It took a lot to put that day at the house behind them, but by the time Maxie welcomed her family for a dinner party two months later, she had managed to come to terms with what Johnny had done long before they had fallen in love. He would never be a perfect man, something that they had in common. They would both carry the weight of that one bad decision with them for the rest of their lives. However, Maxie would not let it define her any more than she had let any of the other past tragedies determine the fate of her life.

"Johnny, can you grab that salad out of the refrigerator?" she called from the dining room where she was setting the table. It had taken weeks to convince Mac to come for dinner, but he was finally coming tonight with Patrick, Robin and the baby. Maxie had been busy all day with preparations, and Johnny had diligently been nearby to sooth her nerves. "And bring that wine in that your sister brought by yesterday. She said it would go perfectly with the brisket."

He wasn't sure if it disturbed him more that his sister was helping his girlfriend plan dinner menus or the fact that Maxie was worried about what would go best with the brisket she had spent hours braising to perfection. Setting the chilled salad on the table next to the bottle Claudia had brought by, he stopped her long enough to kiss her briefly. "Everything is going to be perfect, Jones," he promised her. She smiled at him bravely before setting about putting out the new silverware she'd bought in New York just for the occasion.

"You should just be glad that I chose my family for our first dinner party. I could have made this really hard on you and invited your family to join us as well," she teased him as she placed the butter knifes around the table. "Can you imagine Sonny at the same table as my dad?"

Only Maxie would be entertained by thoughts of bring mortal enemies to their new home to break bread. She was determined to have the best of both worlds, even if it meant finding ways to accommodate their families separately. She had even managed to get Sonny and Johnny to sit down for drink last week after a party at Crimson. It had been no easy feat, but her sheer tenacity and charm had convinced both men to set aside their egos for a few minutes for the sake of someone they both cared about. Claudia had been grateful to the petite blonde for her amazing caper and had decided to befriend her. It would be far more advantageous for them to use their combined powers for good. Johnny was still terrified at how those two were going to use those powers against him.

"Let's just try to get through tonight first," he laughed before heading back to the kitchen to bring in the freshly made rolls he had picked up from on the bakery afternoon. He glanced down at his watch. They still had an hour before her dad would be there. With everything accounted for, he decided that they both deserved a little reward. "Hey, can you come in here for a minute?"

Maxie blew her hair out of her eyes as she stomped toward the kitchen, trying to remember what else she needed. Johnny was sitting at the counter, a bottle of champagne chilling in the sterling silver ice bucket Bobbie had given them for a housewarming gift. "Johnny, we don't have time for this."

"Just one drink," he pleaded, holding up a pair of champagne flutes. She had always been a sucker for the bubbly, and he kept only the best stocked in their small bar at home. "C'mon, Jones, you know you want to."

"Fine, one drink," she relented with a giggle. She wiped her hands on a dish towel and bound over to sit on the stool next to him. He filled her glass nearly to the brim and handed it over. She held her flute up and toasted her boyfriend as was their tradition. "Cheers."

Johnny watched in amusement as she took that first sip, her eyes dancing as the carbonation tickled her nose. "You are so beautiful," he murmured as he slid his fingers through her hair and guided her by the neck toward him for a slow kiss. His lips caressed hers hungrily, tasting faintly of the champagne she'd just consumed. Sliding his tongue over her bottom lip, he held the kiss until he heard her moan slightly, the surefire indicator that he had her just where he wanted her. "So, I have a question for you?"

Maxie pulled away, still slightly dazed from the intoxicating kiss he'd just laid on her. "Hmm?"

Slipping from the stool, Johnny reached inside his coat pocked and produced a tiny velvet box. "The wine isn't the only thing that Claudia dropped off when she was here yesterday," he confessed as he reached for her hand and pulled her so that she was standing. He wanted to be looking straight into her eyes when he did this. "She's held onto this for awhile for me. It's one of the few things that I have that belonged to my mother. She always told me that she was going to give it to me some day so that I could give it to the woman that I would love as deeply as my father had loved her. I was starting to believe that I would never find anyone like that until you came into my life. You changed the way I look at everything, Maxie, especially myself."

Her mind was racing a million miles a minute. A part of her knew what was coming next but didn't want to get her hopes up. "You changed my life too, Johnny. You made it so much more than I ever thought it could be. You made me so much more than I thought I could be."

Johnny flipped the box open and pulled the small piece of jewelry from its velvet pillow. He took her left hand and stared deeply into her eyes. "I know it's fast. I know that it doesn't really make sense," he admitted. "But that's how we started, fast and nonsensical. I just went after what I wanted, kind of like I am doing now."

"What are you asking here, Zacharra?"

"I'm asking you to marry me here, Jones," he chuckled. Her impatience was both maddening and endearing, creating that strange push-and-pull that could make you both fall in love with and want to strangle Maxie in the same beat. "Maxie, my pretty girl, will you marry me?"

Another kind of girl would have cried at that moment as she realized that she finally had her own version of a prince charming. She would have started imagining taffeta bridesmaid dresses and floral arrangements and wedding cakes. That kind of girl would have jumped up and down animately while she screamed her acceptance over and over again. She would have had that storybook answer that all girls dream of from a young age. However, Maxie Jones wasn't that girl. She was cool and stylish, nonchalant and placid. Rather than that eager reception that Johnny would have expected from anyone else, she offered only a calm, "Sure."

Other guys would have taken her casualness as a resignation to the situation, feeling like she really didn't want to marry him but it seemed better than breaking up. He would have been put off by how she didn't seem to care and not seen past the surface. That kind of guy would have stormed out of the room, cursing himself for putting so much thought into something that didn't matter to her. He would have had that stereotypical response that guys have had for generations. However, Johnny Zacharra wasn't that guy any more than she wasn't that girl. He was confident and comfortable, cocky and collected. Rather than that brusque overreaction that Maxie could have expected from someone else, he replied with only a bright, "Yeah?"

"Yeah, of course I'll marry you," she gushed finally, throwing her arms around him. He dipped her back into a deep kiss, making her feel like that fairytale princess she had never really believed in. When they pulled apart, Maxie started laughing uncontrollably. "I can't believe you just asked me to marry you."

"You're the crazy one that said yes," he teased her as he joined into her laughter. The entire thing felt absurdly right, something neither of them could have ever thought they would find, least of all with each other. "God, we're really getting married."

"Yep," she grinned, looking down at the beautiful ring Johnny had slipped onto her left finger. It was a sizable emerald-cut diamond in a platinum setting, exactly what she would have picked out. "This ring is beautiful, Johnny." She leaned forward and pecked his lips briefly. "And by the way, you get to tell Mac."

Johnny hadn't even thought about her father. He wondered if he was the kind of guy that would want someone to ask permission before proposing to his daughter. However, that really didn't matter considering that Maxie wasn't the kind of girl that needed someone else to give her permission to do anything. "He's your father."

"That's why you get to tell him," she retorted. "I can't be the one to break his heart. I'm his little girl. You're the guy who has stolen me away. You have to do it."

"I'll tell your dad if you tell Claudia."

"You're supposed to be the big man who takes care of me," she whined, her voice dripping with false vulnerability. "You should be the one to tell your sister and my dad."

He shook his head as he laughed, kissing the tip of her nose. "You only want me to take care of you when it comes to something you don't want to do," he laughed. Still, he would do anything in the world for her, including face the wrath of her father and the discontent of his sister. "Fine, I'll tell them, but you owe me."

"I can think of a few ways to make good on my debts," she moaned into his ear, running her hands down his shirt and over his chest. Johnny's muscles tensed under her touch. "Too bad that my family will be here soon. We have some celebrating to do."

"I could be quick," he offered. They both knew that he couldn't. Quickies just weren't their style. "Alright, well, we have later."

"And the rest of our lives," she grinned happily as she held up her sizable ring and gazed at it in the sunlight. "I'm really happy right now, Johnny. You make me really happy."

Johnny had heard Maxie tell him a lot of things in the three months since they had been together, but she had never quite used happy to describe it before. She had been in love, safe and at home. She had been hungry, yearning and turned on. She had been confused, upset and hurt. She had been every emotion in the book, but tonight, for the first time, she had finally told him how happy he made her.

"You make me happy, too."

Fin.

Author's Note: Thank you all for reading both of my JoMax stories over the past few months. I have had a great timing writing for the pairing and have been blessed to enjoy amazing reviews from very loyal readers. Check out my other story, Back Here Again, if you're interested in other GH stories I'm penning right now.