Harry’s gaze settles on me. Teddy follows it.
“This is Sutton, Dad. My girlfriend.”
“This place might look like it was built in the Middle Ages, but we’ve got internet, Teddy. I know who Sutton Everett is.”
I smile. “It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Owens.”
“Call me Harry, please.”
I nod. “Harry.”
“Are you out on tour at the moment?”
“Not right now, no. I wrapped up a world tour pretty recently, so I’m on a bit of a break. Writing some stuff. Visiting Brookfield to see Teddy. Mostly so I can bug him with questions while he’s trying to grade tests.” I catch the flash of confusion on Harry’s face and realize he doesn’t know what his own son does for a living. “Teddy teaches math at the high school. Geometry and Pre-Calculus right now.”
“Wow. That’s great.”
Harry and I continue talking. Occasionally, Teddy chimes in, but he mostly observes.
I don’t realize the full hour has passed until guards begin approaching the tables, one by one, to lead the prisoners back behind bars.
“Thank you for coming,” Harry says, looking at Teddy first and then glancing at me. “Both of you. It means a lot.”
“I’ll, uh, I’ll try to be back sometime soon,” Teddy says.
“I’ll understand if you don’t. Assuming all goes well, I might even be able to manage a visit to you next year. Aimee always raved about Brookfield.” Teddy tenses beside me at the mention of his mother. “I’d like to see it in person. That is”—he turns somber—“if I’m welcome.”
Teddy clears his throat. “Yeah, Dad. Of course.”
A guard approaches. “Owens. Let’s go.”
Harry smiles, then turns to leave. Teddy and I stand silently, following the other visitors out of the designated area and back into the visitors’ entrance to collect our belongings.
Teddy doesn’t say a word as we sign out and step outside. I’m silent as well. I think the visit went well. But for me, it was meeting a man who must be bored out of his mind most of the time. Of course he wanted to sit and talk for an hour, especially to a stranger he has no questionable history with.
Halfway across the asphalt parking lot, Teddy suddenly stops walking. He mutters something that sounds a lot likefuck itunder his breath. I’m worried he’s about to spin around and head back inside the prison when he turns tomeinstead.
“I wasn’t going to do it like this,” he tells me. “But I’ve known you were the person—the only person—I was going to ask this for a long time. Probably from the very first time I met you, if I’m being honest. And I know that sounds insane, and maybe it is. I fought it. I told myself there was a reason there were so many obstacles. That there was no way the mysterious, annoyed blonde staring at cereal was meant for me. And then I talked to you. Once, twice, ten times. Every time, I fell for you a little more. I could feel it happening, and I pretended I didn’t. I walked away because you asked me to, and I never want to do it again. Ever since that concert in Chicago, I’ve tried to come up with big plans to give you this.”
He pulls a small black box out of his pocket. And even though, halfway through it, I sort of figured that’s where this speech was headed, the sight still renders me temporarily mute.
Until I realize, “Did you seriously bring that to aprison?”
Teddy chuckles. “I haven’t let it out of my sight since I bought it.”
I glance down at the box again. “Is that what I think it is?”
“You tell me.” He pops the lid open, revealing a princess cut diamond ring.
Embarrassingly, I actually gasp at the sight. Not only because it’s beautiful, but also because of all it represents. I hoped this moment would happen. But I had no warning at all it would happen here and now.
“I thought a lot about how to do this,” Teddy tells me. “I asked Maude for ideas. Asked your dad for permission. I wrote down what I wanted to say and brainstormed all the beautiful places we’ve visited, all the places we haven’t. A prison parking lot wasn’t on the list. But when we were in there, with the only living family I have left, I realized that you’re my family, and I want to make it official. So…Sutton June Everett, will you marry me?”
I’m crying without realizing it, splashes of water hitting the asphalt in gray splotches.
“Yes.”
The tears keep falling, running down my cheeks in salty streams that Teddy wipes away after he slides the ring onto my finger. We’re causing a spectacle in the parking lot, a spot of joy amid the downcast expressions everyone else is wearing.
“Ask me again,” I tell him.
“To marry me?”
I shake my head and laugh. “No. If I’m happy.”
He tugs me closer, erasing all the distance between our bodies. “Are you happy, June?”
“Yes,” I whisper before I kiss him.