“I really do. I want it for you.”
“I want everyone who’s aware of this to know I don’t want it.”
“So noted, and only my parents know. I’ll tell them you fought back.”
“Please do. I’m not here because of what you have. I’m here because of who you are. I love who you are.”
“I love who you are.” He kisses my neck and makes me giggle. “Every single bit of you.”
A throat clearing behind Nico has him spinning to face the waiter.
“Will there be anything else, sir?”
“Yes, please,” Nico says. “We need champagne to celebrate our engagement.”
“Congratulations to both of you.”
“Thank you,” Nico says. “And something chocolate for my fiancée. She loves chocolate.”
“Who doesn’t love chocolate?” the waiter says. “I’ll be right back.”
Nico turns back to me. “You’re still going to marry me, right?”
“Yes, I am.”
“When?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“Soon. I want to marry you soon. I want you to look into going back to school. I want to swim with Mateo every day and have babies and go on vacations with my family and have holidays together and come here to visit your dad and the rest of your family—and have them visit Miami. I want it all, and I want it right now—with you.”
“How soon are we talking?”
“Spring?”
“That’s pretty soon.”
“Unless you want a big, fancy deal.”
I shake my head. “I’d love something like Maria and Austin did. Small and intimate. But with your family, it’s never small.”
“Not to mention your family, too.”
“That’s right. I have a family.”
“I bet Maria and Austin would lend us their pool deck to do the same sort of thing they did. If you’re down for that.”
“I’m down for it.” I place my hand on his face, still trying to believe he’s mine to keep forever. “I’m down for all of it.”