“What do you think? The silver or the blue?” Annabelle sat on the couch in her living room and held up two photos in front of Grady, who was sprawled on the cushions next to her. One picture was of a brand-new silver sedan and the other of a brand-new blue sedan.
The first car that she was buying all on her own. Paying for it in full and everything. She was having a hard time not squealing every time she thought about it. The fraud case against Donnie had been settled six months before, her credit was finally good again now that she’d been cleared of all the debt he’d accumulated, and she’d used the bonus she’d gotten from Ranger when Kerri had won the entire Diamond Cup series to round out a down payment on a house.
It was like winning the lottery, except her winning ticket was the most amazing man in the world.
Grady tapped the photo of the blue one. “This one looks good with your eyes.”
Annabelle laughed. “Silver it is.”
“Contrary woman. You just love to argue with me.” He laughed. “But it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s your car, and besides … I get paid either way. That car uses a Carbon Works muffler, no matter what color it is.”
Kevin Shankar had come to evaluate Grady’s product shortly after Annabelle had moved into her first apartment just over a year ago, and within a few days, they’d signed a major deal. From there, Grady had expanded his business into other auto parts, snowmobile parts, and even bobsleds for the Olympic team.
She set the photos down and smoothed her hands over her jeans. “Actually, there’s something else I want to ask you that has nothing to do with the car.”
“Oh yeah?” Grady sat forward and put an arm around her shoulders. “What is it, baby?”
Deep breath. Here goes.
“Well, seeing as we’ve been together for over a year … and seeing how I close on the new house in a few weeks…”
She swallowed hard. She’d done a lot of gutsy, very unladylike things this past year—both as crew chief for Hart Racing and as regular Annabelle Murray—but this was the most nerve-wracking of them all.
“I was wondering if you might be interested in moving in. With me.”
She braced herself for his answer.
But he didn’t say anything. At least, not right away. Instead, he slid his arm off of her shoulders and pushed his hand into his jeans pocket, fishing around for something.
She frowned. “Wha-what are you doing?”
He chuckled at her expression. “Aw, Annabelle—ah, got it!” He pulled his hand free, but kept it curled in a fist so that she couldn’t see what he was holding, and then he turned a bit until they were facing one another. “It’s funny that you should ask me such a question tonight, because it was just this morning that I decided to take this out of my desk drawer, where I’d been keeping it, and put it in my pocket. Just in case.”
He took her hand with his free one, stroking over her fingers. “You must have read my mind, or maybe I read yours, because I had a feeling that tonight was the night to ask you…”
He opened his other hand, the one that had been hiding whatever he’d taken from his pocket, to reveal a beautiful ring with a sapphire center stone and tiny diamonds set all around the gold band.
“Oh my God!” Annabelle gasped and stared. It was gorgeous. Was it—
“We started by taking it one night at a time, didn’t we? Well, now I’m ready to flip that around and say that I don’t want to be away from you for even one night. Not tonight, not tomorrow, not any other night for the rest of our lives.”
“Oh, Grady,” she whispered.
“Will you marry me, Annabelle? Will you marry me … and then will you let me move in with you? I’d consider myself the luckiest man on Earth if you said yes.”
“Yes!” She knew she was shouting, but she didn’t care. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, overflowing with happiness.
After so many years of struggling to be her own person, she’d gotten everything she’d ever wanted. He might be the luckiest man on Earth, but she was surely the luckiest woman to have Grady Hart as her husband.
They really were quite a pair.