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“Look, all I know is that I fucking love her and I want to marry her. And when the time is right I’ll know it, and that’s when I’ll ask her.”
“And then you’ll live happily ever after?”
“You know what? Shut the fuck up.”
“You got her to marry you the first time,” Evan said, handing the ring back to David, who promptly put it in his pocket, out of sight. “I have every confidence you’ll be able to convince her a second time.”
At that moment, Paige screamed from the bathroom. It was so full of shock that David and Evan stared at one another with wide eyes before jumping up from the table at the same time, knocking their chairs over in the process, uncaring when they clattered to the floor. They ran down the hall, and were halfway to the bathroom when Jacob gave a shriek.
If possible, they ran even faster, bursting into the bathroom, only to come to an almost cartoonish halt when they saw both Paige and Jacob were fine, and were staring in shock at the abrupt appearance of David and Evan.
“What are you—” began Paige.
“What the hell were you screaming about?” David demanded, his voice coming out slightly high-pitched.
“Jacob splashed me,” Paige said.
For the first time, he noticed her wet, dripping hair and face; even her shirt was soaked. “He splashed you,” David said, very slowly. “Are you fu—are you kidding me? I almost hurt myself hauling ass to get here. I thought someone was dying.”
“Well, as you can see, no one is dying.”
“So why was Jacob screaming?”
“It’s not rocket science. I splashed him back.”
David turned to leave, and as he did, Jacob splashed Paige again, this time catching her totally unaware, since she was looking at David.
“You little … stinker,” Paige told Jacob, who belly-laughed as she wiped water from her face with her hands. To David, she said, “You know, some help would be nice.”
David saw a hand towel on the counter and tossed it to her. “Here you go.”
She gave him a dirty look.
Out in the hall, as mayhem continued in the bathroom, David smiled.
Back in the kitchen, David grabbed two crystal-cut glasses and his bottle of Knob Creek, while Evan picked up their chairs. After joining Evan at the table, David poured two fingers of bourbon into each glass, then slid one across to his friend.
“I’m going to lock that down soon,” David said. “Trust me.”
Evan raised his glass. “Here’s to locking it down.”
David tapped his glass against Evan’s, releasing a sigh of happiness.
After they each took a drink, Evan murmured, “Just make sure the second proposal blows the first one away. That’s really important, because she’ll compare it to the first one.”
“Well, it won’t be hard to blow the first one away, that’s for damn sure, so I’m not worried.”
“How bad was the first one?” Evan wanted to know.
“Pretty bad.”
“I need details.”
“Nope. You have more than enough blackmail material on me as it is.”
A moment later, the bathroom door opened and the sounds of Jacob running across the hall to his room could be heard, followed by Paige’s heavier steps.
“You better run, you little stinker,” they heard her calling after Jacob. “You might want to hide, too.”
