Page 129 of So Much More
I lick her fingers, so she pinches my lips together instead.
“Andwhen you have a ring,” she adds. “I don’t want a diamond, by the way. I want an emerald.”
I remove her hand. “How about an emeraldanddiamonds?”
Her eyes sparkle. “I think I could make do with that.”
“Want to make it even easier on me and tell me your ring size?”
“Four.”
I kiss her nose. “This might be the quickest engagement planning session in the history of the world.”
“Oh, there’d better be more than a ring, buddy.”
“Um, okay. What else do you want?” I ask.
“That’s up to you. I’m not doing everything for you. My only rule is it can have nothing to do with sports.”
“Got it. I’ll call Harry Caray tomorrow.”
“Harry who?”
I chuckle. “Never mind. It’s cute you don’t get my sports jokes, even though ninety percent of the people in Chicago would’ve gotten that one.”
“Don’t make fun of my lack of sports knowledge if you want me to accept your emerald-and-diamonds ring.”
I give her a serious nod. “Duly noted.”
“You’re spending the night, right?”
I cup her face in my hands. “I’m spending every single night with you for the rest of my life.”
She raises an eyebrow. “That might be a little excessive. How about ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent of nights?”
“I can work with that, but I’ll miss you dreadfully on the other point-zero-one percent of nights.”
“I’ll miss you more.”
“I’ll miss you so much more.”
epilogue
Milwaukee, November 1988
“Aunt Glinda, is it time yet?”
My niece races toward me in a tiny replica of my wedding dress. Leslie catches her and swings her up into her arms before she can either knock me over or mess up my dress, at the risk of wrinkling both of their dresses.
“It’s almost time, kiddo.” I lean over and kiss her cheek. “Thank you for being my flower girl.”
“I’m the mini bride,notthe flower girl.”
I force my smile down. “Oh, sorry,” I say seriously. “Thank you for being my mini bride … who will toss flower petals down the aisle in front of me.”
“You’re welcome. I saw Uncle Randall a little bit ago,” she announces. “He looks sooooo handsome. If you weren’t going to marry him, I would.”
The rest of us chuckle at her pronouncement.
