“I love you. I want you to be my wife.”

“Okay, but . . .”

He rolls over, reaches into the drawer on his nightstand, and removes a box. I start to tremble when he puts it in front of me. “I’ve had this ring since the day before Zach’s wedding. I bought it, knowing one day you’d be wearin’ it.” My hand flies to my mouth as I look at the black box with gold writing. “This isn’t some spur-of-the-moment thing. This is me not wanting to waste a single minute. This is me wanting you to be mine. This is me finally listenin’ to my heart and needin’ to do right by you. I want to marry you. Right now. I want to be your husband. So, I’m asking you Grace Rooney, will you marry me?”

He opens the box and there sits a beautiful pear-shaped diamond solitaire flanked by four diamonds on each side. It’s beautiful. “You’re sure?” I ask because I want him to be. “If you’re not, we can lie back down and forget this ever happened.”

He lifts the ring out of the box and glides it onto my finger. “Do you remember what you were eating the first time I kissed you?” he asks as my eyes fill with tears.

“No.” I shake my head.

“A pear.”

“How could you possibly remember that?” I ask as I stare at my hand with a pear-shaped diamond sitting on it.

“Because every now and then, when I kiss you, I can taste it all over again.” He lifts my chin and holds me captive. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re my heart and soul. I never want to spend a day without you. I’m gonna ask you again . . . marry me?”

I don’t have to think about anything. I’ve loved him forever. I’ll only ever love him until the day I die. We’ve had ups and downs and wins and losses, but we’ve had them together. He’s not perfect, but he’s perfect for me.

I throw my arms around him with tears falling freely. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I want nothing more than to be your wife!”

He laughs, and we fall back. I kiss him, hoping he can taste the pear again.

“All right.” He holds my face back to stop me from kissing him. “I need to ask you one more thing.”

“Ask me anything.” I can’t stop the smile.

“Marry me today, Grace. I know it’s not the wedding you probably imagined, but I want my father to be there.”

I sit back and put my hand on his chest. “Honey, are you sure? I’m not saying no, I just don’t want you to wake up a week from now and wish we’d waited.”

“I think we’ve waited long enough. My father would want to see this. He loves you, and I will never regret marrying you. Not now, not ever.”

It’s all happening so fast, but then again, it’s really not. I know he wants his father there, and I don’t want to deny him that. We love each other, we’ve been doing good, so why not?

“Okay,” I say. “Okay, if you want to get married today, let’s do it.”

Trent grabs me in his arms and rolls me over. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

We both laugh and he rolls off me. “Go call your family. I’ll call mine.”

I glance back at my hand and bite my lip. I’m engaged. I’m actually engaged to my boyfriend of . . . forever . . . and we live together. We’re going to be married—today.

Holy shit.

I grab my phone and call my mother. “Can you meet us at the hospital in about an hour?”

“Is Rhett okay? I just talked to Macie.” Mama sounds worried.

“Mama, Trent proposed, and he wants to get married today.”

“Today?”

“Yeah, so Rhett can be there and see it.”

“Oh, honey! He’s a good man,” she says and then yells for my father. “Jim! Trent finally proposed to Grace!” I hear him yell something back, but I can’t understand it. “No! She’s gettin’ married today at the hospital.”

“Mama,” I try to stop her.

“No! The hospital! So that Rhett can see it.” She keeps going as if I’m not on the phone.

“Mama!”

Once again, she carries on. “In an hour, so you need to get off your behind and get dressed!”

“Mother!” I yell louder.

“Well, I don’t know about that, James, I found out about it myself not two minutes ago.” She huffs before coming back on the line. “Grace, your daddy wants to know if he has to wear his good pants or if you mind him wearin’ his jeans.”

I shake my head and stare at my ring. “He can wear whatever he wants.”

“Well, don’t tell him that, Grace. He’ll wear his good pants. It is your weddin’ after all.”

“I need to call a few people, I love you, and I’ll see you at the chur—I mean hospital.”

I call Emily, and she starts screaming. She’s on her way to Bell Buckle as luck would have it. She heard from Presley and was coming to be here for support. I don’t know if she’ll get there in time, but I hope she does.

I’m in front of my closet just staring. I don’t have a wedding dress, and there’s no way I’d wear one to the hospital, but I would like something white. I feel Trent’s arms wrap around me from behind and his head rests on my shoulder. “You almost ready?”

“I don’t know what to wear,” I admit.

He leans back, and I turn to face him. “Anything you wear will be perfect. I hate that I’m takin’ your white dress and big wedding from you.”

“No, no, it’s not that.” I stop him before he misunderstands. “I don’t need all that. Family and friends are what matter to me. I only care about the who, not the where. Plus, we can have a big ole party later on, right?”

“We can do anything you want.”

“I’ve always wanted a barn wedding.” I smile.

The barn at my parents’ house is rustic and beautiful. It’s dark grayish wood and tall ceiling is where I would have my pretend wedding all the time. I pictured Trent standing at the end when the barn doors opened. I can close my eyes and see the lanterns lining the path to him. We wouldn’t be dressed up crazy and the ceremony would be small with just the people who truly matter in our lives.

I’m a simple girl. I spent half my life in pageants and wearing big dresses because Mama thought it would make me a lady. I think she liked playing Barbie and I was a real life version for her—minus the blonde hair.