“Stop,” Grace said, blinking back tears as she covered his mouth with her fingers. “Don’t say any more. You don’t have to show anyone anything, least of all my family or me. You’re everything. From the first minute you came over to me after that rat bastard Trey abandoned me here without a nickel to my name, you’ve been my everything. You always will be. I don’t care if you’re dirt poor and never have another paying job. None of that matters to me, and if you know me at all, you know I’ve long ago stopped letting my parents’ opinions matter to me. If I’d continued to listen to them, I’d still be three hundred pounds and as miserable as any person could possibly be.”

“Grace…”

“I love you, Evan. I love you exactly the way you are. The studio could be the most successful in the business, and I wouldn’t love you any more than I already do.”

“Do you know,” he said, leaving a trail of kisses from the crook of her elbow along the tender skin of her inner arm, “that I thank God every day for the rat bastard who abandoned you at our docks?”

“Is that right?”

Nodding, he kissed the palm of her hand and then looked up at her. “Marry me, Grace.”

“Of course I’m going to marry you. All you had to do was ask.”

“Stay there,” he said, bounding out of bed.

“Where’re you going?”

“You’ll see.” He returned a minute later, slid back into bed and tugged her in close to him. “Hold out your left hand and close your eyes.”

Smiling, Grace did as he directed, holding back tears as he slid a ring onto her third finger. “Can I look yet?”

“Go ahead.”

“Oh, Evan! Oh my God, it’s gorgeous!” A large, emerald-cut diamond sat surrounded by smaller diamonds in an antique setting. She couldn’t stop staring at it. “When did you do this?”

“Remember when I went to the mainland to buy the equipment for the studio?”

“That was a couple of months ago.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’ve had it all this time and never said a word?”

“I told you. I wanted to get the studio off the ground before I asked you.”

Grace threw her arms around his neck and held on tight.

“Do you like the ring? If you want something different—”

She kissed the words right off his lips, putting everything she had into a kiss that she hoped would tell him all he needed to know about how much she loved the ring—and him.

“Whoa, Nelly,” he said when they resurfaced many minutes later. “I take that to mean you like it?”

“I love it. It’s absolutely beautiful.”

“I want you to know I paid for it with the money I made on my record deal, not the money Ned gave me for the studio.”