She kissed him. She didn't care that they were standing in the middle of the driveway, in plain view of the neighbors. She kissed him. Even though she had to have known Frank and Mei Lin could see them if they only happened to look behind them as their car drove away. She kissed him. Pouring every ounce of her being into the kiss. The corners of her red lips upturned into a small smile when she finally pulled away to go back inside, and Lucien Blake knew it was the right time.
The timing wasn't perfect. He was still technically married to Mei Lin after all. But if he waited for the stars to align, he'd be waiting forever. God knows he'd wasted enough time where Jean was concerned, and he refused to waste another minute of their time together.
He grabbed her hand, stopping her in her tracks. "Jean," he said, "there's something I need to ask you." She turned back to face him; her eyes wide as she waited with bated breath for him to continue. Shuffling closer to her, he smiled. Fumbling in his vest pocket, he pulled out a ring. His mother's ring. The same ring he'd given her before Mei Lin appeared on the doorstep.
He didn't get down on one knee. Nor did he quote Shakespeare, comparing her to a summer's day. He didn't recite poetry, or profess his undying love for her in a heartfelt speech. Grand, romantic gestures weren't his thing. Perhaps, if he were a younger man, he would have done all of that.
"Will you marry me?" He simply asked her, sliding the ring onto her finger.
Her smile spread across her lips, until she was grinning from ear to ear. She didn't cry tears of joy, nor did she leap into his arms, meshing their lips together in a passionate embrace. With Christopher, she'd been more prone to such histrionics. But she had been a lot younger then, and she was no longer that silly naive girl that believed marrying Christopher would be the end of all her troubles, and the beginning of her happily ever after. Happily ever after wasn't the end of the story though, like the fairy tales lead everyone to believe. It was simply the end of one chapter, and the beginning of the next.
"Yes," was her simple reply to the question she had hoped and prayed he would ask her long before Mei Lin reappeared in his life. She stepped closer to him. "Of course I will." Then, she kissed him. Not caring that the neighbors or random passerby could see. She just kissed him.