Page 77 of Sweet Surprises

The rest of the room had gone silent.

“And if you say yes, you get to have a pretty, pretty ring,” Chance whispered to her loudly, with an encouraging nod.

That broke a chuckle from Tag, who pulled his hand away from his face and let her see his glistening eyes.

“Charlotte,” he said. “You do make us happy, and we want to spend a lifetime doing our best to make you happy too, if you’ll have us.”

He held out his hand, and cradled in it was a little pink box. Something gleamed inside it, but Charlotte couldn’t see it because of the tears in her own eyes.

“Will you marry me?” Tag asked.

“Yes,” she said, moving to the floor to join them. “Yes, yes,yes!”

He pulled her close and brushed her lips with his—a sweet, chaste promise. And then Chance was wrapping his arms around her too, and Olivia laughed and joined the group hug.

Charlotte closed her eyes, soaking in the warmth of the amazing people who were going to be herfamily.

“You’re going to be one of us now,” Tripp yelled out. “Look out, Sugarville Grove, you’ve got another Lawrence woman to contend with.”

“Tripp,” Maggie scolded him lightly.

“He’s not wrong,” Allie told her mother. “We’re a force of nature.”

“I hate to rush it, but I think we should talk dates,” Daniel piped up.

Chance peeled out of the hug to go visit with his sled again, but Olivia stayed close to Charlotte, leaning against her right shoulder after they ended their embrace, as Tag wrapped his arm around her left.

“Well, I mean my mom is out here now…” Charlotte began.

“I had a talk with Maggie two days ago,” her mom said with a gentle smile. “And another this morning with Tag, when he asked my blessing to propose to you.”

Sothatwas why he had dragged her mother off to the living room, and Maggie had kept Charlotte in the kitchen. They’d been in on the whole thing.

“Anyway,” her mom went on. “I know you may be busy with other things after the wedding, and the ice cream shop is a real hit in town. If you think it’s a good idea, I was thinking that maybe I would stay right here. I could move into the apartment and help with the shop so you could expand the hours, and you wouldn’t have to be there all the time. There’s no need to answer now though.”

“That would beamazing,” Charlotte said. “Are you really sure you want to do that?”

“There’s no place I’d rather be than close to my daughter,” she said. “And to my new son-in-law and grandchildren. I’ve only been here a few hours, and it already feels like home.”

Charlotte certainly knew that feeling well.

Olivia let go of her shoulder to go hug her new grandma-to-be as Charlotte shook her head in wonder at how quickly her life was coming together into something she could only have dreamed of.

“Now, we don’t want to overwhelm you, Charlotte,” Maggie said. “But we’ve got a gift for you too. This is from the whole family, and it’s not anything new. But we’re told it’s a hardworking machine that will last you a while.”

Daniel made his way through the discarded wrapping paper and toys to hand Charlotte a laptop, with a bow on it and a card.

“You don’t have to look at it now, sweetheart,” he told her. “And there’s no pressure. But if you want to go back and finish your last semester, your fees are paid, and your professors are excited to have you back as an online student. The details are all in the envelope.”

“It’s too much,” Charlotte murmured, gazing down at the envelope and feeling like she must be dreaming.

“You turned around our little shop,” Daniel said fondly. “It’s the least we can do.”

“If you go back to school, it’s good your mom can be here to run the shop,” Tag told her quietly. “You’ll be able to focus on graduating.”

“You knew,” she murmured, turning to him.

“We all want this for you,” he told her. “We want the world for you.”

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