Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Auggie looks deeply touched. Like he’s working hard to stem the tide of emotion rising inside him. He chokes out, “Are you saying you’ll come back to Seattle with me? The condo is still yours, by the way. We can pick up right where we left off.”
“No, the condo is yours. But I’d love to live with you at your place while you sell it or rent it out, if you’ll have me.”
He exhales. “I want nothing more than to live with you. I can’t stand being apart from you. But I don’t want you coming to live with me because you think you don’t have anywhere else to go. The condo is yours, Charlotte. None of that paperwork is legally enforceable. And even if it were, I’d undo the transfer and give the place right back to you.”
I already knew Lloyd’s wishes weren’t legally enforceable, thanks to a couple google searches. But legal standards didn’t matter to me, in the end. Pretty quickly, I realized what I was going to do. Not because I was required to do it, but because I wanted to. “The issue isn’t the legality of Lloyd’s will,” I say. “Lloyd expressed his dying wish—and it was a wish I happened to agree wholeheartedly with. Like he said, there’s nobody more deserving than you.”
“Charlotte—”
“No, listen to me. It’s not only what Lloyd wanted as his dying wish. It’s what I want now. In the present. I want you to have it, Auggie. It’s all yours.”
Auggie shakes his head. “Thankfully, it’s not up to you because I have to sign the transfer paperwork to make it effective. And I’m not going to do that. Ever. The condo is still yours. The transfer never happened. So, that’s that.”
I’m genuinely confused. I knew Lloyd’s will and video weren’t legally enforceable, thanks to the internet, but it never occurred to me to google anything about the transfer document after I filled it out. I figured Auggie would need to file it somewhere, and I assumed that’s what he’d do. “What do you mean you have to sign it, or I can’t give you the condo? That can’t be the way it works.”
“Google it, if you want. It’s the law in all fifty states.”
My shoulders slump. “Damn.”
He laughs. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
I twist my mouth. “Can I still live with you?”
“Of course, if that’s what you want to do.”
“I do. That’s all I want.”
Auggie’s face lights up. “That’s all I want, too. Well, other than . . .” He abruptly stops himself.
I cock my head. My heart is suddenly thrumming. “Other than what?”
Auggie grabs my hand and points his chin at his grandmother’s ring on my finger. “You’re still wearing it.”
“I love it. It’s pretty and it reminds me of you. Of us.”
His Adam’s apple bobs. His chest heaves. “I liked being introduced to everyone at the birthday party as your fiancé. No, honestly, I loved it. It was the best feeling in the world . . . even though I knew it wasn’t real.”
My heart lodges in my throat. Is Auggie thinking what I think he’s thinking? I can barely breathe, but I manage to choke out, “I loved introducing you as my fiancé. It felt totally natural and right to me.”
“To me, too.”
“I’d even go so far as to say it felt real to me, at the time.” I take a deep breath. “That was an amazing feeling for me. The best feeling. Not scary at all.”
There.
I did it.
I’ve let him know I’d say yes, and now the ball is soundly in his court.
“I felt all of that, too,” he croaks out. “Exactly.”
We stare at each other. In this moment, Auggie looks like a kid standing at the bitter end of the tallest high dive at the community pool. The kid who peeks over his shaking toes and gazes down at the blue water below and tries to muster his courage to take the necessary leap.
I squeeze his hands. “Whatever you’re thinking,” I whisper, “whatever’s on your mind, say it. Do it. You can’t make a mistake here, Auggie. I love you. I want you. I don’t want anyone else but you and I’m positive I never will.”
Auggie’s visibly quaking now. But he takes a deep breath and slowly kneels before me, prompting me to whimper and squeal as he descends.
When Auggie’s knee touches the carpet, he looks up at me with blazing blue eyes and says, “I love you, Charlotte McDougal. You make me feel like I can do and be anything. You’re kind, generous, feisty, fearless, smart, and a little bit crazy in the best possible way . . . And I’d be luckiest man in the world if you’d keep on wearing that ring, but as my fiancée—for real. Charlotte, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I blurt without hesitation.