Page 128 of Perfect Enough
A look of worry crossed her beautiful face, and those brown eyes widened as she sat down on the sofa. “What is it?”
Sitting beside her, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Pulling up my photos, I turned the phone toward her.
“Oh my goodness! What a cute puppy! Is that what I think it is?”
“A German shorthair. She’s a bird-hunting dog, and Clay, one of the ranch hands, breeds them. Every pup in the litter is sold except for this sweet girl.”
“Why isn’t she sold?”
“Not sure. No one wanted her.”
Her head jerked up, and she looked at me. “That’s terrible. Can we take her?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “I was hoping you’d say that, because I already told Clay I’d take her. They’re very high-maintenance dogs.”
“I know,” she said with a laugh. “We have a new pup in our morning group and he’s a GSP. He’s a nut!”
“So, you’re down for a puppy?”
She jumped up and said, “Yes! Yes! What are we going to name her?”
From the kitchen, Nate called out, “You know, first it’s a house. Then a puppy. Next, it’s going to be marriage and a baby!”
Sophia’s eyes met mine, and we both smiled. I took her hand and said, “By the way, Sophia Grace Montgomery…will you marry me?”
Before she could say anything, I pulled out the ring I’d picked up at Grams’s earlier that day and held it out for her. It was Grams’s mother’s ring.
Her hands covered her mouth, and she started to cry as she stared at the platinum band with its emerald-cut diamond. On each side of the one-carat diamond were three single-cut round diamonds that Grams called bead-set. I was guessing that was because they looked like little beads on the band.
I waited patiently as she just stared. When she looked up at me, tears were streaming down her face.
“I figured we better make it official so we can start planning the wedding for next fall.”
Sophia threw herself at me and hugged me tight.
“Is that a yes?” Nate asked with a laugh when he appeared once again. I rolled my eyes at him as he grinned back at me and Sophia.
Drawing back, Sophia nodded. “Yes!Yes! Of course, it’s a yes!”
When I slipped the ring on her finger, she held it up.
“Wow, looks like it fits perfectly,” Nate said, leaning over the back of the sofa to admire it.
Glancing at him over my shoulder, I said, “I thought you were going to sleep off the whiskey?”
“I was, but then I heard what was going on, and I had to be a part of it. Imagine the stories we can tell our kids someday.Uncle Nate was right there when I asked Mommy to marry me while we sat on the sofa.”
I shot him a warning look.
“It was the perfect do-over,” Sophia sighed.
“Do-over?” Nate asked.
“Nate, please go to your room,” I ordered.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. Don’t tell me.” When he started to walk away, he stopped and turned back. Looking at us both, he smiled. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you!” Sophia said, as she hugged me again.