Page 179 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)
“She’s going to college!” my dad hollers, emerging from the dining room.
He’s wearing a purple-and-white NYU t-shirt. Lenora, Robert, and Iris are close behind him, and they, too, are wearing the school’s colors. Riley and Hanna appear with a hand-painted sign that says, Congrats on being accepted to NYU!
“Don’t make me cry.” I blink rapidly at the ceiling. My eyes burn. “Thank you all for the surprise, but I can’t…”
“They gave you a full ride,” Caleb says in my ear.
My mouth drops open. “What?”
He just shrugs, grinning.
I squint at him. He wouldn’t have paid for it upfront, right? He’s not that crazy…
He is.
I reach up on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”
“One more thing,” he says.
I cough. “You’re kidding. This is just prom… What on earth are you doing?”
There’s a black velvet box in his hand.
“Are you proposing to me?”
He looks around. “Why not? We’re surrounded by everyone who loves us.”
“Because—”
“You promised me forever,” he says, kneeling. He takes my hand.
His thumb skates just below the bracelet on my wrist, eliciting a shiver.
“I just want to make it even more official.”
“You…” I suck in a deep breath. “You’re impossibly infuriating sometimes.”
His brow furrows.
I continue, “And you just assume that I like surprises. Which, for the record, I don’t. And you’re bossy. And—”
“Are you just going to list my worst attributes while I’m trying to propose?”
“I’m just getting this off my chest, okay? It was my idea to marry you eight years ago. This isn’t a new idea. And you’ve picked up some bad habits along the way—”
Riley snorts.
“But it doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” I shrug and wiggle my fingers in his hand. “I don’t want to know what not being in love with you feels like. So, okay. I’m ready.”
He smirks. “You take things to an extreme, love.”
“Yes.”
“Will you marry me? And love me until we’re old and gray?”
I can’t help it. In the eleventh hour, seconds left on the clock—we’re doing sports analogies here, people—I glance at my dad.
Did I think he was ever going to walk me down the aisle, let alone be able to witness the man of my dreams propose? No.