“But I wanted to do something special for you, because you deserve to know how much I love you, too, and this was the one way I thought I could do that.” I held up one finger, turning around to grab the box out of my purse that was sitting on the front seat. “So, please don’t be pissed at me but….” I popped the box open, revealing one of those conversational candy hearts with the tiny words printed on it that I had specially made to ask, “Will you marry me?”
Justin’s mouth dropped open, the shock apparent as his eyes widened, but then they narrowed, and his jaw tightened, ticking slightly as he kept his mouth clamped shut. I started panicking, thinking that maybe marriage wasn’t in Justin’s plans. Maybe he didn’t want to take our relationship to the next step. Maybe he wanted to end things. My hands started to shake as I thought about being a single parent, having to share custody of this baby that was nothing more than a little jellybean in my belly right now, that is, if Justin even wanted anything to do with the baby. What if he didn’t want kids either? We hadn’t talked about it much. He mentioned wishing he had been the one to get me pregnant the first time at one point, but that seemed forever ago.
“This. Is. Not. Happening,” he snapped, bringing me back to reality, and I bit down hard on my lip, trying not to let any tears spill out. He pointed one finger at me, demanding. “Do not move. Understand?”
“Am I under arrest or something?” I mumbled, blinking my eyes rapidly so I wouldn’t cry.
“You’re about to be for the shit you’re trying to pull on me.” I jumped as he turned to walk away from me, slamming his hand on the trunk as he headed back to his patrol car, where I could see Ty sitting in the driver’s seat with a very confused expression on his face.
Yeah, you and me both buddy.
I briefly closed my eyes, wondering how I was going to tell Justin the rest of my surprise since the first part went so well. Yeah, I wasn’t sure how I was even going to form the words. I felt his hand gripping my wrist and my eyes fluttered open, catching sight of his tight smile.
He moved his hand from my wrist to grab my hand. “You just ruined everything.” I sucked in a deep breath, but then quickly blew it back out as he dropped down to one knee, producing a tiny black box out of his back pocket. “I had everything planned out, but you just had to go and be impatient.” He smirked up at me, and I pressed a shaking hand to my mouth as he opened the box, revealing a platinum band with a square cut diamond nestled in white silk.
“Holy shit,” I whispered against my hand, realizing why he seemed so pissed. Sure, I knew that me proposing would be totally weird, but I didn’t expect him to get angry, which led me to believe he didn’t want to get married in the first place.
I had ruined his surprise.
“I’ve been planning how I would do this for months now,” he began, scowling at me, though it was quickly replaced by a wide grin. “And then you had to go and pull this. You know I hate surprises.”
I shrugged one shoulder, staring down at the box that he was still holding. “You’re lucky I’ve been carrying this around with me everywhere I go.” He blew out a breath, and I could see how nervous he was. Cars were whirring by, occasionally honking their horns, some actually stopping to gawk at us, but I pushed that all out of my head, focusing on him alone. “Della, we’ve been through hell and back, but I knew that we would always get to this point. No matter what. The first time I saw you, I knew you were a princess, one that had a bit of a stick up her ass and some pain in her eyes that I just wanted to take away.” I laughed lightly, placing one hand on his shoulder to steady my feet because my legs were shaking so bad. “But after all of the drama, we still came out of it together. So…will you spend the rest of your life with me, dealing with any shit that comes our way, through thick and thin? Will you make me the happiest guy ever by being Mrs. Parker?” I couldn’t say anything. My whole body felt like it was frozen in place. He raised his eyebrows at me. “Or you can keep your name if you want. Even though, who wouldn’t want to be Mrs. Parker?” There was that ego I had been waiting for, clearing the fog from my head.
“I would love to be Mrs. Parker,” I replied, throwing my arms around him and burying my head into the side of his neck. I felt him sigh in relief and the tension easing out of his body as he held me.
“Well, do you think I can put this ring on your finger, then?” he murmured into my ear, and I pulled back, laughing as I held out my hand to him. I looked down at it once it was on my finger, not believing that it was actually real.