Page 115 of His Curvy Happiness
Mikayla jumped up and threw her arms around me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve always wanted to see a play on Broadway.”
“I know. After seeing you in the musical, I thought it could be fun. It’s over your mid-winter break in February, so we need to find other things we can do when we’re in New York City.”
“We can do other things?” Mikayla asked.
“Of course. What do you want to do?”
Her eyes widened. “I don’t know. But I’ll find out.”
I laughed, loving her excitement.
“Is it my turn?” Casey asked.
“Yeah, Mom. You need to open your stuff.” Mikayla sat on the floor at Casey’s feet, staring up at her.
“What is with you?” Casey asked.
Mikayla glanced at me, and I did my best to play it off, but Casey was on to us.
“What did you two do?”
“Nothing,” Mikayla said, the word not at all sounding innocent.
Casey shook her head and started in on her collection of gifts. I held back with half the things I wanted to get for her, too, but there was one thing I couldn’t pass up.
The last box Casey picked up, the one intentionally at the bottom of her pile was wrapped in paper different from the others. It was silver and sparkly, as requested by Mikayla, with a garnet ribbon. Casey toyed with the ribbon before she slid it off the box.
I held my breath as she tore into the paper. The box didn’t give anything away, but it was only a few seconds before she opened it.
I set my coffee down before I spilled it on myself with how badly my hands were shaking. It didn’t matter what we’d talked about in the last few weeks, all the plans and ideas and frustrations, it was time to get an answer.
Casey lifted the lid on the box and slid a glance my way. “What is this? A picture frame?”
I didn’t say anything. My throat was tight.
She lifted the tissue paper from the front of the frame and looked down at it, her gaze scanning the words in the fancy script.
Her hand flew to her mouth. “What? Landon?”
“Pick it up, Mom,” Mikayla said.
“Pick it up. Why?” Casey lifted the frame from the box and unknowingly pulled out the ring tied to the back. It swung and hit her hand, giving me a chance to drop to one knee.
“Casey White. I love you. I love everything about you. I love the way you make me laugh, the smile in your eyes when I say something dumb. I love the way you love Mikayla and our unborn baby. I love that you never give up on things that matter and aren’t afraid to quit when you know that’s the right answer. I want you to know that you will always matter to me. I will never quit on us. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If you’ll have me.”
“You know I love you. You didn’t have to get me this ring. It’s all too much.”
I shook my head. “It’ll never be too much, Casey. I love you. I don’t care if I have five dollars or five million dollars, it’s all yours. And so am I.”
“Is this an invitation to our wedding?” She gestured to the frame.
I shrugged.
“You know this is in six days, right?”
“We need twenty-four hours to get a marriage license, and I couldn’t get one without you there. I don’t want to go through another year, or another day, without you as my wife. Everything is already planned, if you’re okay with getting married on New Year’s Eve.”
She stared at the invitation and the ring, and I started to panic.
