“Joan, hello. It’s Amanda. No, everything is fine. May I speak to Cecelia for a minute?”
Amanda clicked on the speaker phone so Marcus could hear, too. “Cece.Marcus asked me and I said yes.”
A cheer erupted from the phone. “Mom, can I tell Sam? Or do I need to keep it a secret?”
Marcus took the phone from Amanda. “Snookums—how about you just tell Sam that we are having a great party at my house.Your mother and I need to make some other plans before you spread the news.Can you keep our secret a little while longer?”
“Okay. See you tomorrow. Marcus, could you put Mom back on?”
He handed the phone back to Amanda.
“Yes, dear.”
“Sam and I are going horseback riding tomorrow. Her mom is taking us. Please don’t come get me until at least five.”
“Okay. I’ll call first. Will that work?”
“Perfectly. I love you, Mom.” She paused, then whispered, “And Marcus, too.”
“Me, too, darling. See you tomorrow.” She closed the phone and turned to Marcus. “She’s happy.”
“Of course, she’s happy, because you’re happy.And, we have dinner waiting for us and champagne all ready for a toast.”
They sat down to a formally dressed table. Marcus poured the champagne into two flutes and handed one to her. “To us.” He clicked his glass with hers.
“To us,” she repeated.
“Are you ready to eat?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s have at it.” He handed her the covered dish with the grilled salmon steaks inside.
As she ate and sipped her champagne, he drank from his glass whenever she sipped hers.
Somewhere between the second helping of asparagus and after he’d handed her a sourdough roll, hot from the oven, something clicked on her tooth when she upended her glass. She looked inside. A diamond ring winked at her.
“Oh, Marcus.” She got up from the table and gave him a hug. “It’s beautiful! Will you put it on my finger?”
“It will be my pleasure.” He slipped the ring onto her finger and punctuated the action with another kiss. “Cece helped me with the ring, too.”
“Tell me—while I spoon up the dessert. Tiramisu, right?”
He nodded. “Are you ready for the story?”
“Tell me.”
“Okay. Here goes—once upon a time, there was this handsome prince who promised to wait until Crown Princess Cecelia had graduated from high school before they could tie the knot. It soon became clear that the crown princess felt the handsome prince was way too old for her, so she ditched him, just like that.He was very sad and cried a lot and started calling her Snookums to get back at her. Then the crown princess told him she knew of a beautiful queen who loved him from afar. So, Snookums and the prince went to the local jeweler with an old ring the queen used to wear, and the jeweler, being a very wise man, used the old ring to correctly guess the size of the queen’s finger. And to make sure everything would be to the queen’s liking, the jeweler said that this ring could be exchanged for anything else in the store that the queen liked better.” He kissed her. “What do you think of that story?”
“I love it. Cece never breathed a word to me. When did you two see the jeweler?”
“The other day when you were out shopping for Thanksgiving. Remember when Cecelia said she had homework to do and didn’t want to go with you, and that she would stay at Janet’s while you were gone?”
She nodded.
“Cece called the butcher at the store where you ordered the turkey and told them to, and I quote, ‘have trouble finding the bird’ so we would have plenty of time. She told Janet we were going out for something special and the minute you left the house, she ran up the back to the alley, where I was waiting for her to whisk her off on our secret mission. We did our work and then I got her back to Janet’s before you returned.”
“I wondered about that. It seemed to take forever for them to bring out the turkey—even though I’d ordered it ahead of time. You two were very sneaky.”
“All in a day’s work for this intrepid reporter and his FBI pal.” He smiled broadly.
“I’m almost afraid to ask if you have any more surprises up your sleeve.” She looked around.
“That’s about it. In fact, I’m completely worn out. I think I’m going to have to go to bed soon.” He made an exaggerated yawn. “Since I’m still recovering from my grievous wounds, and all.”
She laughed. “Yes, of course, though I have another idea why you might want to go to bed.Let’s clean up the dishes together. I’ll be happy to tuck you in after that.” She smiled.