“How you feeling? After this…you think you’d be up for one more stop if we make it quick?”
I lean on his shoulder. “Maybe one more stop. If it’s something really good.”
*
Gabe
Ah, hell. I hope she thinks it’s something really good. I’ve never done anything this risky before. Never put myself out there like I’m about to. After pie, I hailed a cab for Marley and she dozed against my shoulder while the city bowed around us.
“So tall,” she would murmur at the buildings—as I wondered if she’d end up being happy that I did it here.
As we drive toward our destination, I ask her, “What do you think about Fate? Really?” I can change our course of action some depending on her answer.
“I don’t know,” she murmurs. “You mean for the baby? It’s okay, I guess. It’s not a bad place.”
“Does it feel like home to you?”
“Well yeah.” She laughs. “I’m from there, after all.”
“But does it feel like it…could be our home? Our family’s home?”
I don’t miss the way her lips twitch in a surprised smile. “I’m not sure. I think anywhere could be our home. And I do have a job there.”
“Would you want to stay if we were to…you know…settle down?”
She grins, and I grin back at her.
“Honestly?” She chews her lip. “I really don’t know. I would hate to leave the clinic just after I got there, but if we ended up together like for real? Which would be nice,” she murmurs, squeezing my hand, “wouldn’t you need to be here in New York?”
I shrug. It’s easier, and logical, but I don’t have to. I tell her, “Would be good, but not a necessity.”
“You love it here?” she asks.
“I’ve loved it here—at times.”
When the taxi stops, I help Marley out and stand on legs that feel unsteady. My eyes travel up the pale stone building right beside us: the lit-up archway over the majestic iron-covered door, and all the windows on the upper floors, covered with small awnings and lit up with white lights.
Marley looks up, too. “Oh wow, is this our hotel? Beautiful.” She glances around. “Is this Fifth Avenue?”
“It is.” I swallow hard. “This is the store I brought us to.”
She frowns toward the doorway. “Harry Winston…”
“Want to go inside?”
A doorman gets the door for us, and Marley moves, a step ahead of me, into a palatial space where we’re greeted by a woman in a pretty, light blue dress.
“You must be Mr. McKellan and his special guest.”
I see Marley’s eyes widen as she blinks around.
“I’m Cece, and I’ll be your hostess this evening. Come right this way.”
Marley gives me a questioning look as she takes my hand, and we follow Cece down a narrow hall, into a small room filled with lit glass cases. I hear Marley’s soft gasp.
“Can we have a moment?”
Cece nods. “Of course.”
And then we’re in the room together, just Marley and me—and several million dollars’ worth of custom jewelry.
“Don’t panic,” I whisper, squeezing her hand.
She laughs, and it’s high-pitched and panicked.
“Marley—I just want to buy you something. Something to show you I’m in love with you…again. Or maybe part two of the first time. I want you to pick out what you want.”
She’s so freaked out, she sounds like she’s panting.
“Ah, fuck. Are you going to faint?”
“No.” She laughs. She reaches for the counter, clutching the glass. “Gabe,” she gasps. “I might have lied.”
I come behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist…around her belly. I can’t help myself.
“Do you see anything you like?” I ask her, peering down at all the jewels.
Marley cackles madly.
“Gabe…you must be kidding me.”
4
Marley
It’s mostly rings. Oh my God, it’s mostly rings! All I see inside that shiny, lit-up case is super-blingy rings. I’m losing it, so much so that I can’t even find the words to ask him, Am I supposed to pick a ring?
“What do I pick?” I breathe.
I feel Gabe’s chest rumble behind me as he chuckles. “Anything. I had this all brought in for you.”
“Are you trying to impress me?” I manage in a shaky voice.
“I thought that was obvious.” He gives me a light squeeze. Then he turns me to face him. “Marley, I’m so fucking nervous, I can’t figure out what to say.”
“That’s how I feel,” I giggle.
“Spur-of-the-moment seems to be my way with you. How fast my feelings change. I see you and I want to commit. Even when I was young and dumb as fuck, I talked to you for a few hours, and I wanted you to be mine. But I booked this the day after your mom passed. And I’m gonna be honest, baby. Two of these pieces…they were made for you.”
“They were?” My eyes start leaking. “Oh my God, Gabe…”
“It’s just money. Once you have a lot, you see you can’t do that much with it. You can’t take it with you, either. This jewelry isn’t my heart, Marley,” he says softly. “But it’s something I thought I could show you. Sort of…proof, if you will.”
I wipe my eyes with a shaking hand.
“What I want, Marley…” He inhales deeply, and I watch his eyes as he exhales. “What I want is for you to marry me. Again.” He laughs, and I really look at his face; this is the most relaxed and open that I think I’ve ever seen him. Right here, when he’s opening his heart to me.
“I want you to be my wife, Marley. Not because I feel like I have to, because you’re pregnant, or because of anything like that. Just because I like to feed you pie and bring you cider, and okay, I like you with me in bed. And it’s not logical, okay, it’s probably a shitty fucking idea. Your friends might tell you, you should drop me like a hot potato. And if you want to, you should. If you say ‘no,’ we’ll still leave here and go to a hotel and you can have a restful night. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll give you a necklace I had made for you because I wanted you to have it. You can go and never see my face again except to swap our little bean—and I won’t be upset with you, Marley. I won’t be hurt or mad.”
A tear rolls down my cheek as he says those words. “You won’t?”
“Not if that’s what makes you happy. No—I won’t.”
“What if that’s not what makes me happy?” I whisper.
He holds me closer, smiling softly down at me. “Then I’ll give you a necklace and a ring. Fuck it, it can be a no-strings ring, Marley. You don’t have to marry me at all. Just let me be with you.”
I’m laughing. “This is crazy.”
“Things are different now, Marley. We’re different. We can be unmarried for eternity, and you’ll still be the one I love.”
I wipe my leaking eyes. “I want to see them,” I rasp. “I want to see the ones that you picked out.”
Gabe turns around behind him, and my stomach takes a nose-dive as I blink into the glass case at a massive ruby necklace.
“It’s a poppy,” he says softly. “Do you know what poppies signify?”
I shake my head, wiping my eyes.
He says, “That war is over.”
I’m crying…and I hate crying. I wipe my face. “Gabe…I don’t know what to say!”
“Then let me put it on for you.”