“I know.”
“I can promise I won't treat the possibility of loss as a reason not to be here.”
He kissed her.
Slowly.
Deeply.
The kind of kiss that did not ask where the relationship was going because it already knew.
A year after the Porsche arrived, Daniel woke at 6:12 on a Sunday to discover Victoria in his kitchen wearing one of his old T-shirts and making pancakes badly.
Smoke filled the room.
Lily sat at the table laughing.
Daniel stopped in the doorway.
“What happened?”
Victoria turned.
“Nothing.”
A pancake was stuck to the ceiling.
Daniel looked up.
Then at her.
“Nothing?”
“Structural testing.”
Lily laughed harder.
Daniel walked toward the stove.
Victoria blocked him.
“No.”
“You're going to burn my house down.”
“Your confidence is hurtful.”
“You can buy another house.”
“That's not the point.”
Daniel reached around her for the spatula.
She slapped his hand away lightly.
“Mine.”
Their bodies pressed together.
Lily groaned.
“Don't kiss in front of pancakes.”
Daniel looked at Victoria.
Victoria looked at him.
They kissed anyway.
Lily threw a napkin at them.
Later that morning, after breakfast survived, Daniel took Victoria to the garage.
Closed Sunday.
Quiet.
Sunlight through the same open bay where the Carrera GT had sat one year earlier.
Victoria noticed immediately.
“You planned something.”
“No.”
“You're terrible at lying.”
Daniel opened a drawer.
The same invoice drawer.
He pulled out a yellowed carbon copy.
$138.00.
Victoria laughed.
“You kept it.”
“Tax records.”
“Romantic.”
“I try.”
He handed it to her.
On the back he had written something.
Victoria read:
One electrical terminal.
Eight hours.
One impossible woman.
Best undercharge of my life.
Her eyes lifted.
Daniel held a small ring box.
For once, Victoria Hale had no immediate response.
Daniel liked that.
He opened it.
Simple ring.
Not enormous.
Not billionaire-sized.
Victoria stared.
Daniel said, “Before you say anything, I am not letting you replace this with something bigger.”
She laughed and cried at the same time.
“That was going to be my first question.”
“Of course.”
He became serious.
“I loved somebody before you.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know.”
“I'll love her for the rest of my life.”
“I know.”
“I love you too.”
Victoria's eyes filled.
“I know.”
Daniel smiled.
“That sounded arrogant.”
“It was meant to.”
He took her hand.
“I don't know what our life looks like.”
“Probably expensive.”
“That's what I'm afraid of.”
She laughed through tears.
“I can work on it.”
“But I know I want you in it.”
Victoria looked toward the office.
The old couch.
The invoice board.
The place where she had first seen Lily sleeping.
The garage her company had nearly taken without her knowledge.
The place where Daniel refused thousands of dollars because the honest bill was $138.
The place where she first discovered a man could know exactly how wealthy she was and still tell her no.