Diamonds Are Forever - Brooke St. James Page 0,50

anything."

"Okay," Mac said.

"You can't tell her what I said to Mrs. Harris. You can't tell her any of this. She can't know we had this talk. Just tell her I tickled you and bought you beef jerky and stuff, and don't mention the part about me being your dad or marrying me or anything. If you do, she'll know we had this talk, and she'll know something's up."

"What if God already told her?"

"Well, then that's between her and God. But if you mention it, she'll know for sure."

"She will already know for sure if God told her," Mac said in his precious baby tone. "Cause I already knew when God told me."

"What do you mean God told you, Mac? Are you saying you heard Him talk to you?"

"Naw," Mac said, letting out a little laugh.

"What then? Why do you say that?"

"God just said it right here." Mac patted his own ribs.

"He told you in your heart?" Drew asked.

Mac gave his sides a few big pats with both hands. "He said it in my heart, and in my stomach."

Drew smiled, loving what a little character Mac was. "I think God told my heart and stomach, too, Mac."

They sat there for a minute, watching the waves roll in.

"Hey," Drew said.

Mac looked his way, staring up at him with those puppy dog eyes.

"I'm going to need your help surprising your mom and keeping a secret, okay? Can you do it? Because if you can't keep a secret, then I'd rather just talk to her. I don't want her to have to pretend to be surprised if she knows. Do you see what I'm saying?"

Mac shook his head. "No. I won't tell her. Are you giving her a surprise party or something?"

"No, but I want to ask her to marry me, remember? Once we get married, that's when we'll live at the same house. But before that happens I'm going to ask her to marry me. If you think you're going to tell her about it or say that we had this conversation at all, I would rather just talk to her and ask her. But if you can keep the secret, then I'll plan something and it'll be a surprise when I propose."

Mac regarded Drew with a blank expression like he wasn't sure what he was talking about, so Drew explained further.

"Do you know what it is to propose to a lady?"

Mac shook his head.

"Have you ever seen a man give a woman a ring and ask her to marry him?"

Mac shook his head, not understanding.

"Did you know that when a guy and a lady love each other that they get married?"

Mac nodded. "Well, a lot of times, or sometimes, the guy will make a big deal about asking her to marry him. He'll buy a diamond ring and give it to her in some special way. Its tradition to get down on one knee and everything when you ask her."

Mac laughed at that.

"I'm serious," Drew said, smiling a little. "The guy gets on his knees like this?? Drew popped up, kneeling in the sand, looking up, pretending Lucy was standing there above him. He made the motions with his hands like he was holding a ring box. "He presents a ring to her and he says, 'Oh, my darling, Lucy, would you please marry me'?"

Mac rolled laughing. He laughed so hard that he leaned over and literally rolled on the sand.

"What? What?" Drew said, smiling but holding his hands out as if wondering what was wrong with his idea.

"You will not say my darling!" Mac said.

"Why not?" Drew said, plopping down beside him. Mac laughed again when Drew reached out and tickled him. "Why not?" he asked again.

"Becauuuuse," Mac said, still laughing. "She's not my Darling Lucy, she's just Lucy Ann King."

"Okay, okay, I'll leave out the darling part, even though I really want to call her that." Drew ruffled Mac's hair, both of them smiling. "But you have to help me keep it a secret."

Chapter 19

Lucy

My trip to California was wonderful.

I missed Drew so much, and I obviously missed Mac and my family, but my California experience was amazing. I had been working, pedal to the metal, and the network was excited about the volume of my catalogue and the options for storylines. They already had plans to adapt three stories to scripts and they were working on hiring voice actors and animators. I thought my sights were set high when I imagined myself getting a publishing deal, but an animated