It’s Hollywood. I’ve gotten used to being recognized, but people mostly leave me alone.
“Excuse me?” I pause at her table.
“Are you going to say yes?” This time she holds up her iPad, and I see the text of an ad on a popular gossip site.
“May I?” I ask before snatching it out of her hands when she nods. The ad was posted only minutes ago.
Desperately seeking gorgeous, caring, perfect woman with a huge heart to make an honest man out of me and give Hollywood a happily-ever-after like it has never seen before.
I’ve got a big . . . ring, just sayin’.
GREER KARAS—WILL YOU MARRY ME?
He didn’t. He did.
That man. That man.
I hand her back the iPad. The grin on my face can’t be wiped off to save my life. Some things are permanent. Apparently, like me and Cav.
“I think I owe him the answer first, don’t you?”
Her smile and shrug are well meaning, and she holds out a Sharpie and a napkin. “Could I have your autograph?”
Shifting my purse, I set my iced coffee down and sign my name, and then grab another napkin and quickly draw something for myself before folding it up and sliding it in my purse.
When I moved in with Cav a year ago, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Never in a million years did I expect to be standing on the red carpet of a movie I was in, with Cav accompanying me to the premiere.
He asked me to help him run lines one night, and I got into it so much that he started bugging me to talk to his agent about auditioning for a role. I scoffed at the idea. Scoffed. Greer Karas was no actress.
But I was wrong.
I might not be starring in any big movies like Cav, but I’m having more fun with work than I ever thought possible.
And now it’s time to get home and talk to that man of mine.
I think I’m hearing things when the knock comes at the door. I’ve been waiting for a frigging hour for Greer to see the ad and come home.
No one knocks on our front door because of the gate . . .
I grab the box from the counter, hop off my stool, and slide across the wood floor in my hurry to get to the foyer. Six feet from the door, I slow.
This is it. The only time I’m ever going to ask a woman to marry me—well, other than in the ad I posted this afternoon.
Closing the remaining distance to the door, I unlock it and pull it open.
Greer stands there, holding a heart drawn on a napkin in black marker. “It’s not huge, but it’s the best I could manage under the circumstances.”
“I love you, Greer.” The feeling hasn’t dimmed in the time we’ve spent together, only grown. “I love you so damn much.” I drop to a knee. “I’ve been thinking about this for four years. What I would do. What I would need to say to convince you to say yes.”
It’s not smooth or polished, but the words are raw honesty.
“All you had to say is exactly what you did. I love you too, so much that sometimes I feel like there’s nothing else holding the pieces of me together. This has been yours since before I even realized you stole it.” She holds out the napkin.
I lift the box I’m holding. “I think this is a fair trade.”
Flipping the top open, I wait for her reaction. It is big, but it’s not a diamond. It’s tanzanite, which I read is a thousand times rarer than diamonds. It seems perfectly fitting for the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.
Greer’s eyes go wide when she sees the brilliant blue stone surrounded by diamonds.
“How long have you had that?”
It’s not a question I was expecting, but I tell her the truth. I always tell Greer the truth.
“Eleven months.”
“Are you serious?”
“I bought it after you moved in. In case you were wondering, I never planned to let you leave.”
“Why did you wait so damn long?”
“Your brother. Jerk-off wouldn’t give his blessing until he saw I could make you happy for a year.”
As much as it pisses me off, I understand his protectiveness. I’ve won his respect—grudgingly.
“You actually waited? For Crey’s blessing?” Greer’s tone is incredulous.
“He’s family. I wasn’t going to piss him off for the rest of our lives. He matters to you, Greer. So that means he matters to me.”
“I love you. You didn’t need his blessing—I never would’ve cared.”
Even though Greer says that, I know it’s important to her. Greer’s uncle’s death was ruled to be natural causes until her aunt’s body was found a week later at the family house in the Hamptons with a suicide note admitting to poisoning her husband “like he’d poisoned everything else in his life.” The autopsy techs still haven’t figured out what kind of poison Greer’s aunt used or whether she’d been mentally unstable when she’d done it, but the case is considered closed.
In that same week, Stephen Cardelli was found dead in the showers at Rikers for no apparent reason. Dom swore he knew nothing about it, and I hadn’t pushed it.
Regardless, that means the last remaining family Greer has is her brother. My brother.
Creighton and I had words about that too. Over a beer. Like actual brothers. We’ll never be as close as he and Greer are, but he doesn’t want me on the opposite side of the country from his sister anymore.
Last night, I got an e-mail from him.
Better make an honest woman out of my sister pretty fucking soon. No man will ever be good enough for her, but you’re damn close.
Today is exactly one year from the day I stood at Greer’s door to answer her ad. It seemed the perfect time to do what I wish I could have done years ago.