“Be safe,” she says and kisses me softly. “And can you text me.”

“Yes,” I say. “Have fun with my sisters.”

“You know how much I love shopping,” she says. “Do you think it’s bad if I say I have a headache?”

“You know my sisters,” I say. After moving to New York, they went above and beyond to make her feel at home. Including inviting her to every single girls’ night they had until she slowly started feeling comfortable about it. If they wanted to go out and eat, she was always game, but shopping, not so much. Even though she had her own money now, and I gave her my credit card, she never ever bought anything. Enter Zara, who would just send her boxes of clothes every single month.

“Fine,” she hisses. “I’ll go, and I might even buy something this time.”

I put my hands up. “Even if you don’t, I’m sure someone will get you something.”

“Your sister sent me a purse the other week,” she says. “It was two thousand dollars.”

“I mean, it’s not that bad,” I say, trying not to laugh.

“An evening purse, Justin,” she shrieks. “I don’t even go out.”

“I take you out plenty,” I say, and she rolls her eyes. “Dylan!” I yell back for him, and he comes down the stairs, and I swear he grew overnight.

“Coming,” he says, grabbing his baseball hat and putting it on. “Are we fishing today?”

“That’s the plan,” I say. “Give Mom a kiss.”

He walks over to her and kisses her on the cheek and then walks out of the house. “What time will you be back?”

“Not late,” I say, and then I kiss her. “Love you.”

“Love you more,” she says. I walk out of the house and down the steps to the boat where Dylan is already getting in. I hand him the cooler and jump in with him. Starting it up, I pull out and make my way over to the spot where we always fish.

“Where is everyone?” he asks from beside me.

“Maybe running late,” I say and look over at him. “Gives us extra time to talk.” My palms are suddenly sweaty. “You doing okay?” Jesus, I sound like an idiot.

“Yeah,” he says, and I stop the boat in the middle of the lake and look over at him.

“You know that I love you, right?” I start at that part.

“Yeah,” he says and then smiles. “I love you, too.”

“And you know how much I love your mom, right?” I say, and he groans.

“I think you love her way too much. You really need to stop kissing all the time.”

I laugh now. “Never going to happen, buddy.” I look down and then up and reach into my shorts, taking out the ring box that I have had for the past six months.