Pink Neon Dreams (37 page)

Puzzled, Cecily waited. “What is it?”

He handed it to her. “She thought you might like to have it,
querida.
Open it.”

Her fingers fumbled as she unfolded the flap of the tattered
envelope.
 
A heavy silver ring dropped
into her hand and she examined it.
 
A
silver braid dominated the center flanked by solid silver bands on either side.
 
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I like the
quiet simplicity of it.
 
Why didn’t Luz
give it to me herself?”

“Because she can’t,” Daniel said. “She gave it to me,
querida.
”

“Why?” She must be missing something here because none of it
made any sense.

Daniel laughed, low and sweet. “This is about as backwards as
we could get, you kneeling, me sitting here, but what the hell—I’ll ask
anyway.
 
Querida,
would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

His words filtered into her brain and when she realized what
he’d said, she gazed at him, then the ring between her fingers. “Do you mean
it?” she asked.

With a half-frown, he nodded. “I’m not asking just for fun,” he
said. “Will you?”

“Oh, God, yes, sugar,” she said.
 
“It’s a wedding ring, then?”

“Yeah,” Daniel answered. “It’s the one my daddy gave mama when
they were married.
 
She’s worn it ever
since—until she took it off her hand to give to me before Michael took her back
to El Paso. This envelope, well, it’s the one my daddy carried in his pocket
with the ring until he proposed to mama. It’s not fancy, but I thought you
might have had enough of diamonds and jewels. I didn’t buy you an engagement
ring for the same reason.
 
But if you
want one—”

“I don’t,” she said.
 
Happiness erupted within her. “I’ve had all that stuff.
 
This is real.”

His face became tender as he slid it onto her ring finger.
“Then wear it for now as a promise,” he said. “And we’ll get married in El Paso
at the fiesta. It’s what Mama planned all the time, if it’s okay.”

“It’s perfect.” She’d dreamed of three things, a man who’d love
her, a big family to be part of, and owning her own boutique.
 
Dreams, she thought, could come true. “I’d
love that.”

“Good,” he said. “But right now I’d rather you love me.”

Daniel grasped her left hand with the silver ring and pulled
her to her feet.
 
He stood and wrapped
his arms around her, the first full embrace he’d given since he left
Texas.
 
Cecily hugged him, careful to
favor his side wound and left shoulder.
 
“Kiss me, sugar,” she said.

Their mouths came together, two halves of a whole and liquid
fire burned through her veins.
 
Desire
consumed them and without bothering to move into the bedroom, he took her on
the couch, slow and complete.
 
After,
they lay together on the couch, spooned against each other and she sang
accapella, slow and low, “
Que sera, sera,
whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see, Que sera, sera.”

He silenced her with his mouth. “Oh, but it is ours,
querida,
” he said.

“And what do you see, sugar?” she asked, lazy and filled with
love.

“Happiness,” he said. “And life together, always.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Cecily said and put her hand
against his chest.
 
She liked the weight
of the silver ring on her finger, solid and real, lasting as their love.

The
End

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Other Books by Lee Ann
Sontheimer
Murphy:

www.evernightpublishing.com/pages/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy.html

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Evernight
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