“Of course it matters! We paid for two hours. We’re losing time and money while you drive,” she leaned forward to peer at the dashboard, “exactly the speed limit.”

“You sound like Jai,” he said. Jai was the scheduler of the two of them, and she had learned he hated being late even more than she did. “But they can wait. Safety is always the priority.”

She snorted. “Okay, Grandma. Listen, if you’re not up for driving on the highway, just pull over and let me. Look at all the cars passing us!”

He didn’t look her way, but the car picked up speed a little, the old engine chugging a bit louder.

“Thanks,” she muttered. She leaned back into her seat a little, trying to force herself to relax.

“It’s okay, Ryann. I promise. You should chill out a little. Nicole is Maddie’s friend. She won’t mind staying a little longer, and we’re almost there now—ten, fifteen minutes tops.”

Maddie had hired Nicole to take the photos today, but the fact that she was a friend made their lateness more awkward, in her opinion. She hated being late mostly because she hated making anyone wait for her, especially a friend, even if she was Maddie’s friend, not hers.

She finally saw their exit for Loveland and made herself let out a long, deep breath. Stuart glanced her way again, grinning, and grabbed her hand when they had to wait at the light off the exit.

“Are you ready for this?”

She shook her head without hesitating, and he laughed.

“Well, you should be,” he said. “Maddie’s crazy about you. She’d wait a thousand years for you if you asked.”

She knew this intellectually, but she was still crawling with nerves, her heart hammering, her fingers trembling. Something about today made all of this more real. Maddie had proposed a little over a week ago, on Groundhog Day, of all times. Last summer, when she moved to Colorado full time, she’d admitted to Maddie that she didn’t grow up celebrating any holidays. Both of her parents traveled a lot for work, so they usually had an excuse, but, in retrospect, they either didn’t care or bother to keep anyone but themselves in mind. Maddie had taken her history as a personal challenge, and ever since, they’d celebrated every holiday, major and minor, lavishly and without irony. Groundhog Day had been a surprise, however, as she hadn’t even realized it was a thing outside of, perhaps, Punxsutawney. However, Maddie’s family celebrated by baking a groundhog-shaped cake and watching the Bill Murray film, and she had been there with them to celebrate. The credits were rolling when Maddie got down on one knee.