A/N: I'm posting this chapter on the one-year anniversary of when I posted the very first chapter of this story. Originally, I thought it would maybe be a few chapters, and here we are at Chapter 59! I was so nervous to post the first chapter publicly, but I am so thankful for everyone who has taken the time to read any or all of this story as well as those of you who have left reviews. It means a lot. :) Onward and upward!

Chapter 59: Will You Marry Me? (II)

"No," Angela finally said after thinking about Sam's question for a bit. "I'm not sorry Tony ended up proposing when or how he did. If he had done it in a way that I was expecting, then I might not have taken the time to really understand and work through why I ended up being so hesitant after initially saying yes so quickly."

Angela remembered how even though the first couple of days of their trip had been exhilarating yet exhausting, since Tony was a ski from the minute the lifts opened until they closed kind of skier, he still seemed to be a bit restless, like he was still searching for something to help him get over or past Joey's death. And then, on that third day, Tony's single-mindedness, otherwise known as his obsessiveness, kicked in. He dragged her ice-boating at 6 am in spite of how tired she was from two full days of skiing. But Angela was determined to support him however she needed to.

When he talked the whole family into trying one of the hardest runs on the mountain, that should have been a sign there was more going on with Tony than they all realized. But, again, Angela and the rest of the family put aside their better judgment, at least for the moment, and agreed to tackle the double-black diamond. And that's when everything started to fall apart…

Looking back now, Angela could kick herself for just going along with everything Tony wanted to do since it had ended up at a great physical cost to her. But, at the time, she didn't know how else to show Tony she supported what he was going through and would be there for him no matter what.

And that night, when he proposed or at least tried to, she was overwhelmed with love. Sure, they hadn't really talked about when they would get engaged, but they both knew it was coming sooner rather than later. After all, when they finally got together, they knew it was forever.

At first, Angela wanted to believe that maybe this was contributing to why Tony had been acting so strangely lately. He obviously had been planning to surprise her, and he must have been feeling so nervous about it that it caused him to not act like himself. Angela remembered how happy she was even though the proposal had gone a bit sideways. She had waited so long for them to be together and, subsequently, for his proposal that she was on cloud nine until she noticed the ring he had given her belonged to her mother. When Tony started talking, or rather rambling in explanation, she became completely crushed.

Not only had Tony not been planning to propose, but he also had to be talked into it by the rest of the family. Who was this version of Tony? Where had the caring and understanding man she'd fallen in love with gone? The Tony who told that judge back in South Carolina that he wouldn't want to get married because something or someone had forced his hand.

Saying no to the man she loved with all her heart had been one of the hardest things Angela had ever done. Tony knocked on her bedroom door later that night, but she ignored him even though she was wide awake. And then, they silently left for home a day early. Angela still felt terrible that they were both so preoccupied with what happened between them that they'd accidentally left Jonathan at a gas station on the drive back to Fairfield.

"Mom, why did you keep saying no, especially after Dad proposed the second time?" Katie asked gently, realizing that she didn't really know her mother's reasoning for continuing to turn him down.

Sighing, Angela remembered back to how awkward things were between her and Tony that next week. He was so demonstrative, always wearing his emotions on his sleeve and wanting to fix any type of problem right away. She needed time to sort through her feelings, and finally, he had given her the space she needed. Or so she thought until he sprung the second proposal on her, which was even worse than the first. It was the complete opposite of what she wanted. She was a very private person, which Tony knew, yet he somehow felt a public proposal at an NFL game, of all places, was where he'd get her to say yes. And she'd thought about it for a minute, mainly to save him some humiliation, but this was so not them, and she could also tell that it had become a bit of an ego trip for him. This was all so wrong in so many ways.

"Angela, I love you. I know doing this so publicly is not what you were expecting, but I wanted to show you how serious I am," Tony said, breaking the silence that was hanging over them during their drive back to Fairfield after the game.

"I don't doubt that you love me. I know you do, and I love you," Angela said, trying to keep her tears at bay. "I just think we need to let everything calm down and see where things stand in a while. There's no timetable on when anything more needs to happen in our relationship."

"Angela, that sounds like a bit of a cop out," Tony said, giving her a sideways glance. "We knew when we got together that marriage would be the next step, and after seven years, I thought it was something we both would want to happen sooner rather than later. What's really going on?"

Angela couldn't answer him because, at first, she, herself, didn't understand why she was being so resistant beyond being disappointed in how Tony's proposals had unfolded. He was right; she did want to marry him, and after so many years, there wasn't a good reason to keep putting it off.

It wasn't until she was in bed alone later that night that she really started to take stock of why she was so reticent, and then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Yes, she loved Tony, and yes, she wanted to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him. But she had also felt that way about Michael, or at least thought she had, and look how that had turned out. She knew her love for Tony ran much deeper than her love for Michael ever had, but was that enough? Tony was the best thing that had ever happened to her, as she had admitted years ago when he was running for president of the Parents' Association.

She was scared. Scared to take a second chance because of how much she loved him. She knew she wouldn't be able to bear it if things didn't work out between them for some reason. But she also reminded herself she and Tony had both been too scared for years to take the next step of becoming a couple for that exact reason, and now that they had, it was the most fulfilling relationship of her life.

"Oh, I get it now," Katie said after Angela relayed what she was feeling and thinking after Tony proposed the second time. "Dad, I'm sorry. That must have been so hard for you too."

Tony squeezed his daughter's shoulder before answering. "It was, but your mom was right to turn me down. Mona, Sam, and Jonathan had good intentions, but I shouldn't have let them talk me into it. I was feeling lost after Joey's death, and even knowing that I was going to propose to Angela at some point, I should have let it unfold naturally. I'm just glad that she said yes in the end," he finished giving Angela a wink.

"Who finally said yes in the end?" Angela asked with a smirk as she couldn't help but think back to the conversation she'd had with her mother and Sam and her mother's final words on the subject.

"Angela, you love him, and he loves you. That's all that matters. Everything else will work itself out. Propose to him if that will get this house back to normal."

'Oh, Mother,' Angela thought to herself, 'how I wish you were still here.'

Once again, her mother had been right. And even with the conversation with Dr. Bellows echoing in her mind about how she always ended up having to go first, hell, she had been the one to propose to Michael; somehow, she knew what she needed to do now.

It felt right for it to simply be just the two of them, at home, in their living room. And when she started speaking from her heart and saw the look of love in Tony's eyes, she didn't mind being the one to get down on one knee.

"I still think it's so romantic that you ended up proposing to Dad. It was kind of fitting considering how untraditional our family was at the time," Sam said as a soft smile lit up her face. "And Dad, I'm glad you were secure enough to say yes."

"You mean smart enough," Tony said as he leaned up so he could give his wife a soft but chaste kiss on the lips.

"Didn't Mona's mother come to visit really soon after you finally got engaged?" Sam asked, thinking to herself what a surprise that was since Mona, Angela, and Jonathan had never so much as mentioned, in more than seven years, that Mona's mother was still alive and living in England!

"That's right," Angela said, closing her eyes as she began to remember how her "Nana's" visit had burst the romantic and blissful bubble she and Tony had been living in ever since their engagement…