Page 61

“The engagement ring you picked out…I wanted it to be yours. I wanted to ask you to marry me, but…”

“But what?” Maggie says when I’m stunned speechless. He wanted to ask me to marry him? That can’t be true when he wouldn’t even take me out on a date.

“But I didn’t want everyone to think I was just like my father.”

Shaking my head, I tell him, “I don’t understand.”

“He had affairs with women who worked for him. Lots of them. Women who were much younger than him…”

“You’re only eight years older than me.”

“I know,” Monty says with a wince. “But you’re my assistant. I shouldn’t want to be with you. There are rules that I intended to follow to avoid making the same mistakes, hurting my family,” he explains, then pauses. “Except you quit. That’s perfect actually.”

“Perfect?” I scoff.

“I couldn’t be with you, couldn’t ask you to marry me if you still worked for me. Now I can.”

Monty goes down on one knee, with the open ring box in his hand and Mr. Jingles happily sitting beside him like he approves.

“Kendall, I know now that you’re the woman I’m supposed to spend my life with and how we met doesn’t really matter. I love you.”

“Really?” I whisper in disbelief. “You-you love me?”

“I love you,” he repeats. “Being with you wasn’t a mistake. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. And if you aren’t there yet, that’s fine. I’ll cancel the wedding date and wait for as long as it takes for you to realize we’re meant to be.”

My chest aches so hard it may rip apart.

“But this ring? It was always yours.”

Tears blur my vision now.

“Kendall Ellis, you’ve been my work wife for two years, my fake fiancée for three days. Now, will you please do me the honor of becoming my real wife?”

Oh. My. God.

It feels like every wish I’ve ever made crashing into me all at once.

Not just because Monty loves me.

But because somehow, impossibly, I get to love him too.

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel temporary. I feel chosen.

It’s not just a man like Monty I’ve wished for, it’s everything about him. I even love his mother. I barely met the woman, but she made me feel like I was already part of the family. Like she thought I belonged with her son.

“Kendall?” Monty asks softly.

That’s when I realize I’ve just been staring at him while he kneels on the floor, holding that beautiful ring and looking mildly terrified.

“Yes!” I blurt out. “Absolutely yes! I love you too.”

Relief flashes across his face just before I grab him by the jaw and lean down to kiss him.

It tastes real. Perfect.

When I eventually pull away from a lack of oxygen, I tell him, “Now give me back my precious!”

“You can’t call it that,” Monty says as he removes the ring from the box.