“Not exactly how I imagined my first proposal going, but…”

“I swore I’d never get married.”

That shocked me. I’d always thought Anna would be one for a husband and a whole horde of kids. “Why not?”

She froze for a moment before answering, seeming to choose her words carefully. “The one person I thought was my forever stole everything from me. I promised myself I’d never put myself in that position again.”

Her tone was so unemotional that it twisted the phantom knife in my gut deeper. Trust would be a long, winding road for us. But better I knew that now. I met her gaze and didn’t look away. “I promise I’ll always be honest with you, even if the truth is inconvenient. If there’s ever anything you want to know, you only have to ask.”

Anna cleared her throat and looked away. “Thank you.” She took a sip of the hot chocolate, and her eyes widened. “This is amazing.”

“It’s from a little shop near my old condo. Best I’ve ever had.”

“Me, too.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Anna spoke again. “So, when should we do this? And where? I don’t know what we need.”

“We’ll have to file for a marriage license, and then we can do the ceremony at the courthouse. Unless you want something in a church.” I realized I had no idea if Anna was religious or a million other things I’d thought I would know about my wife-to-be.

“Courthouse is fine.”

“We should dress up. Have someone take pictures in case the courts get suspicious.”

“That’s smart. I can find a dress tomorrow.” She took another sip of her drink. “Our friends are going to suspect something.”

“They’ll know what we’re doing. But all we need to do is give them a plausible story. They’ll go along for the ride.” They weren’t stupid, but if they had an excuse to give the world, none of that mattered.

“And what story is that?”

I grinned. “We’ve been keeping our relationship under wraps for months. You didn’t want to have things get awkward since I’m a volunteer at Hope House. But losing your sister put things into perspective. We didn’t want to waste another day without each other.”

She blinked a few times. “That’s a good story.”

“What can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic.”

Anna nibbled on her bottom lip. “I hope I don’t ruin that for you.”

I reached across the island and took her hand. Anna’s fingers twitched in my hold, but I didn’t let go. “We’re doing the right thing. And, who knows? Maybe you’ll end up with a friend at the end of all of this.”

“Okay.”

“We’re doing this?”

She nodded. “Thank you. I’ll never be able to repay—”