It had been nine days since we’d said goodbye to Lane’s parents in San Diego. Nine days of Lane obsessing over every splinter of wood, every brush of urethane. Nine days of falling asleep before she’d come to bed and waking up after she’d already left.

Nine miserable days of seeing her so stressed out the only way I could get her to stop pacing was to pin her to the bed with my body.

Okay, that was a good afternoon.

But the rest were hell.

Her parents would be flying in later tonight. Maybe I’d get to play tour guide for the full day tomorrow so Lane could get in a little more panicking before her event started.

Obviously, this would be the best time to pile another stressor on top of everything else. And get it done in the twenty minutes between when Lane took an Uber from the building downtown to her shop, grabbed some emergency wax and rags and wood stuff, and came back here in the Uber.

I would’ve offered to go for her so she could stay here and micromanage the set-up of her tables and benches. But I had a stupid plan to execute. Plus Lane knew I would’ve grabbed the wrong stuff no matter how good her instructions were.

As soon as the door closed behind her, I grabbed my bag, ducked and weaved through her lily pad tables, and headed straight for the infinity fountain at the far end of the lobby.

A stone ledge defined the perimeter of the fountain with a five-inch wide moat running next to it all the way around. The water looked like it was topped with a huge sheet of glass right up to the very edge. From there, a tiny amount spilled over, forming a continuous waterfall that rained down into the moat and was pumped back up into the fountain—the infinity part of the infinity fountain.

I took the four-inch golden ball out of the hidden pocket in my bag and unwrapped it. It had to be rushed and custom made because, shockingly, not many people needed a watertight ball covered in sealed gold leaf that could also hold an engagement ring inside it. Well, not many people who hired the only guy I’d found in the city who could do it. I’m sure there was a big demand for them on the East Coast though.

Problem I should have anticipated number one: I didn’t know how deep the water was. To get to it, I had to step up about a foot, and the ledge came up to around my knees. So the fountain could be knee deep, knee-plus-step deep, or abyss-deep for all I knew.

Problem number two: The guy had made the ball heavy enough to stay on the bottom of the fountain. So if I chucked it into the water, it might plummet to the bottom, crack open like an egg, and Lane’s fancy ring would end up being nothing more than a very valuable shiny thing she could make a wish on. Until someone stole it.

With only about fifteen more minutes to get this done, I walked around the fountain, looking for a pole or floaties or—

“Net!” Perfect. A pool net with an extendable metal pole was leaning up against a tall supply closet decorated to look like vegetation, at the least-accessible end of the fountain.

I took it back to where I’d left my stuff, carefully set the ball into the net, and slowly lowered it into the water. I turned it over and shook the ball out about ten feet away from the ledge, where Lane would be able to see it when I casually brought her over here after the party.

Then I put the net back right where I’d found it and spent the next few minutes staring into the water, hoping this plan was “us” enough.

---

When Lane got back from her errand, I was hyperventilating in a corner. Luckily she was too preoccupied and tired to really notice.

Deep breaths. I could do this. Probably. Oh shit, what had I done? A golden fucking ball like in The Frog Prince? That was my great idea? It was worse than the last idea I thought was the worst ever. What I needed to do now was come up with a good idea to get out of this.

Okay. I’d wait until she was asleep tonight, then sneak back here and tell the security guard it was an emergency and I had to get inside the building.

What was the emergency? Well, sir, I accidentally left my golden ball in the infinity fountain and needed to get it. Yep, in the middle of the night.

Uh… no.

Okay, start over. I could get Hayden to distract her by—

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lane said, looking down into the water. Oh, crap.

“Hey, babe!” I called back, pointing toward the other side of the lobby. “I think someone needs you to do something.” Not a lie—I needed her to get the hell away from where she was before she saw my ball.

“Be there in a second. But first, I need your help, Carson. Some asshole tossed something in the fountain.”

Not some asshole. Me. I was the asshole.

Yeah, it would be a total fail to let someone else fish the golden ball out, but you can’t blame a guy for dreaming. I’d hoped Lane would have gotten it out herself, opened it, had a chance to weigh her options, and then come find me when she had an answer. Preferably a “Yes” answer.

“I can’t tell what it is, but it shouldn’t be in there.” She leaned over the edge of the water, and I had a sudden flashback to the time she’d fallen into my bathtub, our bathtub now. “Can you believe people?”

I grabbed her arm and pulled her back a step. Ready to save another day, I went behind the fountain to grab the net. I knew exactly where I’d left it. Aaand fuck. It wasn’t there.

“Maybe someone had a wish he needed to come true, babe.”

I quickly searched through the supply closet, then around the entire fountain. Gone.

“In the middle of the lobby?” she grumbled. “What were they wishing for? A longer lunch?”

I’d only put it down fifteen minutes ago and hadn’t seen anyone in this area who might’ve had an emergency requiring a pool net. So where the hell was it?

“Well,” I called out, “maybe he was wishing the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with would feel the same.”

“Doubt it,” she said. “Oh well. I’ll ask the janitor to grab it tonight after we leave.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” For a lot of reasons, including that I didn’t want to marry a janitor. Without a more logical or dry solution, I kicked off my shoes and rolled up my jeans.

“What are you—?”

“Actually”—I climbed onto the ledge and tried to keep the grimace off my face as freezing cold water poured over my feet—“I bet that’s exactly what he was thinking. He’d probably hoped she wouldn’t see it until he had a pool net, but hey, can’t have everything, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” I mumbled, slowly dipping one foot in and searching for the bottom with my toes. Not even close. So I sucked it up and started lowering myself into the water.

“Want to make a wish?” My only wish was that this water wasn’t deep enough to reach my balls.

Another few inches and my wish wouldn’t have come true.

“Carson, wait. You’re getting soaked. Let’s just ask someone from the building to grab it later.”

“Nope. No, that’s not a good idea.” I waded through the water, clenching my teeth harder every time a new area of skin got wet. When the ball was just in front of my feet, I took a deep breath and steeled myself to reach for it.

“I’m exhausted, and you think now is a good time to go swimming? Can we please go home?”

“Just a sec, babe.” I may have squealed as the chill soaked through my sleeve, but I got hold of the damn ball and yanked it out of the water.

“Is that—? What is that?” Her voice was tinged with suspicion, or maybe it was disbelief that her boyfriend had turned out to be such a wimp about frigid water. I didn’t want to know.

As much as I wished I could run for the side and vault out of this arctic runoff, I walked back to her slowly, terrified of what I had to do next.

I kept the ball behind my back and ignored all the stares of the workmen who should’ve been minding their own business but obviously didn’t want to miss the most humbling moment of my life.

“I finally read the original story of The Frog Prince,” I said when I was a few feet away from her. “Turns out, I’d remembered it completely wrong. Do you know how the story goes?”

She inhaled deeply and then shook her head. “Tell me.”

I couldn’t feel the cold of the water anymore, had stopped caring that I was soaking wet or that people might be watching us.

Only one thing mattered now. Our story.

“Once upon a time, a beautiful princess accidentally dropped her golden ball into a pond.” I slowly brought the ball in front of me and held it out to her. “Luckily, a devilishly handsome frog came along and agreed to get it back for her.”

Her eyes were watering, darting between me and the ball. “In exchange for a kiss.”

“Oh, so you’ve heard it?” When I smiled, I realized I wasn’t even nervous anymore. This was Lane. How could I ever be afraid of Lane, other than a few days a month?

“I’ve never heard it quite like this,” she said, biting her lip to keep it still.

“When we met, you told me you turned men into frogs. I never believed that, by the way. What I did believe was that you somehow turned this frog into a man.” When I touched my chest, water flew off my sleeve and landed in my face.

Here’s the big moment. Don’t screw it up. “A man who wants to spend the rest of his life thanking you. And proving it was worth it.”

I waited until I was just in front of her before I cracked open the orb. Carefully. Because I wasn’t up to fishing a diamond out of the water.

When I separated the halves, Lane gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth. Damn it, I was kind of hoping I could get an answer out of that thing.

“I’d get down on one knee,” I said, “but this water would freeze both my balls, so…”

“Yes.”

“Will you marry me?”

Her answer didn’t register until she said it again. “Yes, Carson. Yes, I’ll marry you.” She took the ball from me, set it down on step, and took out her ring. “But only in exchange for a kiss.”

“How about a lot of kisses?”

“If you insist.”

One of the workmen tossed a towel at me. Since I was staring at the love of my life, I caught it with my shoulder and the side of my head.

“Gee, thanks.” It wasn’t much more than a rag, but I took it gratefully. I’d already screwed up more than I wanted to. With my luck, slipping on the water I tracked everywhere and landing on my ass would be what she remembered most.

Lane pulled me toward her by the collar. “Come here.”

Actually, I take that back.

I don’t think either of us would remember anything more than that kiss.