He kissed her softly before she could say anything and then gestured for her to walk a short distance down the hill. Brady unrolled the bundle that the driver had handed him. It appeared to be a relatively large quilt, which he spread out before her.

“Take a seat,” he said, and then took his own advice.

Liz gratefully kicked off her high heels and then sank down onto the quilt. She was terribly confused, but too tired to fight him. Plus she was curious as to what they were doing here.

“Are you going to explain yourself?” she finally asked when he remained silent for another moment.

“I took a girl out to dinner once,” he said. “She had been uncertain about the election for longer than she had been uncertain about me. We’d been apart for a long time, and I wanted to prove to her that my feelings were genuine.”

Liz smiled. “Me? I’m that girl.”

“You are. I took her out to dinner. I wanted to be seen with her. I wanted to claim her. I wanted to claim you.”

“Well, I’m yours.”

“And that night you said that the most romantic thing was sitting in an open field looking up at the stars.” He gestured around him. “I give you the stars. I already have mine.”

Liz’s mouth fell open. The stars. He was giving her the stars. She glanced up and realized exactly what was going on. They had driven out of town to a secluded park with no lights for distraction simply to stare up into the night sky, as she had said six months earlier to him on a whim while they were out to dinner.

“I love you,” she whispered. “You . . . you seem to understand me unlike anyone else.”

“I feel the same way. We’re a matched set.”

“Brady, you gave me the stars.”

“I’d like to give you a lot more than that,” he said.

Then as Liz stared at him, stunned by his words, Brady shifted to one knee and pulled a small blue box out of his pocket. Liz’s eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth.

“They say the measure of a man is what he does with his power. I’ve come to find that I have no power without you. So, I want to share it with you for the rest of my days.” He opened the box, and a glittering princess-cut diamond with matching diamonds to either side shone bright in the moonlight reflecting off of the lake. “There is no other option for me. It’s just you. I don’t need to wait any longer to see if that’s true. I lost you this day two years ago, and I never want to live without you again. This time you’re mine, and I plan to do right by you.”

Liz felt tears prick her eyes at his words and she wasn’t sure if she was breathing.

“Will you, Elizabeth Anne Dougherty, do me the honor of marrying me?”

A million thoughts flew through her mind all at once. Was she ready for this? They had been together six months. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that long, but it had already felt like a lifetime.

He had told her once before that he could never be cajoled into marrying. That he could date, but marriage wasn’t on his horizon for a long time. But he loved her, and wanted this life with her.

She felt a tear run down her cheek as she nodded. “Yes. Yes, of course I’ll marry you.”

A smile broke out across his face. He plucked the ring out of the box and slid it gingerly onto her finger. It fit so perfectly that it was as if it were always meant to be there.

And then Brady was kissing her. Their lips melded together. His hands tangled in her hair and hers grabbed on to his waist, trying to get him as close as she could. She had never seen this moment coming. Even in her wildest fantasies she hadn’t pictured this happening until years down the road, but here and now couldn’t have been more perfect.

Brady was right. There was no need to wait. They had already been through hell and back. They had already realized they couldn’t live without each other. They lived together and worked together and traveled together. There weren’t any obstacles holding them back from this. And she wanted it.

She wanted to be with him. She had always wanted it. Life without Brady had always been like walking out of Technicolor into black and white: drab and lifeless.

They stayed like that until they both broke apart gasping. Brady wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. Tears of joy and happiness and contentment.

After a moment, Brady laid them back on the quilt, cradling her body against his. They lay there staring up at the stars, lost in the euphoria of their engagement.

Chapter 28

RIGHT DIRECTION

Liz and Brady spent his five days of vacation celebrating their engagement. The day after the primary, they had lunch with his family to tell them the news. The welcome she received brought tears to her eyes. Marilyn and Jeff both hugged her and told her that they were happy to have such a wonderful future daughter-in-law. Savannah was jumping-up-and-down excited. Even Clay smiled at the news. Though it did seem to make Andrea more pouty and bitchy than normal.

Clay had hugged her when they were leaving and whispered in her ear, “I guess the golden boy is still perfect, huh?”

Liz had smiled as she drew back. “Don’t worry. No one will take your black-sheep title.”

He had laughed and shaken his head. “I was never worried about that.”

“You should be worried about Andrea, though. She looks like she’s ready to be married off.”

Clay had just shrugged. “She’ll survive.” He had looked pensive for a moment before deciding that he could continue. “I want what y’all have.”

Liz hadn’t been sure that she had even heard him right, and then he was gone. Sometimes that man confused the hell out of her.

That weekend Brady had flown them down to Tampa. She had wanted to see her family before school started; now she had the excuse—to tell them about her engagement.

Her parents were, as Liz had expected, shocked. She and Brady had only been dating for six months and that seemed fast to them. But she explained that she couldn’t think of her life without him and she was insanely happy about the decision. After that they seemed to relax. She didn’t blame them for having an is this man taking advantage of my baby? feeling, but that was so far from the truth that it was easy to dispel it.

As soon as the apprehension left their faces, her mother immediately launched into preparations and they didn’t stop until the minute they were getting back on the plane. What kind of dress do you want? You look lovely in white, dear. Will Victoria be the maid of honor? I loved the Trenton wedding last year, and she had champagne and rose as the color palette. Are you thinking something like that? I wonder what floral arrangements we should look into. Orchids or lilies? Spring or fall? Tampa or D.C. or Chapel Hill?