Page 53 of Mr. Not Nice Guy

“Wow!” I can’t help exclaiming, a laugh forcing its way out of my throat along with the word. I grin brightly at August, who stands next to me, hands in his pockets while he continues to smile proudly. I cut my eyes between the audience and him. “How am I supposed to be able to say anything after that?”

A fewawwwssplice through the applause, and I dab my eye with the back of my hand.

“So, yeah,” I go on with another light laugh. “That’s my Maw-Maw. And I really did learn all of this from her. I wouldn’t be here without her, that’s for damn sure. And yes…” I shield my eyes from the spotlight as I scan the crowd. “I did hear that it was actually Luke who first saw my quirky little set at Chickie’s—”

“Yeah!” Luke hollers from somewhere I can’t see. “Itwasme! You’re all welcome!”

Everybody laughs again, and I reach for August’s arm, pulling him to my side.

“Yes, thank you, Luke.” I flit my fingers in a wave. “Nobody does anything like this on their own, and the amazing team at Frenchmen Street took me in and gave me a shot at my dream. But I have to say, even after they took me in like they did, I still wouldn’t be up here right now…I mean, at one point, I was ready to straight-up quit…”

I look up at August as all his words from that afternoon only a few days ago flood my mind.

You are going to make her proud by carrying on the legacy she started.

You’ll become a legend in your own right by following in her footsteps. By being magical and spectacular and loving every moment of it just like she did.

You didn’t just do this for her. You held out for this because you have a fire inside of you that burns for this just like she did.

Those same words were coming from my own brain the night I came onto him in a bar. I’d had a feeling he’d give me an experience that would stoke the fires of passion and drive me to create something amazing, which would allow me to keep doing what I loved rather than just getting any old job.

Ididwant this. This ismydream. And it’s always been my dream because the stories of Maw-Maw’s life planted themselves in my heart, and I wanted to make a life like that for myself.

I dared to dream and wish for it all.

And now I have it.

“I didn’t quit because you believed in me,” I say tohim. Audience be damned. This is my moment, but it’s alsoours.

He continues to smile that proud smile, his hand making firm, slow revolutions against my back, and I’m so overcome with love that just sayingI love youagain seems lacking, and it’s possible that the Flaming Dragon stripped off my filter just enough for me to blurt out one hell of a Freudian slip.

“August, will you marry me?”

There’s a collective gasp from the audience that all but sucks the air out of the room, and August’s hand stills on my back.

His eyes are wide for a moment before he blinks. “Are you serious?”

My heart does an arrhythmic tap dance as I consider my own question.

AmI serious?

My mind instinctively turns to Maw-Maw, and the fact she’s gone, and the fact that, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been terrified of exactly what I’m living.

Maw-Maw was all I had in the world, the person I loved the most, and I knew I was going to lose her. And maybe that’s the problem I was having with these feelings for August.

Maybe I was afraid to let myself love him knowing I’d eventually lose him, too, for one reason or another.

And right now, it’s abundantly clear how fleeting life is.

It’s clear that love is worth the pain of losing it one day.

And because we’re going to lose it one day, that’spreciselythe reason I want, more than anything, to throw myself headlong into giving myself to August completely.

I roll the idea of marrying him over in my mind and heart for another few seconds before I one-hundred-percent fall in love with it.

“Yes, I’m serious.”

He merely stands there, agape, hand bracing my back, as he saysnothing.

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