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“I hope it’s right.”

“It’s perfect.”

“I love you, Luci. I’ve loved you for years. It took this month to finally see how much. And how much I was willing to risk to make sure I didn’t let you get away ever again.”

A tear slipped off my chin.

He drew a breath. His eyes were wet now too.

“Luci Wilder, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

The word came out before he’d quite finished.

“Yes, Grant. Of course I will.”

For a moment, he stayed exactly where he was, looking at me.

Then he laughed, a breathless, disbelieving sound, and bent his head over our joined hands.

Everybody started cheering.

“Put the ring on her,” Rhett called.

“Right, the ring.” Grant took it out of the box.

I held out my left hand, which wasn’t much steadier than his.

He slid the ring onto my finger.

It fit.

I looked down at it, turning my hand slightly. The engraving continued along the gold, tiny details I wanted to examine properly, but Grant was still on his knee and I needed him standing.

“Come here.”

He got up, and I caught his face between my hands.

He kissed me before I could say anything else.

People were still cheering. Someone whistled. I could hear my mother crying, which made me cry harder, but Grant had his arms around me and I didn’t care who saw.

Then my mother was beside us, reaching for both of us at once. “My little girl. It’s a dream come true.”

I clung to her with one arm and kept hold of Grant with the other. I looked at her. “Mom, did you know it was happening tonight?”

“Yes, and it was very very hard to keep quiet. I’m just so happy.”

“Thank you, Carol,” Grant said. It was still hard for him to call her by her first name. Maybe that was the difference between growing up in Washington state versus Tennessee.

My mother let us go, wiping her cheeks, and Ivy stepped in to hug me.

“Let me see that ring,” Ivy said.

I held out my hand. She took it, staring down at the beautiful sparkling thing that I would get to wear the rest of my life.

“Grant, you did real fine,” Ivy said. “I’m so happy for you both.”