Page 441 of Devil’s Disciples

“Oh my,” his mother gasped. “That’s exciting.”

“The sunsets are phenomenal,” Goose said.

“Maybe around Christmas,” she said.

“I was thinking June,” Goose said.

“Oh, I don’t know about coming in the summer,” she said. “It would be so hot.”

“It’s sixty-five in the winter, and seventy-five in the summer, Ma. And, I really need you to consider coming in June, if you can. I’ll buy the plane tickets.”

“What’s happening in June?” she asked.

I wondered the same thing.

Goose stood, shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and then sat down. After nervously looking at his mother and father, he pulled his cupped hand from his pocket and placed it between us.

“That depends,” he said. “On what she says.”

He moved his hand to the side, uncovering an elegant diamond ring set in white gold.

His mother gasped.

His father coughed.

Me?

I said yes.