“Too many people,” I muttered under my breath as I carried my champagne up to where Jal was waiting on the dais.

My family – including Tao and his date – were at a special place up front. Well, technically, dates. Plural. Tony was the guy I'd seen with Tao back in March, and things had gotten serious earlier this summer after Tao explained his polyamorous nature to Tony. To my surprise, Tony hadn't only taken it well, he said he'd been trying to figure out a way to tell Tao the same thing.

Two months ago, they'd added Lyrrie to their relationship.

While Tony's complexion was similar to mine – his father was black and his mother white – Lyrrie was as different as could be. Short and curvy, she had that pale, freckled skin that most red-heads possessed. She was sweet and open, the perfect complement to the guys. And she was hard of hearing. Mom had been a bit thrown by the unconventional relationship, but Lyrrie had quickly won her over.

I still didn't know how their relationship worked, but it was their bed to lie in, not mine.

I had a bed I was perfectly happy with, and the man I shared it with was smiling at me from the podium.

All around us, people were talking, a patois of sign and speaking where the hearing sometimes stumbled over their signs, and the deaf and hard of hearing spoke just a little louder than necessary. It could've been chaotic and awkward, but the purpose that had brought us all together made it work.

The kids were up in the atrium, the part of the Philadelphia Family & Community Center for the Deaf that had been solely designed for younger adults and youth. TJ’s hands had been all over it, a fact that he had been more than happy to share with anybody and everybody who would listen. He’d been interviewed by the press for it several times over, and the attention had brought him positive attention at school, enough that the bullies he'd been dealing with had backed off. He had a girlfriend now too. She was hearing, but they'd bonded when she found out that he was ahead of her on the waiting list for a book they both wanted.

She ended up buying him the book – and he’d done the same for her – after they’d had an argument over it.

He’d written his argument down since, even though he could speak, he was self-conscious about it. She'd told him she didn't care if he spoke, as long as the two of them could communicate, and that had been that. Since then, she'd been taking sign language classes, and he'd been working on improving his speech.

They were adorable together, and even though Tyson had been wary at first, he'd been unable to deny how good she was for TJ. Carrie was cute, a head taller than TJ. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed princess. Not what either of my parents had expected, but Mom had already told Tyson that most of the time, the best things in life were unexpected.

I thought she was right. After all, the big blue-eyed prince waiting for me was the very last thing I’d expected.

He held out a hand, and I accepted, turning my cheek for him to kiss me. He had something else in mind, however. He caught my chin and turned my face back to him, holding me there for a hard, fast kiss that left me breathless.

The crowd went nuts. Some clapped and whistled while the majority had their hands in the air, twisting them back and forth – the sign for applause.

My face was flushed, blood rushing in my ears as he finally broke the kiss. I wasn't exactly opposed to public displays of affection, but that had been a bit much for me. My head was still spinning as Jal began to speak.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Allie Dodds…one of my advisors for the facility. I couldn’t have done it without the help of her and her family.” Jal nodded to my mom, Tyson, and TJ.

TJ, the little social monster, threw up his hands as he stood, lapping up the attention. Carrie poked at him and signed that he was being a show-off. He bowed to her before Mom managed to get him in his seat, and the crowd roared again. He was a hit.

Then Mom looked at me, a strange, weepy sort of expression on her face. She held up her hand in the widely known shorthand for I love you. I returned it, my own eyes burning. We'd always been close, but the events of the past few months had bound us together even more tightly.

The little exchange only took a few seconds, but it distracted me enough that I didn’t realize Jal had asked me a question. He touched my shoulder and repeated himself.

“Oh…” Smiling at him, I nodded. I didn’t need anyone signing for me, so I moved in front of the podium and began to speak, explaining how the idea for the center had come to be, and applauded the hard work both the hearing and deaf communities had achieved by working together. When I gestured to my family, TJ restrained himself to a single fist pump, and my mom dabbed her eyes with Jal's handkerchief.

I'd been nervous when Jal told me that he wanted me to speak, but I didn't feel any of that now. It had all gone so smoothly that I should've known something was going to happen to catch me completely off guard.

As I finished, I turned to pass the reins back over to Jal.

And froze.

He was down on one knee.

My heart thudded once, hard and fast, then began to race.

Everybody could see him.

I reached out a hand, bracing myself on the podium because the world suddenly went wobbly.

Then he raised his hands and began to sign.

I blinked and everything got all blurry. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I missed that.”

Everyone laughed, but it was a soft, sweet kind of laughter, the kind that enveloped me, making this moment even more perfect than it already was.

Jal stood and started again.

“Allie, I love you. Will you marry...”

I flung myself at him before he finished and whispered my answer in his ear.