“Hi, everyone. First, thank you for coming. I’m not going to make my daughter come over here. She looks permanently glued to that cow, and I’m now wondering why we have a cow in our backyard?”

There was a smattering of laughter.

My mom raised her hand up, who was standing next to Nova and the cow. “Her name is Milly. Nova just informed me.”

“Right.” He called out, raising his voice, “Thank you, Nova’s grandmother.”

She gave us a thumbs-up, beaming the whole time. Guy was next to her, also beaming. Nate’s parents were right next to them. All four grandparents hadn’t moved far from Nova the whole day, actually, but Nate’s body tensed and my attention came back to him.

I frowned. What was going on?

His face was tight, his jaw clenched.

He looked nervous.

He glanced at Logan and Mason before swinging his eyes to me. He softened, everything in him relaxing, and he gave me the most tender smile. I almost gasped, feeling moved. He squeezed my hand, and he turned to me, still holding the microphone.

“I never thought I would do this, this way. Competing with a cow for my daughter’s attention, or even in front of a crowd, but I love you, Quincey Royas.”

“Oh my God,” someone whispered from the crowd.

My heart picked up, starting to speed in my chest.

“Wha—”

He said into the microphone, cutting me off, “There’s things not-child appropriate I want to say to you, but I’ll wait until we’re alone. Thoughts that I had when I first met you.”

“Oh!” I laughed, remembering that day. “I think I shared some of those thoughts.”

He laughed into the mic. “Maybe, but as everyone here knows, life completely turned everything upside down for me after that day, and it’s made me not only a better man but also a better everything. Better person. Better father.” He winked. “I fell in love with you, and I just became a better man. Happier man. You and I have been through so much, and I know we’ll have ups and downs. That’s just a part of life, but the night I told you that I loved you, I asked you to unofficially marry me. There was no dating between us, no deciding if we wanted to be in each other’s lives or not. We just were, and thank God for that. Thank God for a lot of things. But I knew that night… well, I knew long before that night, but I was still learning this science called communication, and that night I told you that I wanted you to be my partner for the rest of our lives.”

I was crying.

I couldn’t stop the tears.

My heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest.

All the nerves Nate had before were now in me. My stomach was doing butterfly flips and pirouettes over and over again. It wasn’t stopping.

“I told you I’d ask you officially later, and well, today’s that day. I hope that’s all right?” He didn’t wait before going to one knee. He looked up at me, pulling out a ring and holding it toward me. “Will you, Quincey Royas, be my wife and become Quincey Monson?”

There was a roar from the crowd, but they ceased to exist for me.

I couldn’t move.

I opened my mouth, my tears cascading down my face, and then I whispered, “Yes. Oh my God, yes.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded, my emotion fully choking me.

I’d been content with Nate, with Nova, with my family. But now, I was elated.

“Oh, thank God.” The mic caught that last bit as Nate stood, sliding the ring onto my finger, and then picking me up and spinning me around. There were laughter and more cheers after that, but it was all a blur to me.

It was compounded by everything and everyone, and I had no words for a moment.

Finally, I just wrapped my arms around Nate and said, “Thank you for loving me.”

He pulled back, searching my eyes, and a deeper look came over him. “Thank you for loving me.”

I smiled, and his eyes darkened again before his mouth found mine.

Nova didn’t want to leave the cow, so we went to her. The crowd went with us, which Nova was annoyed because she literally only wanted to be with the cow. We didn’t care.

There were hugs, kisses, congratulations.