“None of this was your fault. Yeah, you should have read the report, but there’s blame to go around. Mr. Hawthorne should have been directly involved in a campaign like this one and he shouldn’t have turned it over to someone who had never handled an account before.” I shook my head angrily.
“We had the consultant, Adam Rutherford.” She shrugged. “I guess Mr. Hawthorne thought he could pick up the slack since he had experience.”
“Yeah, like I said. There’s blame to go around. Adam Rutherford has been involved in enough advertising campaigns to know FDA reports should be reviewed. He’s worked with numerous energy drink companies.” I tapped my fingers on the counter. “Anyway, I bought West End Marketing and I let Mr. Hawthorne know I was replacing him at the end of year. That should give him plenty of time to get the company past the scandal and find a new job. I’ll bankroll the place until then.”
“You...you what?” She turned the heat off on the stove and helped Benjamin down to the floor before walking around so she we could have a face to face conversation.
“You’re going to run West End Marketing for me, but I think we’ll change the name. I’ve always liked The Martin Agency, but apparently some firm already owns that, so I guess we’ll go with the Martin-Grant Marketing Agency for now.” I shrugged and smiled at her. “We might have to change that name if you end up marrying me though.”
“Um...uh.” She swallowed hard. “Is that a proposal?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It was a hypothetical.”
“Good.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I would have said no.”
“You’re marrying Daddy?” Benjamin came running up to her and grabbed her hand.
“Uh...not yet?” She said her words awkwardly as she looked down at Benjamin.
“Was that a yes?” I folded my arms and stared at her.
“You said it wasn’t a proposal.” She shook her head.
“Well, I didn’t propose but it sounds like Benjamin did.” I reached down and squeezed my son’s shoulder. “It also sounds like you said yes—well, not yet—but that’s basically yes.”
“We’ll talk about this tonight.” She patted my arm and went back into the kitchen with a smile on her face.
I knew what I wanted, even if it was rather sudden by most conventional terms. Nothing about our relationship had been very conventional up to that point, and she was already living with us. Abby was the first person I had really felt anything for in so long that it was clear to me that we were meant to be together. She was so good with Benjamin and he already seemed to adore her as much as I did. I knew we had a lot to learn about each other, but I couldn’t think of a better way to do it than growing old together.
“SO ARE WE GOING TO talk now?” I waited until Abby had put Benjamin to bed and closed the door to our bedroom.
“Yes.” She smiled and dropped down into the bed, stretching out with the side of her head resting on her palm. “Were you being serious earlier or just messing with me?”
“If I was serious, I would have given you a ring.” I smiled and reached down, rubbing her leg.
“I see.” She nodded and I saw her lip tense up. “Yeah, that makes sense. I figured you weren’t.”
“I’m still testing you out. I’m not sure I’m ready to buy the whole package yet.” I pushed on her with my finger.
“Wow, that makes me feel special.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I was going to say no—”
While she tried to rationalize my words, I reached under the covers and pulled out the ring box I had hidden there when I came to bed. Before her sentence left her lips, the box opened and a three-carat square cut diamond set in platinum sparkled. She moved her mouth as if she was talking, but no words came out. She looked at me and then back down at the diamond.
“Now I’m asking you to marry me. If you say no, I’m going to close this box and I’ll never ask you again.” I pushed the box towards her.
“Yes!” She leapt into my arms and started kissing me. “Let’s go tell Benjamin.”
“Wait, I was hoping we could celebrate...” My cock was already pressing against the quilt.
“We should celebrate with Benjamin!” She hopped off the bed and ran towards the door.
“Not really the kind of celebration I had in mind—plus he’s in bed.” I heard him let out a cheer when she ran into his room and presumably told him the news.
I rolled out of bed and headed towards his room to celebrate with them.
Epilogue: Abby
We decided to wait a while after we were engaged to actually get married. I was perfectly fine with the engagement, but I still wanted to find my place in his life. Everything happened so fast in a whirlwind of chaos that I wanted to let things blow over a little bit before we became husband and wife. Once things settled down, I had to sit down with my family and explain what happened—both at my job and with Max. They were understanding and supportive, which was more than I felt like I deserved. I also wanted to do something for the family of the boy that got sick. Even though everyone, including the courts that ruled against Energy Enhanced, put the blame solely on the company, I couldn’t stop beating myself up about it. Max agreed to help me establish a scholarship that would send someone from a family impacted by a defective product to college every year. I couldn’t rewind time and prevent it, but I could make one big impact on someone’s life every year as a testament to him.