Page 45 of Never Alone
The kids were in the yard. The dishes were stacked at one end of the table. Sam was at the head of it, watching me with the corner of his mouth, doing the thing it did when he was about to enjoy something at my expense. He was not coming to my defense.
Jamie was beside him, leaning forward. She was already past convinced and into planning.
"Mom told me," Rosie said.
"Course she did."
"It's not real, Rosie."
"I know it's not real." She picked up her coffee. "That's exactly why you have to propose to her."
I waited. She kept going.
"How do you think this is going to look in court? You and Tessa show up engaged. The other side's lawyer asks how it happened. What are you going to say?We just decided?That's not a thing people do. That's a thing two people on paper do."
"We are two people on paper. We're in a relationshipon paper. No one said anything about getting engaged."
"Right." She set the coffee down. "And the judge is going to know. Judges have heard a thousand relationship stories. They know what a real one sounds like. Right now, you don't have one. You need a proposal story to sell it."
Jamie leaned in further.
"When did you propose, Cole? Where? Did you get down on one knee? Did you carry the ring around in your pocket all day? Were you nervous? What did you say? People remember the story. They remember the way you tell it. The story is the thing they'll believe."
Sam still hadn't said anything.
"How're you feeling about this?" he said. Casual. Pleasant.
"I want to throw my coffee at you."
"Don't waste good coffee."
I turned back to Rosie.
"What kind of story?"
She smiled.
"Yours. It just has to be one."
I sat with that.
It hadn't crossed my mind. It should have. Miranda had said it that morning—a sworn statement, in your own words, about your relationship with Tessa and your involvement with Noah.I'd taken it for paperwork. I'd missed that the story had to start somewhere.
I looked at Rosie.
"You're the English major. You come up with one."
Rosie set her coffee down and tilted her head.
"Alright then."
She thought for a second.
"After she kissed you at that fire, you couldn't stop thinking about her. You started going to the bakery more often. Buyingbread you don't even eat. You just wanted to see her. Then you asked her out. You took her to dinner. After that, you were inseparable. You realized you didn't want to spend the rest of your life without her. So you proposed to her one night at your apartment."
Sam was grinning into his coffee. Jamie was looking at Rosie like she'd just watched her win something.
I looked back at Rosie.
