“Marry me, Audrey. Marry me today, marry me next week, a year from now, ten years from now. I don’t care, just promise me someday. I need you, Dree. I need you with every fiber of my being. I’ve needed you from that very first day on the playground. I know the way you tell the story is that I saved you from a bully, but the truth is you save me from myself every damn day. Marry me because I love you, not in the way a boy loves a girl, not in the way a friend loves his friend, but the way a man loves a woman. Forever. Marry me because I just quit my job, and now I need a beautiful Instagram influencer to support my unemployed ass—”

It was a good speech. A fairy-tale speech. Too bad she had to cut it off with a fairy-tale kiss.

Clarke’s fingers plowed through her hair the second her lips pressed to his, and he kissed her like he’d never kissed her before. She kissed him back, pouring in not hours, not days, but years of love for the man who’d been her Prince Charming the whole damn time.

When she pulled back, she was a little surprised to find her cheeks wet, and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing as he brushed away the proof that she wasn’t numb inside after all.

“I love you, too,” she whispered, in case her kiss hadn’t been abundantly clear.

He let out a harsh exhale of relief.

“Marry me,” he begged, kissing her again. “Will you marry me, Audrey?”

“Yes,” she whispered against his mouth. “And if you don’t mind a tearstained bride, I’ve got just the place in mind, right around the corner.”

He smiled his familiar grin and got to his feet. She accepted his hand, letting him help her up, not caring in the least that her dream grown was rumpled and dirty.

All that mattered was that she’d found her dream man.

Epilogue

Later that day, after a father walked his daughter down the aisle and a mother in sequins bawled through the entire ceremony…

After another mother dabbed furiously at tears that wouldn’t seem to stop and another father tried to make sense of a scribbled pink note written atop a cartoon kitten that he would throw away and insist he never saw…

After a bride with a dirty hem and a groom with a missing bow tie said their vows and stole a few minutes just for themselves before joining friends and family at a picture-perfect reception at the Plaza…

After the cake was cut, the toasts delivered, the dancing begun, and the groom and two of his groomsmen stepped out into the night air…