Crazy as it was, my first thought wasI need to tell Juliana she was right.
“Will you marry me?” From his pocket, Rodrigo produced a ring box.
The other diners had taken notice of what was happening, and the whole restaurant went quiet. Tears blurred my vision, and I laughed in shock and joy.
“It was my grandmother’s.” Rodrigo opened the box and pulled out the gold band with a small sapphire on it.
“It’s beautiful,” I cooed.
He held the ring up, his gaze soft, full of love and devotion. “Will you? Please?”
It was the “please” that made me laugh. “Since you’re being so polite,” I teased, “yes. I will marry you.”
A grin spread across his face, and he slipped the ring onto my right hand—the traditional Brazilian location. The restaurant erupted in applause, and Rodrigo stood, pulling me to my feet and into his arms.
Nestled against his chest, everything fell into place. All the jagged, confusing puzzled pieces of life. All the questions. All the “what ifs?”
The decades so far had been a long, twisting road. I’d spent years feeling like I missed something and not knowing how to get back to it. In the end, though, I saw I’d never needed to know. Life had my back. It knew what I needed and it took me right to those things without my trying.
Mine and Rodrigo’s love story hadn’t been perfect. It definitely hadn’t been a storybook romance, or anything like what I’d expected. But in the end it made sense.
And it was ours.
The End