Even though Fiona and I had been dating for a while now, my mother was convinced that we would be breaking up any time soon. She called every now and then, in a manner she believed was sporadically, but was really every other day, to ask how Fiona and I were doing. Trying to get some sort of bad news from me, but she’d never be lucky.

The call dropped, and Mason looked at me. I shrugged. I was having an existential crisis, and I would rather if my mother didn’t call trying to talk to me about anything.

The phone rang again, and this time, I picked it up. When she spoke, my mother didn’t sound like her usual smug self; she sounded panicky. I felt my heart rate pick up, thinking something had happened to my father. But when she spoke, I found out it was even worse than that.

“Fiona was in an accident.”

****

I couldn’t remember the drive up to my parents’ place. But I remember calling Allison so she could talk me out of any panic I had driven myself into. We both couldn’t understand what Fiona was doing at my parents’ house in the first place. She was only in the same room as my parents when we had our family dinners. And I was always there.

Always.

I didn’t care much about parking properly when I pulled up to the house. I ran up to the house, wondering why they didn’t take her to the hospital. I had no idea what happened exactly, but whatever it was, it must have been serious if my mother had called me with a worried voice.

“Oh, thank God you’re here,” my mother said as soon as I entered the house. Fiona was lying on one of the sofas, a doctor was sitting next to her with a stethoscope hanging around his shoulders.

“What happened?” I asked, hovering above him, not wanting to disturb his process. Knowing Fiona was fine trumped my need to hold her in my arms.

“I’m completely fine,” Fiona stated.

“Honey, you fainted,” my mother said in reply, but there was no animosity in her voice. If anything, she seemed concerned about Fiona. Genuinely concerned.

“I was just surprised.”

“Whenever anyone feels ready to tell me what happened, I’m happy.”

“The horses arrived today.”

“Horses?”

“I’m sure I told you I’m trying to revive the stables.”

I wanted to shake my head, and maybe I would have, and it would lead to a conversation I wouldn’t have minded having, but the love of my life was looking too pale for comfort. And was that dirt on her clothes?

“She’s fine,” the doctor said, and stood up. I immediately took the spot he vacated and took Fiona’s hand in mine. She offered me a smile, and tried to sit up, but I immediately reached out to make sure that didn’t happen.

“I really am fine.”

“She was just shocked, probably from almost being trampled.”

I blinked once and then again before turning my attention to my mother. “Your horses almost trampled Fiona?”

“Actually,” my father cut in, “it almost trampled your mother, but your girlfriend decided to play hero and push her out of the way.”

My mother looked at my dad with furrowed brows. A clear indication that whatever decision she reached about Fiona, he hadn’t been informed of the change yet.

“It was mighty brave of her,” my mother said, looking at Fiona with affection that hadn’t been directed her way before.

Fiona shifted under the weight of her gaze, clearly not used to it. “It was nothing.”

“No, it wasn’t. You almost died,” I said immediately.

My mother smiled at her and nodded. “I don’t even know why you’d do that when I’ve been horrible to you. I’m sorry it took you almost dying for me to come to my senses.”

Sure, having someone almost die for you was something that was life-altering, but if it was what it took for my mother to come around, then it was the sign I needed to know that the universe really intended for me to propose to Fiona.

I was going to do it whether my mother approved or not.

“I’m taking her home,” I said. “I hope you get your killer horses under control.”

I’m going to ask her to marry me.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Fiona

The Carrs were having a party, and in their style, it was a grand one. They mostly attended parties other people threw. For some reason, I always assumed they didn’t like the hassle of cleaning up after their guests went home.

But what was throwing me off wasn’t the fact that they were having a party; it was the people they invited to the party.

Firstly, Mason was here with his family. I had met his wife, and we get along really well. His children are fantastic as well; I could see why he was depressed when he wasn’t with them. Now, he seemed to radiate with happiness.

Some top executives from work were there too. They mostly floated from one end of the room to another, talking with the elder Mr. Carr because the junior Mr. Carr, Christian, thought it was funny to invite me to the party and not show up himself.

He claimed to be in a meeting, one he couldn’t say no to attending, but he forgot that I was responsible for planning his day. There was no way I’d have missed him having a meeting. Which left me with two options:

One, he really had a meeting with someone who called him on the phone so they could talk, or two, something fishy was happening. Melissa’s niceness was tuned up all the notch to distract me from it.

It wasn’t that Melissa had reverted back to being mean to me. She seemed to believe now that I was worthy of her children. Both Allison and Christian. Allison seemed to believe that I put my foot down to her mother once and for all, even after I told her that if anything was down, it was my back.

I almost died. I didn’t think of it in that light, but everyone who heard the story thought I did, which made Melissa want to be even nicer to me. It pulled us together.

“You should have this,” Melissa said, handing me a yellow glass. “It helps calm the nerves.”

I shook my head at the offer. “You seem more nervous than me. Is something going on?”

“Where?” was all she said before turning on her heels and walking away with the yellow glass still in her hand.

If I wasn’t concerned, I was now. There was no way something wasn’t going on. Melissa was acting really weird, and I haven’t yet gotten a read on Mr. Carr to know if something was off. He was still chatting with the board members, smiling like he was fond of doing.

Mason was also having fun, clinging to Cherie like he was scared she’d walk off if he let her out of his sight. It’s a miracle he still managed to show up to work. He acted like he couldn’t function without her whenever she was present.

Another point of concern was this wasn’t a laid-back party. It was a very formal party. Everyone was dressed elegantly, but I didn’t know the occasion. A birthday? Anniversary? Was someone getting awarded tonight?

Nothing came to mind, and whenever I brought it up, everyone looked at me like I was going crazy. And who is to blame them? I, who was a part of the family, didn’t know what was going on.

And not to sound like a bragger, but I did look better than everyone else in the room in my pink gown and white stilettos. I was the life of the party, dress-wise.