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“I would though, Leo,” she insisted, staring him down. “I know that’s hard for you to believe right now, but it’s the truth.” Leo nodded and pulled his mother in for a quick hug. He might still be angry with her, but she did save Ross’s life when he foolishly stepped in front of Leo to take the bullet that was meant for him. Their only saving grace was that his father wasn’t able to get the shot off before his mother intervened.
“Thanks, Ma,” Leo whispered. “You saved the man that I love, and for me, that makes everything good between us.”
“I appreciate you saying that,” Caroline breathed. Leo looked across the room to Ross and saw the concern in his eyes. Leo felt it too. His mother might have to go to prison to save them, and that thought scared the hell out of him.
Ross crossed the room and pulled Leo into his arms, and all he wanted to do was sob into his guy’s shoulder, but he didn’t. He needed to keep it together until they got home, and then, he knew that Ross would hold him until he was all cried out. “I’ve got you, babe,” Ross whispered, and for the first time, in a long time, Leo believed him.
Ross
Ross was nervous as hell, but asking Leo to marry him felt right. For the first time in his life, he wanted to be with just one person—Leo. He just hoped that his guy would say yes, or he was going to be eating the stuffed lobster tails that he had delivered from Leo’s favorite restaurant.
He had planned everything down to the second that Leo was supposed to walk through the front door. Dakota even lent a hand, ordering dinner for the two of them and picking up a ton of flowers to place around the room. She made the place look like a fairytale and when she left, she turned to tell Ross not to fuck things up. He couldn’t help but feel that she had jinxed him, but he wasn’t about to start thinking about that. No, he needed to concentrate on what was important, and tonight, asking Leo to marry him was the most important thing he had ever done.
As soon as Ross heard the garage door open, he just about swallowed his tongue. He could feel his heart beating, as though it might just thump out of his chest. He stood in the corner of the room, trying for casual, but feeling anything but.
“Hey,” Leo said, tossing his keys on the table in the entryway. Ross could tell the moment that Leo looked up by the shock that registered on his handsome face. “What’s going on?” Leo asked. “Are we having company?”
“No,” Ross almost whispered. “It’s just us.”
“Then, what’s all this for?” he asked, pointing to all the flowers around the room.
“My sister helped with all that,” Ross said as if that would answer Leo’s question.
“Well, that was nice of her, but you still haven’t told me what this is all for.” Leo reminded.
“I thought that we could have a nice dinner,” Ross said.
“That sounds great,” Leo agreed, “but, do we really need all these flowers to have a nice dinner?” Ross’s mouth felt dry and by the time he got down on one knee and opened the ring box in his sweaty palm, he felt about ready to pass out.
“No, we don’t need the flowers for our dinner. I had Dakota pick them up to go along with this,” he said, holding the ring out for Leo to inspect. “I was hoping that you’d marry me.”
“Marry you?” Leo asked. Ross wondered if he wasn’t clear, but the smirk on Leo’s face let him know that he was just fucking with him.
“Yeah, marry me,” Ross grumbled.
“Don’t get mad, babe,” Leo said.
“Did you know about this?” Ross asked. “I was hoping that everything would be a surprise, including my proposal.”
“I hate to tell you this, Ross, but I ran to town today for lunch, and saw Dakota loading all these flowers into her car. When I stopped her to ask what they were all for, she told me what you had planned,” Leo admitted.
“Shit, I’m going to murder Dakota,” Ross growled, “she didn’t say anything about seeing you earlier.” He was still kneeling and holding the ring out to Leo, suddenly feeling worried that he might never agree to Ross’s proposal.
“You don’t have to,” Leo insisted. “I pushed her for answers, and you know that your sister is a really bad liar.” Dakota was an awful liar, but she should have kept her mouth shut. “About your proposal,” Leo reminded.
“What about it?” Ross asked. He wasn’t sure if he should have gotten up from the floor or stay put. Leo was hard to read, and that wasn’t usually the case.
“I think that I’d like to say yes,” Leo said.
“Wait, are you saying yes, or are you thinking about it?” Ross asked.
Leo paused, toying with Ross, and when he finally nodded his head and smiled, Ross stood from the floor, pulling his guy against his body.
“That’s a yes, right?” he asked.
Leo chuckled, “That was a yes,” he agreed.
Ross removed the ring from the box and put it on Leo’s ring finger. Leo looked the ring over and Ross once again panicked. “If you don’t like it, we can take it back and get you something else.”
