Dear Coco, I’m sure the red lipstick had more effect, but my black pen will have to do. Just wanted to tell you I love you and I miss you and I hope the surprises made you happy this week. I want to make you happy every day for the rest of your life if you’ll let me. See you soon. Love, Nick
“What does it say?” Erin demanded. “You’re killing me!”
I read it again to myself before reading it aloud to her, struggling to get the words out when my throat began to close.
“God, that’s so romantic,” she gushed. “But what’s with the handkerchief?”
I told her the story and she pounded the chair arm between us. “That’s so cute!”
“It is, isn’t it?” I fanned my face. “I think I might cry. God, I wish I could have seen him before I left. Why didn’t he bring this to me himself?”
As I read the note again, a deep voice came over the loudspeaker at the gate. “Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention please?” I was so swept away by my feelings, I didn’t even realize the voice was familiar.
“Oh my God.” Erin’s hand gripped my wrist. “Coco.”
“What?” I glanced at her.
“Look.”
I looked up. Straight ahead, standing at the gate and speaking into the microphone (the man could charm anyone into anything, I swear), was Nick. And he was looking right at me as he repeated his request.
“Thank you,” he said as the buzz in the terminal quieted. “You see, I have to impress this woman over here.” He pointed at me. “The gorgeous woman in the white dress.”
Chills swept down my body. Heads looked back and forth from him to me, and a few people giggled in the crowd.
“I’ve been madly in love with her since I was nineteen, but I made a mistake back then. I lost her, and I didn’t fight hard enough to get her back.” The giggles quieted, and my stomach flip-flopped wildly. Tears filled my eyes. “But there’s never been a day where I haven’t thought about her and wished she were still mine.” His voice cracked on the word “mine,” causing the first tear to slip down my cheek. “And she told me to stop proposing to her out of the blue, but some habits are hard to break.” He set the microphone down and walked toward me, and the silence of the crowd made my heartbeat deafening. I was frozen stiff in my seat. What the hell was he doing?
When he reached me, he got down on one knee, and gasps echoed through crowd.
Erin stood and backed away slightly, her hands over her open mouth.
When Nick pulled out a ring box, I put my hands over mine too.
“Coco,” he said quietly, his dark eyes serious. “I married you before because I loved you enough to promise forever. And even though things went wrong, I never doubted you were the one. So I want to do it right this time. Maybe you think I’m crazy, but I think we’ve wasted too many years apart already. I want you back. I want you forever. Marry me again?” He opened the ring box, and my heart stopped. Inside was a gorgeous diamond and platinum ring in an art deco setting, a large emerald cut center stone surrounded by delicate filigree work.
“Oh my God,” I breathed, my entire body shivering.
“It’s a replica of the ring my Papa Joe gave to Tiny.” Nick’s eyes were shining too. “I wish it were the real thing, but my Aunt Vinnie wouldn’t give it up.”
“Oh, Nick.” I wanted to do a dozen different things at once. Say yes. Kiss him. Hit him. Melt into a puddle. Jump up and down. Squeal. Tell him I loved replicas of vintage things. Hear him ask me to marry him again. But I couldn’t do anything, could barely even breathe.
“What do you think?” he whispered.
I smiled. “I want sixty-seven years, at least.”
“You’ll have them. You’ll have everything.”
“Did she say yes?” called a voice from the crowd.
“Yes,” I whispered to Nick. Then I let my head fall back. “Yes!” I shouted to the roof.
The crowd erupted in applause and Nick slid the ring on my finger. I blinked at it through tears before he pulled me to my feet and wrapped me in his arms. Whoops and whistles rang out as we kissed long and deep, Nick lifting me right off the ground.
When he finally set me down, Erin tackled me, alternating hugs with wide-eyed staring at my hand. Nick accepted handshakes from the crowd before giving Erin a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
She fanned her face, which, like mine, was dripping with tears. “Me! What did I do?”
“Gave me the flight information. How else would I have been able to book a ticket?”
I grabbed his arm. “You booked a ticket?”
“I had to. They don’t let people through security who don’t. Not even handsome devils like me with a ring in his pocket.”
I slapped his shoulder. “But are you really going? To France, I mean?”
“Of course I am. I can’t miss the wedding.” At my dumbfounded face, he grinned. “I got hold of Lucas and Mia yesterday to ask if they’d mind an extra wedding guest just in case you said yes. After I explained what I was doing, they made me swear up and down that we’d both be on that plane.”
“Mia knew before I did?” I stuck my hands on my hips. I slapped his arm one more time before throwing my arms around him again. “Oh my God, I can’t believe this.” Burying my face in his neck, I breathed him in and held him there.