n

n

nAvery needed to pull herself together before Christian realized something was wrong. Why couldn't she stop crying?

n

"Are you okay?

" he asked in concern after she had been crying for about five minutes.

n

"I'm fine,

" she said automatically before using her readymade excuse.

"Special occasions are hard without my dad, that's all. Don't worry about me.

"

nShe would probably get emotional about that on a separate occasion as the wedding got closer. Her dad should have been there to see her get married. She felt cheated that he wouldn't be able to because of the selfishness of Nolan Hunsacher.

nChristian hugged her tighter.

"Too late for that. I know it's hard for you not having him here…why don't you take me to meet him officially? I really should meet my future father-in-law sooner or later.

"

nAvery actually smiled. He was so cute. It had been a while since she had last been to her dad's grave anyway. She was pretty sure the last time was on the third anniversary of his death. She and Angelo had gone together since his parents weren't buried far from her dad.

n

"I think he would like that.

"

nShe wished her dad could have met Christian for real. Outside of a hero context. He used to complain about Mercury all the time. Despite never being able to beat Nox he had still been a nuisance to watch out for.

nThings would have been different if they weren't nemeses. She was sure he would have appreciated Christian's kindness and sense of humor on top of how happy he made his daughter.

nHer dad would have liked him if the situation was different. Ironically, he was the reason they met in the first place. Taking his position as Nox was what started all of this. Christian knew who she was but things likely wouldn't have progressed the way they did if they met solely through Carmine's because he had seemed so boring at first.

nHe wasn't boring at all. He was simply shy. You didn't see that in his hero persona. The mask must have lent him extra courage.

nThat or he was bolder with people he didn't like than those he did. That would make sense too considering how much he disliked Nox and was determined to think the worst of

"him.

"

nHe would be furious if he knew he had married his archnemesis. Absolutely furious.

nAvery shook those thoughts free. No! She was not allowed to think about that right now. This was a happy occasion and she was trying to make herself stop crying not make things worse. She could deal with the fallout of her raging thoughts later when she was alone.

n

"We should go tomorrow,

" Christian said, reminding her of what they had been talking about.

n

"Right. We can do that. And uh…I need to tell Ness. And Angelo,

" she said while trying not to cringe at the very thought.

"You should call your parents while I do that. Did they know you were planning to propose?

"

n

"Are you kidding? They've been hounding me about it for ages.

"

nAvery couldn't quite stifle her laughter. She knew Nancy and Brian liked her but hadn't realized they wanted her as a daughter-in-law so badly. She supposed she should have since Nancy kept wanting to go shopping together. She didn't have any daughters so Avery was the next best thing. She didn't have a mother so that worked out well.

nShe was willing to bet Vanessa, Nancy, and Angelo's tías would all want to be involved in the wedding planning process. When should they do this? She didn't know about Christian but she didn't have all that many people she cared about inviting.

nThe Cruzes, her coworkers, and a few people from culinary school and high school ought to cover it. She didn't need anything too fancy.

nChristian didn't really have friends (how could he with how busy he had been as Mercury?) so there was a solid chance he only cared about inviting family and a handful of other people he knew too. She would need to ask him.

n

"Do you want to have a big wedding?

"

nHe shook his head in horror.

"Absolutely not! All I care about is marrying you.

"

n

"Oh, good. Because I was wondering when we should do this. I think we should be able to pull everything off in the next few months. We could have a winter wedding. There are never any special occasions in January aside from the new year so that would be as good a time for an anniversary as any.

"

nChristian smiled at her.

"Works for me. We should go make those calls now.

"

nRight. The calls. Avery was dreading calling Angelo with every fiber of her being but it had to be done. If he found out through Facebook he would be furious.

nHe was going to be furious either way but she would rather not hurt his feelings in the process. He was one of her closest friends and while it might be too much to ask for him to be happy for her she didn't want to upset him more than necessary.

nFirst, she sent Vanessa a picture of the ring with the caption 'I'm sure you had something to do with this so thank you'. Her best friend called her almost immediately after and squealed into the phone.

n

"I knew he was doing it soon but didn't know it was today! How did he propose? The ring looks gorgeous!

"

nAvery couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. Vanessa was a true blue friend. At least one person was happy for her. Hopefully, that would make up for Angelo's undoubtedly negative reaction. She wanted to be excited about this. It was worth being excited for! (Additional stressors aside.)

n

"It is, isn't it? You know me so well.

"

n

"I hope you have my back for when I have a serious boyfriend. I do NOT want to be wearing something I hate for the rest of my life, thank you very much,

" Vanessa said in a tone that made Avery laugh.

n

"What are best friends for?

"

n

"So how did he do it? He didn't exactly give me any details; he just wanted to know what kind of ring you would like.

"

n

"It was really sweet, actually. You know I'm obsessed with cake decorating videos. He somehow got one of my favorite cake artists to make a video of making a cake of my ring in a ring box with 'will you marry me, Avery?' on it. I nearly fell off the couch when I realized he was kneeling in front of me with the same ring.

"

n

"That was the perfect proposal for you! Major points to your man for that. Did you see this coming at all? Have you two talked about getting married before?

"

n

"Not specifically…but we did have a talk about the future a few weeks ago and I guess that inspired him.

"

nAvery hadn't been expecting Christian to act so soon. Talking vaguely about the future she wasn't even sure she could have had been meant to be done in a distant, far-off sort of way. She did know he was retiring for her though so she supposed she should have seen it coming.

n

"What sort of talk about the future leads to a proposal? I mean, I sort of saw it coming when he asked you to move in but I didn't expect it to be this soon either,

" Vanessa said.

n

"It was about things we wanted out of life.

"

nWhat Avery wanted and what Christian wanted weren't that different provided her mission as Nox didn't get in the way. She did want to live peacefully and have a family with him someday. She just…didn't know if that was in the cards for her because of the weight of her secrets.

nSecrets…responsibility…revenge…they had a lot working against them. And all she wanted was to be a normal woman in love.

n

"Aha. So I guess the political views weren't as much of an issue as you thought?

" Vanessa prompted.

n

"…I'm just going to have to not bring them up,

" Avery said lamely.

nHer secret should be safe. It WOULD be safe once everything with Nolan Hunsacher was out of the way. Angelo seemed hopeful that Leah would be able to speed that up. Avery had tried not to bank on that before and get her hopes up but now she clung to that like a lifeline.

n

"He is a perfect catch in basically every other way. Nobody agrees on everything!

" Vanessa said with a small laugh.

nNo, nobody agreed on everything. But their fundamental difference of opinion and the fact that she had been lying to him about almost everything would destroy their relationship. Avery was sure of it.

nShe didn't want that to happen so she was going to have to take this one to her grave. The sooner they got the mind control issue taken care of the better. She wanted it out of the way so she didn't have to worry about it anymore.

n