Chapter 19

“I stalled her for as long as I could. If you’re going to do something, then you better get your ass moving soon. And if she asks you, I had nothing to do with this.”

I got off the cell with Nora and got up. I was at home, after taking some time off work. I had a plan in the works, and since Brooklyn was on her way home today, I would have to do it today.

With all the problems surrounding the Paul issue, we hadn't had much time to talk since that day at the café about a week ago, so neither of us had said anything about her going back home. I’d known it was coming, but I was too busy, between work and trying to catch the conman, that I couldn’t pay much attention to it.

If I didn’t hurry, I knew I was going to pay for it.

Paul had been found. My people got to him just a bit before the police did, and whatever happened to him was out of my hands, but he would at least be going to jail for quite some time. Most of the cash he’d stolen from Maria and Nora, though not all, had been recovered. There were other people also looking for him that he’d stolen from, but I only cared about those two.

It was when I called Nora, that I had an idea. It wasn’t necessarily my brightest, but I could admit to myself that I was starting to feel desperate.

I didn’t want Brooklyn to leave. We were on much better terms, but I had this nightmare that if she went back to California, I’d never get to see her again. Never mind that I could just take a private jet over and have some people find where she worked and lived for me. Just because I could, didn’t mean it was a good idea, and I’d held back from doing so before because it seemed a bit stalkerish.

What I wanted, was for Brooklyn to give me a chance, not to run away from me because I was acting creepy.

I made a call to Maria, and my parents. It was short notice, but there was no time like the present. Then I went back to my bedroom, picked good suit and put it on. I rushed out of the house and to my car, hoping not to meet too much traffic on the way. I didn’t know when Brooklyn’s flight was, because Nora didn’t know, so it would be lucky if I managed to get there before she left. I could just make a search or a call to check, but I wanted to keep some hope.

Thankfully, there was no heavy traffic on the way. In about half an hour, I made it to the airport. There some delay as I searched for parking, then I was jumping out the car and heading toward the terminal. My cell vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to see the text that had just come in. It was from Nora.

“Everything is handled on my end, you deal with yours. If you fail, you better compensate me!”

I grinned, thinking I might come to start liking Nora after all. Then, I was back to looking around the airport, trying to find Brooklyn. It was a bit crowded, and dressed the way I was, I was getting a lot of attention and it was hard getting past all the people. I didn’t know whether or not to consider myself lucky that no one seemed to know who I was.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, I caught sight of her. She was seated in one of the waiting areas, her suitcases beside her, her head ducked down as she looked at something on her cell. I smiled, relieved, then walked slowly over to her. I no longer had eyes for the people blocking my way, walking easily around them until I came to a stop a few feet away from her.

Whatever had her so engrossed on her cell, she didn’t even notice I was standing right there looking at her. I smiled softly and just watched her for a moment, with her hair tucked back in a ponytail, a few wisps falling out of it and around her face. She was chewing down on her lip, her hands holding tight to the cell. As far as I could see, she wasn’t really doing anything besides staring at it with a single-minded focus. I’d been so anxious before that I couldn’t help letting out a small laugh.

“Brooklyn,” I called, still chuckling.

Her head snapped up and she gaped at me. Then she looked between her cell’s screen and me, and slowly stood up.

“Wait, did I actually call you?” she breathed. “I thought I was just imagining all those times I called or texted…”

She looked fretfully down at her cell, and I smiled goofily at her, warmth filling my chest at the thought of her thinking so hard about wanting to talk to me before she left that she was frozen.

“Can I ask, if I didn’t come here, would you have called or texted before you got on that plane?”

“I… I’m not sure,” she said quietly without looking up.

I stepped closer and touched her chin with my finger, gently tilting her head up so she would look up at me. She blinked her clear blue eyes at me, and I resisted the urge to press a kiss to her lips.

“I’m glad I caught you,” I murmured. “But you really should have tried to talk to me before leaving, at least. What’ll you do when I start thinking you don’t care about me anymore, hmm?”

“It’s not that I don’t,” she said quickly, her face darkening in a pink blush. “I just…wasn’t sure what to say? And you’ve been so busy I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“I’m on leave from work for a month,” I retorted. “I mean, I’ll probably still be taking calls, but you can interrupt me as much as you want now, with all the free time I’ve got.”

“You…” She let her voice trail off, eyes wide.

“We were still in the middle of talking things out,” I reminded her.

She paused. “Oh.”

That night, when she and I were heading to my sister’s place to chat about us, before the con artist business came about, and it had been put on hold since.

“Or…did you decide to give up in the end?” I asked slowly, feeling my heart squeeze in my chest. It loosened immediately when she shook her head quickly.

“No, it’s just that I’ve got things back home. I mean, I live alone, but there’s work, I’ve pretty much used up my days off, I can't be late getting back. Originally, I would have taken an evening flight just to get back by tomorrow, but then I thought I could get back early and clean up the house…”

“We can deal with your job later.”

“We…?” Her eyes widened.

I smiled and reached into my pocket. Then, I took one of her hands into mine and got down on one knee. I heard a gasp, and it wasn’t just from her. Murmurs were starting up around us, and I could feel all the eyes on me, but I ignored them.

“Brooklyn. This proposal is…very late in coming, but I’d like to think we’re both ready now. I loved you six years ago and I still love you now. However way things are going to go from here on out, I want to have you in my life. Will you marry me?”

Her eyes misted as she brought her other hand over her mouth. She just stared at me for a long moment, and I worked to appear a lot more confident than I really was. There was still a chance that she could say no to me, and the proposal was just the beginning of it, after all.

After what felt like eternity to me, she nodded her head as she blinked the tears out of her eyes. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth, it was to reveal a happy, if shaky smile.

“Yes, Abe. I’ll marry you.” Then she laughed. “And you’re right, you were a little late with it.”

I grinned then stood up. I pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger. There were claps and catcalls around us, but I hardly heard them.

“Let’s get married right now,” I suggested next.

Brooklyn’s eyes widened as she gaped at me again. “What?” she breathed out.

“The wedding, remember?” I said, tightening my hands around hers. “It was supposed to be Nora’s, but she’s no longer getting married. Everything was prepared, and the wedding was supposed to— I thought she was going to cancel everything, though.”

I shook my head. “I’ve been talking to Nora the past week, more than I ever had before, honestly. She was going to cancel it all, but I figured it would be such a waste. I got some cards done quickly and all the guests are invited. None of the events got cancelled, and you even tried on the perfect dress…”

“This is going a little fast,” she breathed out. “And what were you thinking, doing something like this? What if I’d gone yesterday instead, like I’d planned?”

“Then I would have been a jilted groom,” I said with a smile, internally thanking Nora for her interference. “But that didn’t happen, and I don’t see this as moving too fast. Brooklyn, we were together for three years, and apart for six. In all those years, neither of us was able to forget the other. I don’t want any more regrets, and I am absolutely sure I want to commit myself to you for the rest of my life. So, please…. Brooklyn, marry me. Right now.”

I held my breath and waited. She’d already agreed to marry me, so even if it wasn’t today, it was going to happen someday. But then she grinned and pulled one of her hands away, squeezing the other around mine. She reached for a suitcase, then looked up at me in complete trust.

“Let’s go,” she said, determined.

I grinned at her, picked up her other case, and we ran out of the airport, with more claps and catcalls behind us.