Page 104 of The One You Want

He smiled, but I couldn’t help thinking it looked forced. “I’mgood.”

I wasn’t buying it but I didn’t want to push him, either. I had discovered that sometimes it took Grant a while to mull over what he wanted to say. But he always eventually said it. I could bepatient.

“Hello, hello,” I called to the cats as we walked into the entryway. “Where are my fluffymonsters?”

“The cat’s aren’t here,” Grant said, holding onto my arm out of habit while I bent to remove myshoes.

I almost fell over anyhow. “What do you mean they aren’there?”

“They’re beingboarded.”

“What? Why?Where?”

“With Dr. Miller, actually. He said he was happy to take them off our hands for thenight.”

I just gaped at him. “But…why?”

“Because I didn’t want them to ruin this.” He took my hand and pulled me into the living room and I stopped dead in my tracks. Every inch of every surface was covered in flowers. Hydrangeas and daisies and sweet smelling spring hyacinths. Some of the flowers I recognized from thewedding.

“What are these—why—how—” Before I could get out a coherent question, Grant was pulling me around by the shoulders to face him. He looked even more tight-lipped than he had outside and I suddenly realized what was bothering him—he wasnervous.

“I asked some of the Libbies to bring the flowers back from thewedding.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t imagine proposing to you without a roomful offlowers.”

Everything stopped—my heart, all the noise in the room. Time itself seemed to stop as I stared at Grant, trying to take in what he’d justsaid.

And then he dropped down to oneknee.

“I love you, Jenny,” he said, voice shaking a little. “I think I loved you since the first day I saw you, at that market inIrven.”

Because I always blurted out stupid things when I was nervous or overwhelmed, I shook my head. “We didn’t meet at Irven. You helped me with my table at the market in Samsville,remember?”

He smiled softly. “That was the first time I got up the nerve to talk to you,” he said. “But I noticed you weeks before that. I was just too scared to do anything about it. Thank God that tablebroke.”

It still blew my mind that Grant had liked me way back then. I had always seen myself as such a wallflower, so easily overlooked by everyone. But the most amazing man in the world saw me, even back then. He always sawme.

And now he was kneeling in our living room, surrounded by the flowers he’d grown himself, right here on this farm, holding my hand inhis.

“You’re my favorite person, Jenny,” he said, squeezing my hand. “Let me try to make you as happy as you makeme.”

“Oh,Grant.”

“I promise you can have a hundred chickens and a dozen cats, if that would make you happy. I’ll build you your own workshop for your jewelry. Whatever you want, I’ll give you.” He pulled a small black box from his back pocket and gave me my favorite grin, the slightly smug, lip tilting one that always made me swoon. “Jenny Hillman, will you marryme?”

I wasn’t sure if I even answered. I was so busy falling to my knees and kissing him to notice. “I love you,” I said, over and over again as I cried and kissed his lips, his cheeks, his nose, every inch of skin I could reach and the bits under his beard, too. He laughed, holding meclose.

“God, I loveyou.”

I was pretty sure my heart was going to burst right out of my chest. I had never known happiness like this before. Had never in my life felt so completely right. Grant was right for me. Grant washappiness.

Grant was going to be myhusband.

“Don’t you want to see the ring?” heasked.

I laughed. I had completely forgotten about the ring. But when he opened the box, the laughter died in mythroat.