Molly Harper - Better Homes and Hauntings

Nina knew this wasn’t a pie-crust promise, made in the moment by friends bonded by an extreme experience. They would be close for the rest of their lives. There would be holidays and parties, weddings and children, all together, all looking out for one another. Because who else would understand them?

“Well, since we’re talking about scheduling future events.” Deacon cleared his throat and knelt in front of her with an elegant silver box. Nina eyed the box—which was too large to hold jewelry—with suspicion. Deacon popped it open to reveal what appeared to be the latest-model cell phone, encrusted in tiny peridots, her birthstone.

Deacon held the phone aloft, ignoring Cindy’s hushed “What the hell?”

“I have programmed all of your contacts,” he said. “The phone is virtually indestructible, but if you ever break it, I will be the one to take it to the store to get it replaced.” Nina lifted an eyebrow. “Of course, I would send Vi out to do it, but you wouldn’t have to deal with it. You will never have to do your own tech support. I will take out the garbage, fix broken appliances, go to the post office; basically, any errand you don’t want to do, I will do. Or I will pay someone I trust to do it for you.”

“Really?”

“I can’t bring you flowers,” he said, gesturing to the garden. “You seem to be afraid of expensive jewelry. So making your life a little easier is going to be how I show you I love you, all day, every day, for the rest of our lives.”

“You’re proposing to me with a cell phone?” she said, her eyebrows raised.

“If you think about it, they’re both long-term contracts.”

“Well, how could a girl resist an offer like that?” she asked, taking the phone out of the box. She turned it on and sighed. “You put a Master Gardener app on here.”

“The ‘all day, every day’ speech didn’t get her, but a gardening app did?” Jake whispered as Nina threw her arms around Deacon’s neck and kissed him, whispering “Yes, yes” against his lips.

“Everybody has their thing,” Cindy told him.

Deacon turned to them. “If the phone thing didn’t work, I had a mint-condition Qui-Gon Jinn action figure in my office.”

Nina gasped. “You got me a tiny posable Liam Neeson? You really do love me.”

Cindy shook her head, glancing at Dotty. “Sweetie, I never thought I’d say this, but out of everybody here, you may be the normal one.”

Jake cleared his throat. “With all this talk of long-term commitments, do you think you might want to . . . get a phone contract together . . . someday . . . eventually?”

“Only if you plan on calling me long-distance. If and when you propose, there had better be roses and a string quartet and a clever hiding place for the very tasteful yet expensive ring. And doves.”

“Doves?”

“I don’t particularly like them, but I want them. So when I say yes, they can be released in a crescendo of romantic fluttering.”

Jake’s lips twitched at her assurance that she would say yes, but he tamped down his smile quickly. “Seems like an awful lot of trouble for a simple question.”

“Well, you did forget that you dated me. A little extra trouble doesn’t seem so unreasonable.”

Jake slid his hand over his face. “Never going to live that down, am I?”

Cindy shook her head and kissed the tip of his nose. “Nope. But for right now, I am willing to date you anyway.”

Nina helped Deacon up from his kneeling position, tucked the phone into her back pocket, and threw her arms around him. Dotty practically tackled them from behind, which turned into a group hug when Cindy joined in, squealing in their excitement over the engagement. Deacon shot Jake a pitiful look over the ladies’ heads. “Little help?”

“I don’t do group hugs,” Jake said, wrinkling his nose.

Cindy’s golden head popped up from the huddle. “Yes, you do!”

Rolling his eyes at the cloudless blue sky, Jake huffed, “Fine.” He wrapped his arms around Cindy and Dotty. “Yep, this is totally comfortable.”

“Have you set a date yet?” Dotty asked.

Deacon frowned down at her. “I asked her to marry me ten seconds ago.”

“June 19,” Nina said confidently.

“Can we let go now?” Jake asked, pulling Cindy out of the people knot.

Peeling Dotty off of them, Deacon asked, “Why June 19?”

Nina shrugged. “It was Gerald and Catherine’s wedding anniversary. I can’t think of a more appropriate day for us to get married.”

“You want to have the wedding here?” he asked, his face splitting into a wide grin.

Nina made a sweeping gesture toward a set of flower beds she’d just turned. “Right in the middle of the memorial garden I’m planting. I think it would be nice to look out of our window every morning and see where we got married.”

“So you’re ready to live here, full-time?”

“Well, I think we’ll need to spend some time on the mainland for business purposes,” Nina said. “But yes, I think we’ll be happy here, and I think that would make Catherine and Gerald very happy.”

“I think the point is to make the two of us happy.”

Nina giggled as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. “I thought that was a foregone conclusion.”

With the laughter of friends echoing from the grounds to the eaves of the enormous rooftop, the Crane’s Nest remained peaceful for the night.