David went into the bedroom to see what she was doing. The bathroom door was closed, so he took advantage of the opportunity to retrieve the ring from the velvet box in his bedside table. He put it in his pants pocket and went out to the living room to wait for her. On the way to the sofa, he checked to make sure the bottle of champagne he’d put in the fridge earlier was sufficiently chilled.

Everything was ready. All he needed now was her. All he’d ever need for the rest of his life was her.

As he waited, he thought about the night he met her when she’d been bruised and battered at the hands of the man she’d loved. Her courage had touched him deeply that night when he’d treated her at the clinic. While she recovered at home, he’d fallen into the habit of checking on her after work each day. She’d insisted on sharing with him the abundance of food the island community had brought her, which began their habit of having dinner together each night.

It had taken off from there. One night at a time, one dinner at a time, his days began to be shaped around the hours he got to spend with her. And since she’d moved in with him, he got to sleep with her every night and wake with her every morning, and a life that had spun out of control was now firmly back on track, thanks in large part to the calming effect she had on him.

However, when she came into the living room wearing the peach silk nightgown and matching robe he’d given her earlier, the last thing he felt was calm. The color perfectly complemented her peaches-and-cream complexion. Her long blonde hair had been brushed until it fell in silky, shiny waves down her back.

David was speechless, which wasn’t conducive to his plans for the evening.

She sat on the sofa next to him, curling her legs under her, as if she hadn’t just blown him away simply by walking into the room wearing peach silk. “This is nice,” she said of the fire, the candles and the tree. “Very cozy.”

“You’re stunning,” he said when he’d recovered the ability to speak.

“This old thing?” With a coy smile, she ran her finger down the front of the robe, hooking it in the belt that was knotted at her waist. “My boyfriend bought me this for Christmas. I thought he might like to see me in it.”

That, David realized, was the last time she’d ever refer to him as her boyfriend. From now on, after he asked the most important of questions, she would hopefully refer to him as her fiancé, and then, before too long, her husband. He couldn’t wait for either of those titles.