The bright spring sun almost blinded Rhys as he stumbled into his bedroom.

“Where are you, kitty?” he asked, looking around the room.

“Meow!” a call came from under the bed.

Rhys grinned to himself, getting on his knees as he reached under the bed, pulling the kitten out from underneath.

“There you are, Crankshaft!” Rhys cooed at the baby kitten in the palm of his hand.

“Meow!” he protested back.

“Come on, lunchtime!” Rhys insisted as he stood up, the kitty looking at him with wide eyes.

He returned him to the rest of his siblings, all eating from their own individual bowls. Socket sat in her usual spot on the kitchen counter, looking down at her children.

As Rhys had suspected in the New Year, Socket had arrived at Mason’s door having just conceived. Rhys had returned from setting up his parents’ store only two hours before she went into labor, and had been there every step of the birth.

They knew they couldn’t look after them all forever. Six cats in their apartment would be too much. Lily had already staked a claim on Spanner, the runt of the litter. And Kris, the owner of Phoenix, was sure he and his partner, Remi, would be more than happy to expand their cat family. Sparkplug seemed like the ideal candidate for those two.

Rhys checked on the final two kitties, Tank and Piston, both happily eating their bowls of dry kibble. Once the kitties had chowed down on all their lunch, Tank finishing off anyone’s leftovers, Rhys made sure the windows were locked, the ceilings fans were on, and headed up to the roof.

They’d been able to get a good deal on their redesign downstairs. A team specializing in home renovations, aptly named Reeves Renovations, had done the bulk of the work over a two-day period. Good Christmas sales, along with the leftover loan, meant they had just enough money left over to install a greenhouse on the roof.

Rhys still bought half his stock from local vendors. But with the greenhouse on the roof and the Texan sun beating down most days of the year, Rhys had been able to grow his own stock. Including any plants he had a keen interest in, not just ones that would sell.

His own dream garden. Not three years down the line, but here and now.

Every day he got to putter around up in his greenhouse, his own sanctuary of nature. Built on the very spot he and Mason first kissed.

Rhys looked out from the roof, noticing a dark silver Honda Accord coming down the road toward them.

“Hey, Tammy.” Rhys chuckled to himself.

He headed back through the apartment, making sure the door to the roof was locked before heading down into the shop.

The stairs now led directly behind the counter for Flower Meadows. Rhys arrived at the bottom to be greeted by Olivia.

After Socket gave birth, Rhys had driven back to the gas station, impressed with how Olivia had eventually stood up to the rude businessman. He knew she just needed a nudge, and she’d blossom into a more confident person.

Just like him.

“We got another call from Mr. Shapiro to see how we were doing,” Olivia lamented as Rhys reached the bottom of the stairs. As Mason had suspected, Mr. Shapiro was a helicopter loan officer, hovering over them constantly, even though they were repaying the mortgage with ten percent extra every month.

“Next time he calls, come get me,” Rhys said. If anyone had to put up with Mr. Shapiro’s nagging, it should be him or Mason.

“We also got another order in for the school graduation,” Olivia excitedly informed him. “That pushes our total to fifteen for the day.”

“Outstanding!” Rhys enthused. That, along with the spring bloom in flowers, gave them a wonderful business boost. “We’ll need to prepare a lot of them the day before. I’ll be working after closing to arrange most of them. If you want, you could help since you’re on that day.” Rhys made it a point of pride to have his employee schedule memorized. “I’ll pay the overtime of course, but if you have prior commitments, it’s no problem.”

“I’ll double-check with my mom, but that should be all good,” Olivia assured him. She pulled out her phone to text.

At the same moment, the glass door to their shop opened, and a customer waltzed in.

“Customer,” Rhys whispered to Olivia. She slid her phone away in record time. Rhys didn’t mind his employees on their phones, as long as it wasn’t in front of customers. And as long as all their work was done.

Rhys’s eyes went wide as he recognized the man who’d just walked in. Who else would wear a green pin-striped suit as casual wear?

“Bryan Silvers!” Rhys enthused. “Business or pleasure?”

“My business is always a pleasure,” Bryan assured him, heading over to the counter. “Preparing for another couple in love. You know Chase and Hunter, the ones with that adorable tangle of hair for a child?”

“Gosh darn,” Rhys replied automatically, the Texan idioms seeping into his day-to-day talk. “How many manly couples is that this month?”

“A depressing amount,” Bryan assured him.

“You won’t be single for long, I’m sure,” Rhys said, trying to lift his spirits.

He looked up to the wall of his shop. Sitting square in the middle was the glass door between the two businesses, constructed personally by the owner of the renovation company, Grayson Reeves. Through the glass, Rhys could see Tammy talking excitedly with Lily.

“I’m gonna leave you with Olivia here to help you out,” Rhys said. “She’s helped me on dozens of wedding orders and knows the ropes in and out.”

Rhys smiled between the two of them before heading through the glass door.

It was like stepping into another world. Mason had rearranged the car lifts to one side, all drilled into the brick walls. All three of them were occupied, but this time only one of them was Mason’s car.

They’d rescued the remains of the Chevrolet from the police impound lot, just before Rhys had visited his parents back home. Like before, every month Mason was buying a car part for the beauty, assembling her piece by piece.

He was still trying to track down an intact hood for the car, but Rhys knew he’d get there eventually.

Rhys was brought out of his thoughts by a giggle. Tammy and Lily laughed away, their foreheads leaning together.

“You excited for graduation, Tammy?” Rhys asked as he approached the two.

“Ecstatic,” Tammy dryly replied. “Can’t wait to work overtime at Rocket while I figure out what the heck I’m doing with my life.”

“We can talk about it over lunch,” Lily offered. She then gasped, turning around to look for Mason.

Rhys followed her gaze. He was under the hood of a car as usual.

“Mason!” she called out.

He leaned out from under the car, his back cracking as usual. Except this time, the sound didn’t echo through the garage. It was too full for that.

“I’m having my lunch break with Tammy, that cool?” she sheepishly asked.

“Next time ask for permission, not forgiveness,” Mason sternly informed her. “Go on now.” He beamed down at the two ladies.

They strolled out of the big metal doors, heading into Lily’s purple Saab.

“Hey, is it okay if we have lunch when she gets back? Does that work for you?” Mason asked Rhys.

“Oh, yeah, of course.” Rhys nodded in response. Mason grinning back at him. Rhys looked his boyfriend up and down. Why was he so happy?

“I’ll see you then,” Mason happily informed him, heading back under the hood of the car.

Rhys wandered back to his own store, where Bryan passionately explained his flower concept to Olivia.

As she scribbled down as many notes as possible, Bryan insisting she use a green pen, Rhys logged onto the computer behind the register. He opened his bookmarks, peering out from behind the computer to make sure no one was paying any attention to him.

He opened the same page he’d been looking at the past couple weeks.

A page filled with wedding rings.

It had started when Rhys researched on how best to cut costs for a business. Many of the online listicles pointed out that married couples got a substantial tax break.

Rhys had laughed, wondering who would get married just to save money.

Half an hour later, he’d been looking at wedding rings.

He spent the next half hour doing just that while also browsing Bryan Silvers’s web page. He wondered how best to bring up the idea of marriage with Mason without seeming like a nutjob. They’d only been dating since Christmas. Maybe that was too soon to get married.

His thoughts drifted back to his parents. It hadn’t been too soon for them, and they’d been married nearly thirty years.

“Rhys, you ready?” Mason asked at the glass door between their two businesses, his foot tapping on the ground.

Rhys looked up at him, wondering why he seemed so nervous. “Yeah, be back in half an hour, Olivia.”

“Take an hour,” she replied, glancing over at Mason as he smiled.

“I should only be—”

“Take. The hour,” Olivia insisted before heading behind the register. Rhys quickly shut down the wedding web pages he had open, frowning at Olivia’s weird behavior as he walked over to Mason.

“What was that about?” Rhys asked as they entered into the garage. Lily was already covered in engine grease, a small lip-sized bruise on her neck.

He chuckled as he headed over to Mason’s desk. He remembered the teenage need to claim one another with hickeys. Some things never changed, apparently.

“Actually it’s such a lovely day outside. Why don’t we have lunch out there for once, no particular reason?” Mason blurted out.

Rhys turned around to face his very oddly behaving boyfriend.

“Come on,” Mason insisted, bolting out the open doors.

Rhys cautiously followed, stepping out onto the searing sidewalk.

Mason was already sitting in the back seat of Rhys’s Impala. They had a copy of each other’s car keys for emergencies. Rhys wondered how this counted.

He got into the back seat — even with all the windows down, it was still uncomfortably warm. Rhys wondered if it was safe to keep food in here.

But as he looked around, he saw that Mason didn’t have any food in there at all. Not even a picnic basket.

“Rhys Jeremy Meadows,” Mason began, nervously sliding his hand into one of the many pockets on his mechanic’s blue coverall.

“Mason Timothy O’Neil,” Rhys repeated his boyfriend’s full name with a smirk. “You are acting weird today.”

“Which is odd because you make me feel so at ease,” Mason said.

He pulled something out of his pocket, clasped in both hands.

“We’ve said for months that we couldn’t imagine a future without one another. I’m making that future a reality, starting today,” Mason explained.

He opened his hands, revealing a small black box inside.

Rhys gasped. It was the perfect size for a ring.

“Whoa…” Rhys said.

“This car brought us together, so it seemed the best place to make this official,” Mason said, opening the box.

A wedding ring. One exquisite gold band.

Rhys could already feel the happy tears brewing.

“Rhys, will you—” Mason couldn’t even finish his sentence, he was so excited.

“Yes!” Rhys all but yelled, hugging Mason tight.

He breathed in deep, absorbing the musk of his lover and the spicy old smell of his car. Passed down from his grandpa, the Impala traveled barely thirty miles before breaking down in Hidden Creek.

Exactly where it needed to.