EPILOGUE

 

RONNIE

“This is weird,” I whisper under my breath so only Danny can hear.

“You’re telling me.” He squeezes my knee under the table. We’re surrounded by the entirety of the Frost family. And wait for it! Danny’s family is here too.

Danny and his father have actually been talking, and not just about sports. Danny’s dad even admitted that he might have put too much pressure on him to conform to the Harrison sporting legacy. It took a lot of stilted texts and phone calls and even a couple of visits before they really started making amends. There might have been a bottle of Blue Label and several renditions of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” involved, too. At any rate, once they started talking it was pretty clear that Hank regretted the lack of relationship between them these past eight years. He might even have managed to verbalize how proud he is that Danny found his own calling, sounding downright impressed, in fact.

I certainly am. I am so proud of what we’re accomplishing together. We’re even looking over applications for a couple of new Dannys to add to our team, if we can find men with that perfect blend of funny, cute, and compassionate. Which isn’t easy. Danny’s one in a million, and finding men with similar character is not an easy task.

Warmth envelops me as I cover the hand resting on my knee with my own. More Dannys means I get more time with the one and only original, and I like that idea a lot. So much so that I’m living with a man who isn’t a blood relation for the first time in my life.

“I still don’t understand how your mother managed to organize this,” Danny says. “But Dad’s thrilled. Look at him. He’s in his element.”

Hank is currently in deep conversation with my father and Garrett over golf and baseball and clubs and bats and swings and God knows what else. My mother and his are opening their second bottle of wine while they conspiratorially murmur about something that may or may not be related to the fluttering sensation in my belly. Yeah, those two together can’t be good.

Even Joe is here. Wearing a Vintage Ramones T-shirt and gray beanie, he’s enjoying a beer with James and Paynt while they stand over the grill. He’s come home on a semi-regular basis these last couple of months to check on their mother and to spend time with Danny. Now that they’re speaking again, both of them are trying to catch up on what they’ve missed of each other’s lives. In fact, Danny and I are heading to California for a week in early November.

The rest of us—the kids, Myra, Erin, and Circus O’Animal—are inside.

“It wasn’t my mother.” I grin. After all, I did learn from the best.

“You organized this?” Danny shifts to face me. “You’re Wonder Woman.”

I shrug. “It wasn’t that difficult. A few phone calls.” Dozens of text messages. Several emails. It’s hard enough to get my family all in the same place at the same time with their schedules. Add in a whole other family—including one from out of state—and it’s a logistics nightmare. But it’s totally worth it. Besides, Mom has actually been bugging me about meeting the Harrisons. She threatened to track them down herself.

“Uh-huh.” Danny leers at me. I guess he knows better.

“Okay, fine.” I roll my gaze at him. “It took some finagling, but I told them it was important.”

“How important?” His brows narrow across the bridge of his nose as his gaze darts from me to our mothers, who keep glancing at us between excited whispers. It’s enough to make even me wonder if I’ve somehow managed to get pregnant without knowing.

My pulse starts to race as I jump out of my chair and walk away from the table.

Danny joins me by the railing. “What’s going on?”

My palms are clammy, and my mouth is sticky. He wraps an arm around my waist, and I twist in his hold so that I can stare into his eyes. “I never expected I would end up here, doing this. At least I didn’t before I fell in love with you.”

“Doing what? Having dinner with both our families? I didn’t either. At least not with mine.”

“Shh.” I clamp my palm over his mouth.

His eyes widen, but he stays quiet as I drop my hand. Love, especially the kind that encompasses who you are, the kind that supports and encourages you, can do wonders for your beliefs about commitment. It can change how you view everything and make you realize that you can be a better you if you are with the right person.

I take a deep breath to center myself. “I don’t want to hide our relationship or keep it low-key. And not because I can handle my mother carrying on about grandchildren, because truthfully, I really can’t. I don’t want to hide anymore because I’m happy with you. I’m so proud to say we’re together. That of all the people in all the world, you’re the one person who really gets me and loves that I am who I am. Who doesn’t expect me to be different than I am. Who doesn’t hope that I’ll change. Or worry when I display tendencies to act like my mother. You encourage me to embrace my own identity, and I love that about you.”

“You’re totally one of those girls right now, aren’t you?”

I press my lips together, my eyes misting. “A little. But I’m trying to tell you that I’m committed to you whole-heartedly, Danny. I’m trying to ask you to marry me.”

“What?” He sways on his feet, and his grip on me tightens.

Someone clears their throat, interrupting our moment, and we both glance at the intruder.

Danny’s dad. “Aren’t you supposed to do that, son? It’s traditionally the man who gets down on one knee and—”

“I think we’ve worked out by now that I’m never going to be traditional about anything.” Danny holds up a palm to silence him and then shifts his focus to me. “Go on.”

Maybe I should get down on one knee. Except this tight little red dress I wore specifically to impress Danny isn’t exactly designed for traditional proposals. It would ride up to my hips if I got down on one knee, not to mention the very real possibility that Paynt’s deck might give me splinters. “Will you marry me, Danny Harrison?”

“Will I marry you?”

“Yeah, will you?”

“Let me get this straight,” he says, his lips starting to curl. “The woman of my dreams, who I spent an entire year chasing, who I somehow wooed into becoming my work wife and my girlfriend, is asking me to marry her?”

“Uh, I thought that was obvious.” I pluck nervously at my dress. “If you’re going to say no—”

“I just don’t understand why you needed to phrase that as a question.” He hugs me so tightly to his chest, I can barely breathe. “You had to know I would say yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.” He cups my face and swoops in for a back-bending kiss.

Our families clap and cheer. Someone grumbles something about having to be related to Danny by marriage. Probably Garrett.

He kisses me breathless before pulling away.

“My little girl is getting married,” my mother cries.

What have I done? I search out my mother, who is standing with Danny’s mom. Their gazes are shiny bright and a little too happy for my liking.

“This doesn’t mean babies, Mom.” I shake a finger at her. “Although Danny and I have talked about having kids. One day. In the future. Possibly.”

“What?” She sniffles, and Danny’s mom hands her a tissue.

“We don’t need you pressuring us. We’ll decide whether we want a family when we’re ready.”

Danny’s staring at me with a curious expression on his face.

Garrett and James laugh.

Mom just gives me this smug, I’m your mother, I know you so well raise of her eyebrows. “For the record, love, I’m not the one who brought it up.”

“She’s right,” Danny whispers. “Are you trying to tell me you want to have a baby with me, Ronnie? Because there’s a perfectly acceptable closet in the foyer we could practice in.”

Oh shit! I think that’s what I’m saying. Taking his hand, I drag him across the deck and into the house. Pulling him into the closet, I close the door and throw my arms around his neck. “Let’s make a baby.”

 

THE END