Page 130 of Manhattan Kiss

“What did your parents say?” she asks. “Have they met him?”

“Not yet. I haven’t spoken to them. They’re my next call.” My parents will worry, but they’ll be happy for me. They’ve always supported me, but it will be an adjustment not living five minutes away from them. This next chapter will be in New York, but the thing Manhattan has taught me is that you never know what’s around the corner. As long as I’m with Deacon, the rest will fall into place.

“Oh my god,” she blurts out of nowhere. “Is that the ring?”

It’s amazing how quickly I’ve become used to the huge diamond on my left ring finger. It’s like it’s always been there. “You like it?” I ask, holding it up to the screen.

“Crap, is that five carats?”

“How did you even know that?” I ask. It’s an emerald, brilliant-cut solitaire on a platinum band and it manages to feel simple at the same time as being sparkly and perfect. Deacon chose it. He said I could swap it, but why would I? It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.

“Oh god, this guy’s the one,” Darcy says.

I laugh. “Yeah, he’s very definitely the one.” But not because of the ring or his excellent taste; because of his heart and soul. Because of who he is, and who he’s striving to be. He’s my happily ever after.

Three Weeks Later

Aurora

From the very beginning, it felt like Deacon knew me to my bones. But over the last few weeks, since our engagement, we’ve swapped stories, shared meals, and started living together on the days when Willow is with Gabby. We’ve started building a life together.

“I think we should have Gabby and Ray over to dinner,” Deacon announces as he comes into the living room, carrying two glasses of wine.

“You do?” Deacon has never been the biggest Ray fan. But lots of things are changing around here.

He takes a seat next to me on the sofa, sitting so close there’s no gap between us. “Well, you need to meet Gabby properly.” Deacon has already told her we’re engaged, and I’ve briefly met Gabby. But we’re not in a rush to get married. There’s a lot happening in Willow’s life, and we’re not in a race. “And I thought it would be nice for Willow if she had all of us together in one place.”

“I think it sounds like a lovely idea.”

“Good. I’ll arrange it.” He sighs. “And we need to change this couch. It’s horrendous. I’ve never liked it. Willow and I have already talked about getting the bedrooms redecorated. We should do the entire house.”

I shake my head, grinning. “The house is fantastic.”

“I want it to feel like your home,” he says. “I don’t want to move.”

I glance up and around as excitement bubbles in my stomach at the thought of living here with Deacon and Willow. So much has changed in such a short space of time.

“It should feel like ours. I know you’re going to be moving in, but if we redecorate everything together, hopefully… You’ve told me how you’ve always felt on the periphery to Darcy’s life. I don’t want you to feel like that about our life together.”

I set my wine down on the coffee table, reach out, and cup his jaw. “You make me feel like the center of your world.”

“Rightly so,” he says, circling his arms around me and pulling me onto his lap. “But I think it would be nice to redecorate this place together.”

“Yeah, I guess it would. Although, I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“We’ll have a designer help us.”

I shrug. “Okay, but I think we should involve Willow.”

He grins at me in that way that makes my knees weak and my heart stutter.

“After dinner with Gabby and Ray, we can talk to Willow about us getting married and you moving in.”

“Okay. But I don’t want to upset her. You’ve gone from not wanting her to have any change to changing everything.”

He shakes his head. “No, not everything. I still love her, Gabby still loves her. The fundamentals are all there. And anyway, she loves you, and you two are spending more time together. She asks me all the time whether we’re going to get married.”

“She does?”