Page 78 of Amore
* * *
Havingdinner with the Borellis felt like old times. After my talk with Frank and him giving me his blessing, we all ate around their dining room table. We showed them pictures of the house Frankie was buying, letting them know we were moving in together.
Once we had dessert, Frank said, “Jennifer, want to walk Amore with me?”
“I would love to,” she replied.
“You two don’t need to walk my dog,” Frankie protested.
“It’s fine, piccola. We go for a walk every night after dinner. We can walk a dog too,” her father stated.
“We can come with you,” Frankie suggested.
“Actually, it’s time for your surprise,” I said.
Frankie’s brow arched. “I thought this was the surprise?”
“Not exactly.” I grinned.
She eyed me curiously. “What are you up to, Lucas Davenport?”
I stood and stuck out my hand. “You’ll have to come with me to find out.”
She stood and took my hand while her dad hooked Amore’s leash to his collar.
“We’ll be back in about an hour,” her mother stated.
Frankie waved a timid goodbye to her parents, and I opened the french doors that led to their backyard. She hesitated for a moment. “Are we going in the treehouse?”
I nodded. “We are.”
“Luke,” she breathed.
The last time I’d been in the treehouse was the night we lost our virginities when she asked for the favor from me. I could never bring myself to go up into it again.
I wanted to change that.
“Come on, Franks. We need a new memory up there.” I grabbed her hand and led her through the yard to the tree near the corner of the fence that separated our childhood houses. I didn’t want her to go up first because I knew once she entered, she would see what Emily had set up per my instructions, so I said, “I’m going up first, okay?”
“O—kay,” she exhaled.
I wasn’t nervous as I climbed up the wooden steps attached to the trunk of the tree and crawled through the latch. Being with Frankie was perfect, and not once had I ever questioned who I wanted to spend forever with. Before I called down to let her know she could come up, I turned on the fairy lights that had been up since we were kids. Surprisingly, they still worked. I lit the candles Emily had set out, grabbed the velvet box that I’d given her back in LA, and waited on one knee.
“All right. You can come up.”
The few seconds it took for Frankie to climb up was enough to make my palms clammy, and my heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. It wasn’t because I was anxious or thought she would turn me down. It was because I was going to tell the love of my life I wanted to spend forever with her. We’d only been together a little over a month, but I’d loved her since I was twelve, and I knew there was no one else for me. When I pictured forever, I imagined us sitting on the back patio of our new home while looking at the ocean in the distance. I envisioned kids running in the yard as they played with Amore, and cooking her breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of our lives.
“Luke,” she gasped as her head popped out of the opening on the floor.
I held out my hand to help her up but stayed on bended knee. Once she was fully inside the treehouse, I cleared my throat. “I have a question to ask you, baby.”
Her hands flew to cover her mouth as her eyes became glassy. “Okay,” she whispered.
“The night you texted me to meet you in here before you left for college, I had no idea our lives would change forever. It not only brought us closer together physically, but it also tore us apart. I don’t think I would change what happened between us because there is no one else in the entire world I would want to be with for our first time. But like that night, I once again want to change our lives forever.”
I opened the velvet box to reveal a round solitaire diamond on a platinum band. “I want to be withyouforever. So, Francesca Jennifer Borelli, will you marry me?”
23
