Page 141 of Snowed In
“No time like the present,” he says, grinning up at Molly like he planned this all along. “Your turn.”
It takes her a second to realize what’s happening, and when she does, she blinks rapidly before moving jerkily to the floor, mirroring his stance.
Hannah makes a small noise across the hall. “I’m going to cry,” she mumbles, waving her hands in front of her face.
I frown at her. “How does that help?”
“I don’t know! It just does.”
“Shhh!” Mam hushes, giving us a stern look that immediately softens when she turns back to the couple.
Neither Molly nor Andrew gives any indication that they hear us at all.
“Do you want to go first?” he prompts, but Molly shakes her head.
“You’re better at this stuff.”
“That’s true,” he says, straight-faced, and pulls out a small black box from his pocket.
“Oh my God,” Megan breathes, clutching my hand so tight she’s starting to cut off circulation.
“Molly Kinsella—”
Hannah squeaks.
But Andrew doesn’t continue, his mouth slightly open as though he has so many things he wants to say to her, he doesn’t even know where to start. But maybe that doesn’t matter.
“I love you,” he says simply. “And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
Molly smiles through her tears, smiles at him, and then reaches into her coat for her own box.
“Yes,” she says. “Will you marry me?”
His answer, which I can only presume was an affirmative, is lost as they kiss like they’re the only two people in the world, and then they’re exchanging rings, and Hannah is full-on sobbing, and Megan has tucked herself into my side and I’m smiling so hard my face hurts.
“Nothing’s ever easy with you guys,” I call, as they stand. “Is it?”
Andrew turns to me as Molly is quickly enveloped by my mother.
“She said yes.”
“I heard,” I say. “Congratulations, idiot.”
“I want to be a bridesmaid,” Hannah announces, as Megan kisses him on the cheek.
“Welcome to the family,” I tell Molly as she embraces me next. “You guys still have dowries, right?”
“I’m such an idiot,” she mutters into my shoulder.
“Yeah, but you’re our idiot now.”
And then she’s pulled from my arms and back into Andrew’s, and he spins her around with such joy you have to wonder if the whole world can feel it.
* * *
“You’ll have to come over tomorrow,” Mam says, pushing a foil-covered plate into Megan’s hands. “We’ll have plenty of leftovers.”
“I will.”
