have all my decisions questioned.

Mom let me take my hand back with a grimace. “You know that doesn’t have anything to do with you being able to look after yourself.”

“I know,” I said softly. “But it’s time I moved on with my life. I’ve been stalled here since high school and, yeah, it’s nice and comfortable, but it’s not life.”

Dad spoke up for the first time since we’d gotten in the car. “When do you plan to get married?”

“We haven’t talked about that yet.” Not just because I needed to tie up loose ends here, put in my notice at work and then pack to make the trip back to L.A., but because I wanted to be sure that he wasn’t going to change before I tied myself to him. In love I might have been, but I’d learned my lesson that first summer out of high school.

Trust, but verify.

So I was planning a long, relaxed engagement and enough time to be certain that when we made things official, it was going to stick.

But I was going to do it all from L.A. Because I already missed him painfully and we’d only been apart a couple of hours.