As she flips through the pages, all the conversations between RJ.Reads and BookshopGirl, I slip off the couch and onto one knee. Josie doesn’t notice—she’s reading, laughing and smiling at the notes I left in the margins: pointing out when I started having feelings for her, when I first realized who she was, when I knew I loved her.

It’s all there, captured in the pages of our story.

“This is…” She looks up and freezes when she sees me on bended knee, holding out the open ring box.

“Josie Anne Klein,” I say, my voice shaky. “I think I fell in love with love stories because I knew one day, they would lead me to you—a woman who thought my name was Brian.” She laughs, her eyes filling with tears as she smiles down at me. My voice gets stronger. “From the moment I met you—both on BookFriends and in person—something about you captivated me. Whether we were bantering online or sparring in real life, I couldn’t get you off my mind.”

She’s glowing, and tears escape her gorgeous green eyes.

“I grew up hearing my parents say, ‘When you know, you know,’ but I didn’t really know what love was until I started loving you. What we have is deeper, and richer, and more beautiful than anything I ever could’ve imagined. So, Josie—” I take a breath, my own eyes brimming with tears. “Will you—”

“I know, too,” Josie says, kissing me. I taste the salt of her tears—or maybe mine.

“Is that a yes?” I ask between kisses. “Remember, I need words.”

“You can have all the words,” Josie says, pulling back to look at me. She’s sitting on my knee, her hands on either side of my face. Her smile is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “Like fiancé.”

“I like that.”

“And husband. Or partner?”

“Either is okay with me,” I say, giving her another kiss. “But there’s one more word I need—hopefully a three-letter one. Will you marry me?”

“Yes!” Josie shouts. “Yes, I will marry you, Brian and Ryan and RJ.” She throws her arms around me, and I hold her, silently thanking whatever fates conspired to bring us right here.

Eventually, she pulls away, narrowing her eyes in a way that tells me her mind is working through a plan. “I just have one condition.”

“Okay…?”

She sits back on the couch, pulling me up to sit beside her. She takes the ring box from my hands and admires it before looking back at me. “After I graduate, I want this bookstore to be ours.”

“It already is,” I say, confused.

“Technically speaking, it’s Xander’s. But I want to buy it from him. Together.”

My laugh dies on my lips when I see how serious she is.