A new face after the race
Chapter 64
Lucky got up from the couch and stood, getting a better look out the window. Trying to look natural and not suspicious, he checked his pockets for the box and turned to Emily and Michael still talking about Spider-man, this time about the movies and how they can't compare to the comic books.
Then as if on cue, Sonny came by. "Michael, its time for you to go to bed," Sonny told Michael.
Michael looked to Emily, and she offered a smile before Michael looked to his dad. "Do I have to?" He asked his dad, almost pleading. His big sister knew so much about spider man, much more than him.
"Well, the sooner you get to sleep the sooner you can open up the rest of your presents." Sonny teased Michael as he glanced at all the stacked and wrapped boxes.
Michael got up. "Okay, night Emily, Lucky." He looked their way and gave the two of them a hug.
Lucky offered Emily a hand and pulled her up so she was standing like him. "Come on, I want to show you something." He told her and pulled her away from the living room and couch, into the hall.
Lulu and Melissa huddled near Laura noticed and pulled on her skirts. "Mom," Lulu whispered. "It's happening; Lucky's going to do it." Lulu hissed, hoping to be discreet but failing miserably.
Laura looked down at her daughter and her friend and smiled as she noted Lucky and Emily's absence. "So he is." She told them. "Come, time for bed you two. It's going to be an early day tomorrow." Laura insisted, inwardly groaning at what tomorrow would bring.
"But mom, I want to see if she says yes or not." Lulu complained. "Melissa too," She added for effect and Melissa eagerly nodded as well with a stiff smile on her face.
Laura looked at Luke and Jason who just shrugged. "Well, I see no reason why Emily would say no, but I also know you two won't sleep without knowing what the verdict was." Laura sighed, allowing them to stay up for just a few more minutes.
Lulu and Melissa broke out in smiles and looked at each other before running off into the hallway, to find where Lucky took Emily to propose.
Lucky had led her to the front door and opened it, motioning for her to go through. Emily gave him a glare in the open doorway. "Lucky, it's snowing and I'm only in a long sleeved shirt and pants." Emily reminded him.
Lucky looked up and down her. "Yeah, I know, what's the problem?" He asked, not seeing her point.
Emily crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Lucky, if I go out there with just I have on, I'm going to freeze to death, look outside!" Lucky looked over at the snow falling and looked back at her. "It's snowing." She told him.
"Emily, we aren't going past the porch, but if you insist, you can have my coat." He reached over and handed her his coat.
Emily narrowed her eyes at him warily and put it on, going outside, onto the porch. Lucky followed, closing the door behind him.
"So?" Emily turned and looked at him. "What do you want to show me?" She waited and crossed her arms, trying to look angry and impatient.
Lucky laughed and put his hands in his pockets. "Close your eyes." He requested of her first.
"Close my eyes? Why?" Emily demanded of him. She wasn't walking into anything blindly again, even if it was Lucky planning it all.
"Emily, trust me." Lucky insisted.
"I trust you with my life Lucky, but things are just a little suspicious between you and our little sisters for my taste." Emily justified, being stubborn.
Lucky rolled his eyes. "Okay, if you must know, I want to give you your Christmas present early and I know you hate that, but I don't want to wait to give it to you. So would you please close your eyes and open your hands?" He took her hands and held them softly, flashing his Spencer grin.
"Fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." Emily murmured, grumbling slightly, closing her eyes and laying out her hands.
Lucky watched the snow fall for a second before digging in his pockets for her gift. Bringing it out, he took Emily's hands in his and put it in her hands so that her closed hands clutched the gift. He didn't want Emily to go dropping it even if the box made it so it had some protection.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now." He told her and Emily slowly did so.
Emily had felt the tiny box be placed in her hands, identifying the material, velvet. She looked down at the tiny gift and up at Lucky who was grinning at her. She looked back down at the case again.
"Open it." He insisted as he saw her hesitation. Emily did so and gasped, her mouth falling open in shock at what she found.
Inside the tiny, velvet box, inside the indent in the cushion was a small gold ring with a relatively large diamond, with small sapphires angled to its side. Small rainbows reflected off the diamond from the porch light.
Emily immediately remembered where she first laid eyes on it. She and Lucky were window shopping and she couldn't just pass by the jewelry window, she had to look. There was a small ring, gold, diamond surrounded by angled sapphires. It caught her eyes almost immediately.
Emily commented on how pretty it was and Lucky looked with her and said he agreed with her. It caught his eye as well; the design was very unique compared to the other plain diamond rings that were placed for decoration by it.
He must have gone back and bought it for her. Emily closed her eyes at how touched she felt he did so. But it was too much. "Lucky, I'm speechless, I am." She smiled down at the ring and thought of what to say. "But, I really didn't, don't, need jewelry like this." She insisted, forcing herself to close the box and push it towards Lucky.
Lucky pushed it back towards her. "Emily, I want you to have it, no, actually I'm demanding you accept it. I bought this for you and only you, this ring is going to mean as much as to me as it will to you. Wear it and be my wife." Lucky knew he sound be on one knee but found this stance was just too good to let go of.
Emily's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?" Did he just say what she thought he just said? Emily shook her head, no, he couldn't have asked that, no way possible. She was just hearing things, she was sure.
Lucky let loose one hand and used it to tip her face up to his. "Emily, yes, I am. I am asking you to marry me, take my name, have my kids eventually, and until we die be at my side always, for better or for worse." He smiled at her reassuringly.
Emily evaded answering the question by restudying the ring. It didn't look like the ring she saw, the diamond too big as was the sapphires and it was a little classier than a small promise ring it originally was. "This isn't the ring I saw in the window is it?" She asked him.
Lucky smiled and took a deep breath before answering, she hadn't said no yet, so he took that as a good sign. "No, it isn't. I took the style and mixed it up a little. Bigger, brighter stones, upgraded the gold scale, nothing too much of a change from the original design." Lucky explained and waited impatiently, though he did his best to hide it.
Through the window, on their father's shoulders, Lulu and Melissa looked at the scene before him. Lulu was nervously chewing on her nails. She had been waiting forever for this day, but now that it was here, she wasn't really sure she wanted it anymore.
She looked down at her dad. "Shouldn't he be on one knee?" Lulu supposed, asking her dad.
Luke chuckled. "Well, traditionally yes, but you know us Spencer's, were unpredictable and change the rules a bit." He replied finding her question amusing.
They watched as Lucky and Emily stood there, but no hug, no placing of the ring on Emily's hand, nothing, just talk and thinking, much to their barely contained anticipation.
Lulu bounced nervously on her dad's shoulders, clutching his hair. "Why hasn't she answered yet?" She asked, trying to make it happen herself.
Melissa frowned at the display before her eyes. "She's not going to say yes, is she?" Her big sister had always been cautious and she loved Emily for it but now wasn't a time for cautious, it was time for some action, an answer, anything.
"Don't say that Melissa, this is just a big commitment, to take the plunge like this takes some serious thought. Marriage isn't as easy as it looks or sounds." Jason explained and had faith and patience that Emily would say yes, but for the two girls, it meant more than their sister and brother marrying. It meant them being not only best friends but sisters, sister-in-laws, what could be better than that?
"I know." Lulu insisted. "But I want to know now." She still bounced nervously on her dad's shoulders.
"Be patient." Jason responded but knew that would go unheeded.
The anticipation and nervousness did nothing for their patience. So much counted on this moment, a million questions flew their minds; when would Emily answer, what would she say would they hug or kiss, cry even?
It seemed like almost forever and as some movement came from the outside porch, everything went black outside. The porch light had burned out and ruined their view and the Christmas lights Lucky placed on the house didn't help any, shining outwards, not inwards. They were blind as a bat as far as the proposal answer was concerned. The wind that came with the snow revealed no sounds either.
Lulu pulled at her dad's hair and screamed in frustration. "No, dad, make the light come back on. I want to know what she said and what was done." She could imagine Emily and Lucky hugging, kissing maybe, a ring getting placed on one of her ring fingers, but that all depended on what happened to make her wishes and imagination come true and she couldn't see!
Outside, Emily was just as spooked as it went out with a small flickering sound. She looked up at it and found the Christmas lights didn't reach as far to the door as she thought before.
"Emily," Lucky started, searching for what to say.
She looked at the dark figure near her. "Yeah?" She asked him.
Lucky silently scolded the light. Of all the times to go out! He let go of one hand and said "Come with me." He guided her to the porch swing and sat her down on it, while going on one knee before her.
"Emily, I love you so much and I want to make every dream come true for you. I want to make you happy, so happy you'll bust. I know you said you wanted to wait for marriage between us and maybe I'm going too fast but after Mark, the warehouse falling on us, us nearly dying…I just didn't want to waste another day.
He continued, confessing his greatest fears and feelings. "I want to marry you, spend my life with you, eventually we'll do that parent thing, but only when your ready. I don't want to force or persuade you and I know this is a huge decision, so much could happen, but I want to chance it all. I want it all for you, for me.
"Do me the honor of becoming my wife, make the sacred vows that will connect us forever, make me the happiest man alive. Will you marry me?" He asked her and Emily was lost for words, absolutely speechless.
Lucky waited for an answer, feigning patience. He knew this was a huge question to her and all women but he just felt he couldn't wait. He wanted a yes from her so bad, this would be the answer that changed his whole life and he wanted it to count starting right now.
Emily took a few more moments to get herself settled, wiping away the tears that fell from her eyes. She smiled through the darkness, hoping Lucky saw it and answered.
Author's note: I wanted to post this sooner, but do you have any idea how hard it is to be sentimental as in a marriage proposal? It's near impossible! I just don't do sentimental and happy like that. Too much mush and fluff for my taste. I did it though and I just had to leave it like that, no matter how much you readers might hate it. It was too good to resist.
One more chapter to go…