Page 50 of Stolen Vows

"Uh, yeah, it’s— it’s lovely," I reply.

"Different than anywhere else you’ve lived, huh?" Maya remarks.

"Oh, I… I never lived with anyone other than my father," I admit, and suddenly wish I could take it back. It makes me sound so unworldly.

Maya seems to be in the thick of it with her father and everything else, but there I was, part of my father’s family with no idea what he was really doing.

"Well, plenty of time for you to make the place your own," Dario adds kindly, finding some way to divert the conversation away from the fact that I have nothing good to say.

I breathe a sigh of relief. They don’t seem to hold it against me. In fact, I think most of these nerves are more coming from inside my head than from anything they are doing.

"Yes, and the next one, you might even be able to get rid of my brother," Maya jokes.

A laugh passes around the table, and I reach for my wine.See?I tell myself.It’s going well. You were getting worried for nothing...

We eat and clear the plates together, then Max offers to make everyone a coffee in the kitchen. I linger with him before I return to the table with Dario and Maya.

"You sure you don’t need a hand?" I ask Max, before I go. I hook my chin over his shoulder, glad to have a moment alone with him.

"I’m fine," he replies, dropping a kiss on my head and then turning his attention back to the task at hand. "You go and spend some time with my father and my sister. They really like you."

I nod and do as I’m told. Though, if I’m being honest, I’m a little surprised that he would brush me off the way he did. Usually, he wants to grab every single moment we can get alone together, and I am more than willing to give him everything he wants...

Still, I return to the table, where Maya has topped off my wine and Dario is putting on a record. For a moment, I pause in the doorway, just looking at the people before me. For the first time, it strikes me, I actually feel like an adult, like an equal to everyone in the room. I’m sure there is still so much I have to learn about the way this world really works, but here, now, I actually feel at home.

I take my seat again, and Dario glances around.

"You like the music?” he asks, waving his hand towards the record player. "Always sounds better on vinyl, I’d say..."

"It’s lovely," I reply, and it is—the soft notes waft through the air around us, filling the room like the scent of the food did earlier, just as earthy.

A few moments later, Max appears in the doorway, carrying a tray with all of our coffees on it. He distributes them between us, passing them back and forth, every one made up exactly how the recipient likes it.

But as he takes his seat next to me, I notice that there is still something on the tray before him—a small, squarish object that I can’t quite see from where I am sitting. I crane my neck over to get a better look, and Max flashes me a grin, catching me staring.

"What’s wrong?"

"What is that thing?" I ask, pointing to the object that has me so confused. Now I am a little closer to it, I can see what looks to be deep purple velvet. But what would a velvet box that small be?—

Before I can finish the thought, he reaches across and grabs it. And as he pops it open, I hear Maya let out a gasp.

Because inside that box is a ring. A sparkling silver ring, with a diamond pressed into the center, the gleam of it so intense in the soft light it’s hard to believe it’s real.

"Oh, my..."

"You know what it is now?” he asks, a low, teasing tone to his voice. I nod, my hands clasped to my chest. I can’t believe what I am looking at—I can’t even come close to figuring it out.

"Yeah..."

"I wanted to do this properly," he continues.

It suddenly clicks to me that this is what he has been planning all night, this is why he was so insistent I come, and this is why he wanted this time in the kitchen alone. The thought of someone pouring all of that effort in, just toaskme—not to demand an answer, not to force me down the aisle whether I want it or not, but to allow me to make that decision about my future—is more than I can make sense of. The emotion swells up in my chest, my heart pounding as he tells me what I didn’t even know I needed to hear.

"Because I’m in love with you, Cara, which you already know well," he continues, a small smile flickering on the corners of his lips. I want to kiss him so badly, but more than anything, I want to hear what he has to say.

"And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. More than that, I want to offer you a place in this family. God knows the one you had before didn’t treat you the way you deserved to be treated, but you made the hardest choice in the world by choosing to side with us."

I press my lips together. I feel like I might start crying at any moment, happy tears, the joy almost bursting out of my chest. Yes, it’s bittersweet, knowing everything that has led to this moment, but that is all behind us now. And what awaits in the future is the only thing that matters.

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