The text came in when Elise was out with her friends. She and Wendy and Jane had planned a night of drinks and dinner. Gia had flown in at the last minute, which was a bit of a surprise because she’d been back only a week ago, and she was in the middle of a job in California. But whatever, she’d take Gia whenever she could get her.

Normally, she wouldn’t answer a text while she was out with the girls, but this particular one was impossible to ignore. They were sitting at a bar having cocktails, and she turned away to try to reply without drawing too much attention to herself.

She tamped down a little spurt of panic. It was just a rug. She was the one who’d tried to talk him into returning it in the first place. It didn’t have any inherent meaning. Just because it was a silly symbol for their relationship didn’t mean it had any actual power over their fate.

“Is that Jay?” Gia asked.

“Judging by how alarmed she looks,” Wendy said, “I’m gonna go with Daddy dearest.”

Jane laughed, but then she stopped, like she was trying to hide it. Elise looked at her friends. What was up with them? If Wendy really thought Elise’s father was texting, she’d be all up in her face about it, rushing to defend Elise from what she perceived as the enemy.

Her phone dinged again.

That might have come off a little shrewish, but she was his designer. And he was in the advantageous position of not being charged for design services these days.

“Seriously,” Wendy said, “Who is texting and making you make those faces?”

Elise looked up. “It is Jay. He got a new rug at the office, and he wants me to come over and see it.” Which, said out loud, sounded like a dumb thing to be texting about. The girls didn’t know about the rug subtext. They’d all enthusiastically endorsed her whirlwind romance with Jay, but Elise was maybe guilty of not telling them every single detail. Which was a new one for her. But… She felt her face heat as she thought back to Jay working her over so expertly and thoroughly this morning before they got out of bed. Some things were private.

She picked up her phone. “Anyway, I’ll tell him I’ll see it later.”

“Let’s go see it!” Jane said with a strange amount of enthusiasm.

Elise narrowed her eyes. “It’s eight on Friday night. We’re all together”—she shot Gia an affectionate look—“so we’re not going to an accounting firm to look at a rug!”

“Mmm, look at a rug.” Gia snorted. “Sounds like it could be a euphemism for something dirty.”

Wendy hopped off her barstool. “Let’s go. This place is boring anyway.”

“And Cohen & Smith is…not boring?” Elise grinned. “Besides the décor, I mean. The décor is the opposite of boring.”

Wendy slapped down a wad of cash and was halfway to the door when the others shrugged. They all knew there was no point in trying to talk Wendy out of anything.

Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way up the elevator to Jay’s office. “Hey, maybe after we’re done here, I can show you guys the bank job.” She’d redone the HR department of a major bank, which spanned three floors of Jay’s building. It hadn’t been the most exciting job because she had to work within a narrow corporate-approved color palette, but it did lead to another job doing the CEO’s house, which had been an exciting one in that she’d been given carte blanche—and a huge budget. Still, she was proud of her work in the bank offices. It was a living testament to how far she’d come, and if they were on-site anyway, she wanted to show it to her best friends.

“For sure!” Gia said. “I totally want to see it.”

“Yes!” Wendy echoed, with an uncharacteristic degree of excitement.

What was wrong with her friends? They were way too chipper.

“Ladies.” When they pushed through the heavy oak doors to the Cohen & Smith lobby, Jay rose from a sofa. He must have been waiting for them.

His eyes roamed over everyone as he greeted her friends, but then his intense gaze landed on Elise and stuck there. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Her heart stuttered. It had been four months, but he still had that effect on her.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Wendy said. “Get a room.”

“We just said hi!” Elise protested, but she knew what Wendy meant. Jay’s intense look had not dimmed. It promised possession and protection and tenderness, and, amazingly, the doses of those things he delivered seemed to grow with each passing day.

“Let’s see this magical rug,” Gia said, “and you two can get on with it.”

“We’re going for dinner,” Elise said to the girls as they followed Jay into his office. They’d booked tonight as a girls’ night, and they were sticking to it. She would admit to being a little torn, though. Now that she was in close proximity to Jay, it was hard not to want him to throw her over his shoulder and cart her off to have his way with her. But she wouldn’t admit to that publicly. Besides, Mr. Intense Look would wait up for her.

They filed into Jay’s office. The old rug—the ripped one—was still there.

“I thought you returned it.”

“Well, yeah, I didn’t actually.”

Huh? He just told her, via text not thirty minutes ago, that he had returned it.

Jay moved over to the rug, which wasn’t in its usual place under the coffee table, anchoring the casual seating area in his office. It had been sort of awkwardly placed next to that area.

“Well, you can’t leave it there. It looks terrible there.”

“I got a new one. It’s underneath it.”

What? That was so strange. “You can’t leave the new one there, either. You can’t put any rug in that spot. It’s squished in and not anchored with anything and looks totally random. Whichever rug you’re using needs to go back under the seating area.”

Gia coughed, and Jane made a point of clapping her on the back. They looked like they were sharing a secret joke.

“Yeah, they’re just out here temporarily to show you,” Jay said, crouching down and snagging the corner of the old rug.

“You are so weird.”

He shot her a grin, then knelt and started rolling the rug back. “The new rug is underneath.”

“That color doesn’t work in here.” It was a dark red. Not a bad color inherently, just not for this office. “And I’m not sure a straight-up solid is what you want in here. A print would—”

Gia’s coughing fit seemed to take a turn for the worse. A little alarmed, Elise turned and walked over to her, but Gia just shook her head and made urgent pointing gestures back toward Jay and the stupid rugs.

She turned back. Okay, the rug did have some pattern in it. A white loopy—

She gasped. He wasn’t kneeling in order to roll the rug back. He was on one knee gazing at her with undisguised love. And those loopy things were letters. The rug had words woven into it.

Will you marry me?

Jay had been pretty confident she would say yes. He’d put his odds at maybe ninety per cent. They were moving fast, objectively speaking, but from the inside, it felt like they were moving at just the right speed.

But in that moment, with her standing there, post-gasp, utterly silent as she stared at the rug, fear started to sink its claws into his gut. Maybe it was too soon. Or the rug thing, which had seemed like a cute inside joke when he thought it up, was actually really dumb and not even remotely worthy of her. He should have hired a freaking skywriter. He should have—

“Yes. Of course.” She looked down at him with watery eyes. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

All his fears flitted away as she pulled him back to standing and threw herself into his arms. He could feel her shaking, so he held her tighter. Buried his face in her hair and marveled that she’d said yes. She was his. He was never going to let go.

He’d meant that last sentiment metaphorically, but when she eventually pulled back against him, he had a hard time lowering his arms and letting her step out of his embrace.

He was glad he had, though, because the look she gave him, so full of love and heat and promise, was not a sight he would have liked to miss.

He cleared his throat. “I didn’t get you a ring. I figured you’d have opinions.”

“Smart man,” Wendy deadpanned.

The interjection reminded him—and her, judging from the way her eyebrows shot up—that they had an audience.

She turned, and her friends rushed her. He stood back and grinned at the group hug that transformed into a group squeal.

When it broke up, Elise kept one arm slung around Gia’s waist. “This is why you’re in town!”

“Yup. When Jay told us he was doing this, I knew I had to be here.”

“Really, he didn’t tell us,” Jane said. “It was more like asking our permission.”

“It totally was!” Wendy confirmed.

She looked at him, equal parts amused and incredulous. He shrugged. “It wasn’t like I was going to ask your parents. And anyway, you all are kind of a package deal, right?”

He was teasing, but not really. The early weeks of his relationship with Elise had been insular, private. But he’d learned pretty quickly that these women were her soul sisters. And he was glad of it. Each was amazing in her own right, and as a unit, they provided Elise with an unshakable support network.

“We are a package deal.” Elise went in for another group hug with the girls.

“Yeah,” Gia said, “We already gave him the if you hurt our friend we will rise as one and murder you in your sleep speech, so we’re all good.”

“And then we signed off on this rug idea,” Jane said.

Elise’s head popped up from this latest group hug. “The rug thing was great. It totally makes me think maybe we could incorporate some cute rugs into the wedding itself—you know, because they’re kind of our thing? Where did you get it?”

“Well, I thought I was going to have to get it custom woven, but it turns out proposal rugs are a thing.”

He chuckled. He could see her perfectionist designer brain firing up. Then her eyes sparked, and she lifted her arms to the sky like she was a revivalist preacher. “Oh my God! I have the best idea for a wedding venue.”

A peal of laughter from Gia drew his attention. She was pulling a bottle of champagne out of a giant handbag. To his amusement, it was followed by five stemless plastic flutes. Gia, he had come to learn, was known for her giant bags, but even for her, that was impressive. She passed the glasses around, popped the cork to cheers from the group, and started pouring.

When she was done, he followed her lead in lifting his glass.

“I say this with love,” Gia said, winking at Elise, “but you are going to be such a bridezilla.”