Page 70 of Empty Net

I ignore her jab as she reveals a giant brown box. As a child, I was told countless times not to touch it. She flips the lid open, and there sits the ring I’m supposed to wear. It’s just as gaudy asI remember it being. I reach for it and barely manage to pull my finger away before my mother snaps it closed.

“I’d like Arthur to give it to you.”

“Oh, sure,” Fox says. “I can do that.”

“Properly,” my mother says, brow arched.

Properly? Does she mean…Oh god.

“What? Mother, no. That’s?—”

“It only seems right, Lilah Jane, since he proposed the first time with no ring. Don’t you want a lovely story for your children one day? Or would you rather tell them about how their father proposed without a plan or a ring?”

None of those things. I don’t want to tell my future children any of that because I don’t even know if Iwantchildren. But saying that would open a whole new can of worms I’m not interested in discussing right now.

“Your mother is right, Lilah.”

I swing my head toward Fox. “She is?”

He nods, leaning close to me. “You deserve a proper proposal. Let me give you one.”

I want to scream, tell him this isn’t a proper proposal because it’s not real, but that would ruin everything. So, I nod.

Fox pushes his chair back and takes the box from my mother’s hand. She looks smug as if this is the smoking gun that will blow our whole con to bits. But I guess she’s not betting on how good of a man Fox is.

He holds the garish box in his hands, running his fingers over it before taking a deep breath and dropping to his knee before me. I look around the fancy restaurant. Everyone stares at us, captivated by what’s happening, having no clue we’re playing the ultimate game of charades.

I pull my chair out to face him, trying to tell him with my eyes,You don’t have to do this.

All the while, his say,Let me do this for you.

“Fox, I?—”

“Lilah Jane Maddison,” he announces loudly, his voice booming above mine, silencing my protests. “I fell in love with you on our first date.”

I roll my lips together, trying to hide my smile because I know as well as he does our first date was just days ago.

“You were radiant, sitting atop that donkey eating a footlong corn dog you had dipped in chowder,” he says, his eyes dancing with laughter, that smile I’ve come to love so much teasing the edge of his lips. “I knew then that our love was the kind you hear about in fairy tales.”

I don’t dare peek at my mother because I know I’ll lose it.

“I wasn’t looking for forever, but that’s exactly what I found in you. You…” His eyes soften, the humor in them dying out, and it’s so sudden that my throat tightens as I stare down at him. “You brought something into my life I didn’t know I was missing.”

Something in his voice begins to change, quiets, and the rest of the room fades away. It’s just us now: Fox on one knee, holding my hand and peering into my eyes, which are beginning to sting.

“You’re brilliant and kind and beautiful. And your wit might be my favorite thing about you. You make me laugh and smile. And you make me really, really damn happy. It would be an absolute honor to be your husband. So, what do you say, Lilah? Will you marry me?”

My throat burns, and it’s hard to find air. I don’t know what I expected from this, but it certainly wasn’t that. It wasn’t just Fox calling me brilliant or beautiful. No. It was more. It was the rawness in his voice when he said I was what he was missing because it sounded so real. Like he trulywasmissing something.

It reminds me of his confession that it’s nice to have someone. Is Fox lonelier than I thought? Does this mean more to him than he’s letting on?

“Well, Lilah?” my mother asks, pulling my attention, and I look over to find evenshehas tears in her eyes. “Answer the man!”

I turn back to Fox, who is staring up at me expectantly, waiting as patiently as ever.

“Yes, Fox,” I say quietly, praying he doesn’t hear the shakiness in my voice. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

He blows out a relieved breath, perfectly playing the part of a worried boyfriend.

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