“I have something for you,” he said suddenly. “Don’t move.”
I watched as he went to his shoulder bag and rooted around for a moment. He returned with something cradled in his palm.
“This isn’t the way I wanted to do this,” he said quietly, almost to himself.
I frowned. “Do what?”
For a moment, he only blinked at me, his eyes large, green pools of love and apprehension.
“Matthew,” I tried again, more gently this time. “Do what?”
“I imagined bringing you up to the top of the Empire State Building. Like we were Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, but we actually made it up there in the end.”
I smiled. His sisters were really right about him—their brother had a terrible romance with old movies. I had never told him how many of them I had watched alone in my room, not because I was particularly fond of black-and-white cinema or the stunted dialogue, but because they made me feel closer to him during all those months when I never believed I could be.
Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant…it was a reference to An Affair to Remember. A film I had actually seen. One where the two characters, both involved with others, meet on a steamer on its way to New York. And at the end of their journey, they promise to meet at the top of the Empire State Building to start their lives together. In six months, they said, if they still felt the same, if they could make themselves worthy of each other, there they would go.
In the movie, of course, they were temporarily thwarted when the heroine got into a terrible accident at the bottom of the building. But the hero’s intention was clear. If she had managed to meet him up there, their real lives together, an eternity, would have started at the top of the New York institution.
Which meant…
This time, I really couldn’t breathe. I didn’t even want to think about what might be happening right now for fear that it wouldn’t.
“I was going to take you up there at dawn,” Matthew said as he took my hand in his. “Not at sunset like everyone else. But in the morning, when we could be alone and watch the sun rise over New York. And I was going to tell you that even if I couldn’t lay the world at your feet, I’d never stop trying. I was going to show you the city and promise you that one day, we’d make it ours again. We’d cover every damn inch of it with our love, Nina, not the shadows of our pasts.”
The raw vulnerability in those deep green eyes had me shaking. Was he…no, he wasn’t. He couldn’t. Matthew wouldn’t.
“Matthew,” I whispered. “What are you saying?”
A shy smile spread across his face like jam on toast. Perfect and impossibly sweet.
“I’m saying I don’t need a fancy building to show you I love you, doll. I don’t need to wait for the perfect moment, because every moment with you is perfect. For the last year, I’ve been living for those moments—every second I get with you.”
I melted toward him. “Oh, Matthew. I’ve lived for those moments too. I have.”
“But the thing is, living for the moment isn’t enough for me anymore. I want the next moments too. I want tomorrow, Nina. I want forever.”
I watched with awe as Matthew sank to one knee in the middle of the mess I’d made, the mess that somehow matched the two of us perfectly. I was in nothing but my undergarments, Matthew wore only his street clothes. All our pretenses stripped, the world around us in shambles. And yet, just beyond our window, the beauty of Florence glowed in the golden light of the future. And Matthew’s eyes still shone with pure, miraculous love. For me. For us.
“I know it won’t be easy,” he said solemnly. “I know we’ve got a hell of a fight ahead of us. I want to fight with you. I want to do everything with you and for the rest of our lives, Nina. All I want to do is show you how much I love you. And it starts here. It starts now.”
He held up his other hand and, with his thumb, opened a small blue velvet box, then turned it toward me.
I couldn’t breathe.
It was a ring. Nestled in its velvet slot, the white gold of an intricately filigreed band sparkled in the sun, curving around an exquisite cushion-cut diamond. Two carats, at least. Antique. It had to be. I couldn’t imagine how Matthew could afford something so precious, so unique otherwise.
Matthew’s voice was low, almost a whisper. But strong. Certain. “Will you marry me?”
“I…”
I could only stare at it. It was so beautiful. He was so beautiful.
And I didn’t deserve any of it.
“But, Matthew,” I said unable to keep the sudden tears at bay. “I’m still married. How could you want—how could you ever—”
He shot to his feet, tossing the ring to the mattress in order to grab my wrists and hold me steady. I pulled, but he wouldn’t let me go.
“Shh, shh,” he crooned. “It’s all right. It’s just a question. That’s all it is.”
I looked at the ring, gleaming in its box on the bed. That was much more than a simple question.
“And I didn’t say we’re going straight to a church.”
Matthew brushed a loose strand of hair away from my face. The simple gesture brought my focus back to him.
“It’s a promise, Nina. It’s simple. I want the future with you. I want forever with you. Do you want it with me too?”
I hiccupped. “I—It’s not that. I—Matthew, what will we do? How can you want to marry me when I’ve cost you so much? When I’m still tied to someone else?”
“Well, I know we can’t skip over to city hall when we get back, doll,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean the intent isn’t there. Nina, you have me. I don’t know how else to prove it to you. If
