into him. “What is wrong with you?”
He pulled her off the stool into his embrace and lowered his head to kiss her. “Hello to you too, Angel.”
Infuriated, she avoided his kiss and his lips landed on her cheek, then she tilted up her chin and glared at him. “Don’t try to act all sweet and innocent now, Declan Roarke. You did that on purpose.”
He sighed and leaned away. “Is it so wrong that I wanted to be alone with my woman?”
“By giving my friends the evil eye that more or less tells them to scram?”
“He was messing up my plan.” The way Declan was looking at her, with a mixture of frustration and heat, sent her heart pounding double time. And her annoyance with him fled, replaced by tingling anticipation.
“What plan?” she managed to squeak.
Declan swore under his breath and let her go, hands landing on his hips as he glanced away briefly before returning his eyes to hers. “Asking you to dress up. Take a ride with me to Griffith Park and then to dinner at this fancy place Theo suggested.”
There was a boulder in her throat but she managed to whisper. “Why Griffith Park, Dec?”
“You know, Gab,” he rasped. “I wanted to do right by you, by Theo.”
“And this whole dinner at a fancy place?” her brow arched. “We never cared about that.”
He stared at the floor. “Yeah.”
Her heart was still beating rapidly, but it was also close to bursting with the love she had for this man. She closed the distance between them and cupped his jaw, raising it a little so their gazes locked.
“Ask me again, Declan,” she whispered.
“Gabby?” His eyes searched hers, and a slow grin spread through his handsome face. She did not expect him to drop to one knee, his torso flexing sideways as he reached for something in his front left pocket.
Then he looked up at her, green irises bright with all the love that radiated off him, holding up a beautiful solitaire diamond that reflected white fire. “Will you marry me, Angel?”
“Yes.”
Three hours later
Declan awoke with a start and flung an arm beside him, finding the bed empty. The sun was setting, casting its golden rays through the slatted wood blinds. After Gabby had said yes to his proposal, he scooped up his woman and marched her straight to the bedroom where they made love for hours in between talking about their future. Wrapped around each other, they discussed how to navigate Theo’s celebrity without losing their own identity. They even discussed the possibility of another baby. Having missed the joys and trials of raising a kid, they toyed with the idea with much giddy excitement, but they also agreed it would happen when they were ready. Their focus was on each other, how they were going to live, and the compromises they needed to make given how their roles could become more challenging at work. It was when they started talking about where to find a house to live together, and suggesting different places to scout in LA that they finally fell asleep.
So proposing again in Griffith Park and following up with dinner didn’t go as planned, but things rarely did when it came to Gabby.
His angel.
She wasn’t one for grand gestures.
She wanted a steadfast love that would last without the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. So did Declan.
He smiled as he swung his legs from the bed and went in search of his fiancée. He found her in the living room, wearing his tee, its hem hitting sexily mid-thigh. She was staring at something on the mantelpiece.
His chest tightened and his eyes grew warm as he finally saw what it was.
Picture frames. She was putting pictures of their family on the shelf above the fireplace.
“What do you think?” she asked, not realizing the turmoil of emotions going through him. “Nadia did a good job with the prints. I told her not to mess with those fake filters but wow, what she did with our hike in Runyon Canyon was phenomenal.”
Declan stepped up beside her, his eyes riveted on the row of simple frames. One was a picture of them visiting Theo on the set. It included Emma, who was on crutches. The girl was a trooper, showing up so soon for filming, but the writers had to scramble to rewrite her part.
The next photograph was of their hike at Runyon Canyon—one of their trio, and another of just him and Gabby. The fourth photograph was of him and Theo