“What? How?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters.”
“No, it doesn’t. What matters is this,” I say, sliding the ring on my finger.
William inhales sharply. “Did you just do what I think you did?”
“I don’t know. What do you think I did?”
“Made me obsolete.”
“Oh, pah! It’s the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth. Women can put their engagement rings on their own damn fingers. Now I need to know something and you need to tell me the truth. And may I suggest you answer without thinking about it too much? If you had to do it all again, would you marry me?”
“Is that a marriage proposal?”
“Answer the question.”
“Well, that depends. Is there a dowry involved? Give me the damn ring, Alice.”
“Why?”
“Just give it to me.”
“You still owe me a thousand dollars for participating in the study. Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” I say, taking the ring off and handing it to him.
He looks at the engraving and a smile creeps across his lips.
“Read it out loud,” I say.
He gives me that dark, brooding, trademark stare of his. “Her heart did whisper he had done it for her.”
I had no mother for twenty-nine Christmases, Easters, and birthdays. No mother for college graduation. No mother sitting in the front row at the opening night of my play. No mother at my wedding or the birth of my children. But I have a mother today. Here she is, speaking to me as if no time has ever passed, telling me exactly what I need to know.
“My father found it in a pawnshop in Brockton. It’s been there for twenty years. Nedra said it’s a sign.”
“If you’re a person who believes in signs,” he says.
“I am.”
“Since when?”
“Since-forever.”
William reaches down for my hand.
“Not so fast. I’m a married woman.”
“And I’m a married man.”
“You never answered my question.”
“
“You showed up,” I whisper.
“Shush, you nutty ho ho,” he says, as he pulls me into his arms.
EPILOGUE
April 30
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