Page 129 of Reckless Love
“Did you know everyone was coming? You didn’t say it was a New Year’s Eveparty!”
I cough and try to make it sound like a chuckle. “Yeah, I knew everyone was coming.”
The restaurant has a few tables cleared out, and our friends and family are either sitting already or standing around talking. There are flowers everywhere.
“Everything looks so pretty. How fun!”She does a double take when she sees my face. “Are you okay?” She studies me closer when I don't say anything.
I have trouble swallowing all of a sudden.
“Rhodes? Are you sick? You don’t look so good. I mean, you looksohandsome tonight, but…are you okay?”
I swallow again and pick up a menu specially made for this event and fan my face. She pauses to look at it.
Rhodes and Elle’s Menu, it says.
Her eyes are wide.
“It’s our party?” she says, looking around nervously.
“It’s our party,” I say, nodding.
Her eyes light up and she smiles, leaning over to kiss me. I lead her to the table in the middle before I lose my nerve. I sure hope she likes this surprise. She’s been talking about everything being out in the open, but this might’ve been going too far.
She hugs Greer and Wyndham from Serendipity on the way and waves at Calista across the room.
There’s an elaborate flower arrangement from The Enchanted Florist on the table and Elle leans in to smell it before sitting down.
“Everything looks so beautiful, Rhodes.”
“You do most of all.”
Her cheeks flush and I feel a surge of energy, my nerves falling away.
I sit down and there’s a microphone next to my place setting. I lift it, making sure it’s on, and stand up.
“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming! I promise I'm not gonna do much talking tonight, except to let you know a little bit about why you're here, and then we’ll just have fun for as long as we want. Thanks to the staff at Rose & Thorn for opening up your place to us tonight. You’ve been so accommodating and we’re grateful. And thanksagain to all of you for coming to spend New Year’s Eve with us.”
I look at Elle and she’s smiling up at me with such love in her eyes, it nearly takes me out.
I take a deep breath and look around the room, my eyes landing on the table next to ours. Levi is sitting between my parents, and Elle’s parents are across from them. My dad gives me a slight nod, encouraging me.
“I think any of you who have spent any significant amount of time around me knows how much I love Elle Benton.”
The room erupts into cheers, mostly coming from Penn, but Henley, Bowie, and Weston are doing their share too, as well as the other guys from the team.
“For over thirteen years now, we’ve been best friends. And it's only been recently that we have crossed over into much, much more.”
Again, with the whistles.
I laugh and Elle does too. She looks so happy and it emboldens me to keep going.
“I, for one, could not be happier about the much, much more. We had to keep it on the down-low for various reasons, so a lot of you have not even seen us together as a couple yet, but I wanted to let you know that I amso in love with this woman!”
The room explodes again, and I hold up my hand, shushing everyone.
And then I get down on my knee and there’s a holy hush, the only sound being Elle’s gasp. When I take the ring out of my pocket, her eyes are already filling with tears. She holds onto my hand and I can feel hers trembling.
“Rhodes,” she whispers.