I was in the audience the night Colleen made her stage debut.

Mac, Sly, and LeVan did their normal breath-stealing show, but that night, it looked like Colleen was going to be the show-stealer.

At least I thought so.

When the light settled over me, the dress Sly had asked me to wear erupted into a thousand shards of sparkling light. He’d told me that it was one of Thea’s designs and I’d fallen in love with it. Nobody ever had to ask me twice to wear a pretty dress, but now, sitting under the bright circle of light, with the light fracturing off my dress and everybody turning to look at me, I had to wonder just what was behind Sly’s request for my wardrobe.

“We’re going to deviate a little bit from the normal show tonight, folks,” Sly said, his rough, sexy drawl managing to give me the shivers even though he was talking to a full house, not to me.

Then he was talking to me, looking straight at me, and awareness sparked inside as he jumped lightly off the stage to come stand in front of me where I sat in the front row. Angel sat on one side, little Colleen back in her arms, dressed adorably in pink and white. Thea and her brother Nick sat on my other side and we all watched as Sly drew closer.

It seemed the entire theatre was holding its collective breath.

I know I was.

Sly held out a hand to me. Nervously, I accepted, letting him draw me to my feet.

He brought my hand to his lips and someone out in the audience shouted, “That’s not a kiss.”

Sly didn’t respond as he started to talk. “Any of y’all ever meet someone who made you want to be…more than what you are? Made you want to be better?”

He wasn’t really wanting an answer and he kept on with his monologue as he watched me. With one hand cupped in front of me, he said, “You see yourself as one thing.” He waved his spread palm in front of my face. Then he snapped his fingers and when he reopened his hand, there was a handkerchief in it. Only it wasn’t pristine and white. It was dirty, torn and grey, a few holes in it. He held it up and shoved it into his free fist, bit by bit. “But they look at you and see…”

He clapped both his hands and the handkerchief was gone.

The audience didn’t break out into their normal applause.

We were all listening to Sly’s words.

He snapped his fingers once more, and just like he was pulling the handkerchief from thin air, it was in his hands once more. The holes were gone. The handkerchief itself was white as snow. “They see something else. And it makes you want to be that something else.”

Tears blurred my eyes and I wanted to tell him I didn’t want him being anything but who he was.

But this wasn’t my show.

He placed the white square of cloth over his hand, concealing it.

“This person consumes you, takes up all your thoughts, takes up your soul, and your mind…” He whipped the handkerchief up, threw it in the air—and a dove flew out from under it.

But nobody laughed or clapped.

And now Sly stood in front of me with a box waiting on his outstretched hand.

“Until one day, you wake up and realize the only way you’ll ever be complete is if you give yourself, completely, to this one person. Has anyone here ever felt like that?” He didn’t want an answer. This wasn’t for the audience. He was baring his soul…for me.

A moment later, he went down on bended knee and that was when the audience broke out into cheers and applause and laughter.

But I was blinking back tears.

With a shaking hand pressed to my mouth, I watched as he flipped open the box. “Emerald Sky Montrose, will you marry me?” he asked as the light overhead hit the rock and sent dazzling fractals reflecting all around us.

I went to my knees in front of him, not thinking about the tight fit of the dress until it was too late. It held and I wrapped my arms around his neck, my mouth covering his just as he went to say something.

I had no idea what it might’ve been.

But my answer?

It was yes.

* * *

I turn my back to the waiting cluster of women in bridesmaids’ gowns and formal cocktail dresses. I was Mrs. Emerald Sky O’Malley now. About to start a new and intriguing chapter of my life—as someone’s wife. And someone else’s mother. Two of them.

Smiling, I ran my free hand down to my immense, still growing belly and looked down. I had no idea about what kind of mama I’d be for my twins, but I couldn’t wait to meet them.

Sly came through the crowd from one side of the room and placed his hand on top of mine at my belly. “Are they kicking?” He asked, then pressed a kiss below my ear.

“They were, earlier. Right now, they’re pretty calm.”

“Give them time. If they’re anything like me, they’re sure to be rambunctious and wily, nonstop.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“How about you throw that bouquet now so we can kick off our honeymoon?”

I smiled. “Sounds perfect to me.” I turned a little and gave the ladies a nod. “Are you all ready?” Before the last word was out of my mouth, I shot the flowers high over my shoulders, then turned to see who’d caught it.

Thea’s best friend had caught it, but immediately thrust it into Thea’s hands. “Tag, you’re it,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’d better take it too. I ain’t the marrying kind, and you’ve had LeVan waiting over a decade to seal the deal.”

“We’re engaged,” Thea told her friend, and let out a happy laugh.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Sly whispered to me. “These ladies can go from zero to scratch your eyes out bitchy in four seconds flat.”

I grinned. “Too late for that.”

“I don’t mind. The day’s gone off without a hitch. About time someone caused a scene. It’s my wedding after all.”

“True, but I’m glad the wedding planner didn’t add chaos and mayhem to her checkl—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Sly covered my mouth with his, and like all those times before, nothing else mattered.

“I love you, Mrs. O’Malley,” he whispered against my lips as he pulled from the searing kiss that curled my toes and sent need to my core. “And our babies. I don’t want to wait another second to make you the happiest woman on God’s green earth.”

I smiled and thought about how lucky I was, and that we’d given each other a chance all those long months ago.

“Yes, let’s go.”