Page 71 of The Activist and Her Billionaire

“Brynne Casey, the most beautiful activist, environmentalist, and business foe I’ve ever known, will do me the honor of being my wife?”

Brynne bites her lip. Her eyes sparkle with tears. She splays her fingers, waiting for me to slip the ring on. Too overcome to speak, she simply nodsyes.

Chapter 20

Brynne

The morning sun wakes me. I reach blindly for Jack, but the bed is empty. I sit up with a start and shade my eyes because the sunlight is streaming through the window. I look at my ring and smile. It has been a week since Jack’s proposal, and I have never been happier in my whole life. We have already settled into a life of sweet rituals.

Speaking of which, Jack enters the room with perfect timing, barely fitting my grandma’s apron. I giggle. He carries a coffee mug in each hand.

“Aw,” I say. “So thoughtful.”

He sets his mug down and crawls across the mattress to me. He stares down at me and kisses me.

“It’s stunning out today,” he says eagerly. “And we have this whole cove to ourselves. What would you like to do? We could go sailing. We could have a picnic lunch and relax and read on the beach. We could call a few friends and have a barbecue. It’s too beautiful to spend it inside.

He kisses me again. I melted against his lips. He levers his eyebrows as he smirks at me. We each sip our coffee.

“So good,” I say. “You have the coffee gift – you’re like a coffee whisperer.”

“Can I just say,” he says randomly. “I do not like my house in Santa Monica.”

“You can’t really get rid of it,” I remark. “Not in this market.”

“Environmentalist/real estate genius,” he says, flashing a wide smile. “You’re right.”

He nods like he is waiting for me to say something.

“So, you still want to marry me?’ he asks longingly.

“Uh yeah,” I say. “I’d marry you today if there was a way.”

“Oh,” he says with an expression like he just tasted something good. “I like hearing that.”

I say, “In the meantime, you wanna move in? This place is so huge we could live together and not live together at the same time. So, it wouldn’t be too much too fast. Or you could move into one of the empty homes you own.”

“Oh, so we could live the hot neighbor next door fantasy,” he teases.

I nod like I am up for it. He gets serious.

“I am going to check those out. Some have been vandalized,” he says. “I think we need to call a meeting between you, me, Todd, Gretchen, and Brody - maybe even Nick? And make a business plan about where to go from here?”

“Hm, Nick still gnarls me,” I say. “Maybe that makes me immature, but he’s still in the doghouse with me.”

“Okay,” he says. “For now. I would like to have a meeting of the visionaries.”

“I like that,” I say, cuddling up to him. “We could call it Visions Resort. A bunch of us used to go to Tahoe and split the rental. That’s what people can do with these big houses. We could call them surf chalets.”

“Fantastic idea,” he remarks.

“There’s something else I would like to plan while we’re planning things.”

He kisses me slowly, lazily. “Wedding?” he whispers.

“Yeah,” I whisper back. “You’ve never been married before?”

“Nope,” he says. “Not even close. I was married to my pursuit of financial happiness. How about you?”

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