Say You're Mine (The Gallaghers Book 1) by Layla Hagen (comprehension books .txt) 📕

where we put the covers while we served ourselves food.

“How are your siblings?” I asked, but I only registered part of the answer. Honestly, the entire time we ate, I was half listening, mentally planning every second of the big moment.

Fucking hell, how can I be this nervous?

I only realized I spaced out completely when Isabelle nudged me with her leg under the table.

“Babe? Dessert?”

“It’s in the fridge. I’ll bring it!”

“Need help?”

“No, no. I’m fine.” I got up, covering the chafing dishes again and taking our empty plates to the kitchen. I took out the dessert from the fridge. The setup looked innocent enough: three small jars painted white with a cover on top. The team had even given me a special serving plate to put them on.

I brought it to the table, setting it right in front of Isabelle.

“Want to do the honors?” I asked, standing next to her.

“Uuuh, I’m trying to guess which of Tony’s desserts could be in jars. The cheesecake, the rice pudding... and ice cream? You had it in the fridge though, not the freezer. Hmmm...”

I grinned. “You’ve got two out of three right.”

Rubbing her palms together, she removed the lid from the first jar.

“Cheesecake. Yes!” She moved on to the next one, which was indeed rice pudding. She ate a teaspoon of it, cracking me up that she couldn’t even wait to unveil all of them.

Glancing at me sideways, she rubbed her palms again.

“Let’s see...” She took off the lid and gasped. “That’s a ring.”

I took it out of the jar before dropping down to one knee, holding it out for her. She turned around so she was facing me. Her smile was huge.

I drew in a deep breath, mentally reviewing the notes I made... and couldn’t remember even one damn word.

Me, the songwriter. I know a million songs, and I can’t remember a word!

“Isabelle, I love you. I had this whole speech planned, but my mind is completely blank.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.

“You’re the woman of my dreams. I knew you’d change my life since the day we met.”

She cocked a brow. “I don’t think so.”

Feisty even during my proposal. I loved this woman so fucking much.

“Fine, not the first day, but soon enough, all I wanted was you. You’re everything I need. Being with you brings me a happiness I didn’t even think existed. And having you as my wife, that’s... I can’t put in words what it would mean to me.”

Isabelle’s smile was even wider than before. She touched the hand that was holding the ring, swallowing hard. “To me, it would mean everything.” Her voice was just a whisper.

I threaded my fingers in her hair, pulling her down to me, needing to kiss her right now. She tasted like pudding, and I couldn’t get enough of her. With my other hand, I put the ring on, then buried both hands in her hair. I got up carefully, pulling her up with me. When we were both standing, I felt her hands press hard on my shoulders before she jumped in my arms.

I jerked my head back in surprise.

She was grinning. “I bet you weren’t expecting this.”

“No, but it’s very welcome.” I positioned us so her ass was on the edge of the table. She still had her legs wrapped around my upper thighs.

“Good, because I wasn’t planning on letting you go.” She kept looking at her ring. “Oh, that’s why you were so happy to ship me off to Josie’s.”

“Well, I could have arranged all this and passed it off as dinner plans, but I wanted to surprise you.”

“You sure did.”

“I thought about this since before we left for the first leg of the tour.” I kept threading my fingers through her hair as I spoke. “Then I ran my mouth when I asked you to move in with me, and I didn’t bring it up again. Thought I’d let this slip too.”

She tugged at my shirt, now dangling her legs in the air. “I can’t believe this! Wait... did you tell my brothers about it? Dylan said you spoke with him while touring but was sort of secretive.”

“That’s a hard no.”

“So what did you talk about?”

“Guy stuff.”

She tugged harder at my shirt. “You don’t think you’ll get away with that, right?”

“You said he was going through a rough time. I wanted to check on him.”

She blinked, pulling me closer. “How are you even real? I’m so happy you’re going to be my husband.”

She smoothed her hands over my shoulder before resting them in the crooks of my neck.

I kissed under her right eye, then the left one before moving my mouth lower on her cheek, right at the corner of her lips.

Instead of turning to kiss me, she pulled back a little, pointing to the plate with desserts next to us.

“Hey, think we should eat these while they’re still cold?”

I threw my head back, laughing. “Sure. I was surprised you waited for me to propose before polishing them off.”

“Hey, I’m a foodie. I can’t help it.” She grabbed a teaspoon, handing me another one.

“That’s why I had all this brought here. I knew you’d missed your favorite eateries in the city.”

She looked up at me with so much joy. I was going to bring this happiness to her every damn day.

I was in a position to do it, and I wanted to.

I put both our spoons down the second the plates were empty.

“Uhh... my sexy guy is in a hurry. What other plans does he have tonight, I wonder?” She looked up seductively, dangling her feet.

I cupped her cheek with one hand, her hip with the other.

“I want to kiss my foodie.”

“And she’s all on board with that... as long as there’s a liiiiiittle more than kissing involved.”

She drew in a sharp breath when I pulled her up from the table, speaking against her lips. “A lot more than that. It’s a promise.”

Epilogue

Isabelle

Six weeks later

“This looks good to me,” Brayden said.

“I agree.”

Tess sighed. “You said the same thing