“Jasmine’s back.” Someone spotted Jasmine and shouted out loud. The crowd at the gate of the Soxes’ residence gave way by parting into two rows. Jasmine got a good look at the people at the gate. Most of them were the townspeople and nearby tenants. They looked at her, all smiles. With everybody moving out of the way, Jasmine found out what everybody was looking at from the gate. It was a humongous display of flowers. Josh, who had not called or texted her all day, stood next to the flowers with a bouquet of roses in his hands. He was smiling widely at her. Jasmine stopped her bike. “Go on, Jas.” Drake drew close and dragged his sister to walk ahead. Jasmine was pulled to the floral display. Those were roses. Josh used thousands of roses to spell out something. [Marry me, Jasmine!]Josh was proposing. After giving it a lot of thought, Josh decided to go the cheesy way and form words with flowers. It would be beautiful and romantic. He could then propose to Jasmin
Seeing that Jasmine took her time to respond to Josh, Mrs. Lowe said to Mrs. Sox, “Why isn’t Jasmine saying anything? Josh is such a good man. She won’t find another man like him. I wish I could say yes on her behalf.” Shawn uttered, “She shouldn’t answer too quickly. She needs time to consider. It will seem like Jas is too eager if she gives an answer too soon.” Jasmine was happy to give her hand in marriage. No longer playing it coy, she reached out to take the roses from Josh and loudly responded, “Yes, Josh. I’ll marry you.” Josh was overjoyed. He pulled out the engagement ring and took Jasmine’s hand to put the ring on her finger. Jasmine pulled him up. Josh put his arms around her, lowered his gaze to meet hers, and kissed her lips. A thundering applause broke out. Jasmine closed her eyes and indulged in the brief mingle of hot breaths before opening her eyes. She beamed as Josh held her. “When did you start planning this?” she whispered while resting in his arm
“Let’s go inside. You must have dinner with us tonight,” Mr. Sox said to his future son-in-law. For Josh to propose to his daughter before everybody, Mr. Sox was pleased with his future son-in-law. Unlike Mrs. Sox who took to Josh immediately, Mr. Sox needed some warming up. Despite Mr. Sox’s approval of Josh, the man kept a stoic face and remained courteous to Josh. “I will stick around for dinner even if you don’t invite me,” Josh brazenly commented. He said hello to Mrs. Lowe and nodded with a smile at Shawn. “Call your father, Shawn. Tell your dad to join us for dinner here after work.” Mrs. Lowe happily informed her son to call her husband over. Dinner together would be pleasant. She had always hoped her niece would find a rich husband. To make it happen, Mrs. Lowe had been playing the matchmaker. It was a pity her niece was not too keen about it. Jasmine went so far as to lie prostrate on the floor at a banquet to stop her chances of marrying up. Since then, Mrs. Lowe
Josh’s statement made Jasmine blush. The guy just could not wait. “Alright. We’ll have the engagement party, then the visit to city hall, and finally the wedding.” Josh respected Jasmine’s wishes and only wanted the best for her. Doing things in the right order would make the Soxes happy. The engagement party was bound to be a huge event since Josh was a man of position. The attendees were the movers and shakers of Wiltspoon’s higher society.Josh gave a call to his parents and told them that he proposed to Jasmine. Of course, Jasmine said yes. He asked his parents if they were free to come over and discuss the wedding details with his future parents-in-law. Delighted by the news, Mrs. Bucham replied, “I’m busy right now, but nothing comes before my son’s marriage. Alright, I’ll ask your dad and uncle to prepare the gift and head over to your in-laws’.” “Thank you, Mom.” Mrs. Bucham answered with a smile, “Don’t mention it. I’m happy for you. Josh, be nice to Jasmine.
Jasmine said, “You must introduce to me the girl who wins Julian’s heart. I’m curious as to the type of woman who can tame Julian.” Josh drew close to her ear and kissed her cheek before uttering in a raspy voice, “You’re now part of the Bucham family. We will be the first to know when Julian finds a girl.” Jasmine gave him a nudge. “The elders are around.” Yet, he kissed her. Sure, Jasmine was bold. However, she was shy to engage in any sort of intimacy in the presence of elders. “The closer we are, the happier they get.” Jasmine took a quick look at the oldies. They were going back and forth on the date of the engagement party to pay attention to the couple. “Let’s go for a stroll,” Jasmine suggested. Josh was more than happy to oblige. “Mom, Josh and I are going to take a walk.” Jasmine told her mom before dragging Josh out the door. The floral display at the gate shimmered under the night sky. Josh had installed colorful fairy lights along the roses. Once the
Unable to stand the wait, Serenity gave Zachary a call. The phone was ringing, but Zachary did not pick up. “Is he really jealous?” she mumbled to herself as she gave up calling him.She placed her phone on the cash register and sat in silence for a while before taking out her crafting tools. She might as well pick up on crafting since she had nothing to do. Serenity was only getting to it when a bouquet of flowers appeared before her eyes. Lifting her chin, Serenity met a pair of beady eyes. “You… Why didn’t you pick up your phone? You could’ve at least answered your text message.” Dropping the crafting, Serenity took the bouquet and groaned. Zachary looked deeply into her eyes and replied, “I’m here now, so I didn’t take the call. I was busy during the day so I could get off work early today.” Seeing that she had finished a miniature tree, he picked up the copper wire product for a look. “Didn’t you hire people? Don’t tire yourself out. You need to watch your hands
Zachary’s scorching lips could touch Serenity’s cheek if she cocked her head back. Putting down the flowers, Serenity stripped his arms from around her, stood up, and turned around to meet him face-to-face. “I asked. Shawn came back because his mother wasn’t feeling well. He took two days off and combined with the weekend, he had four days to visit his mom.“He thought about dropping in to see Jas since he was passing by the bookshop. He didn’t come for me.“Jas told me that Shawn called her before coming to see if I was at the shop. He only came when he was sure I was not there. I ran into him when he was about to leave. We didn’t talk for more than five minutes.“Harry and Milo were outside watching. You know your bodyguards will be on your side if anything does happen.” Serenity helplessly pinched his face. “Oh, you. You’re always jealous. I told you that I see Shawn as a younger brother. I don’t have that kind of feeling for him.” Taking her pinching hand, Zachary leaned
Zachary asked. “We need to deliver some poultry to my sister, so we should leave now.” Her sister might be asleep if they went too late. The last thing they wanted was to wake Liberty up. Serenity closed the shop and got into Zachary’s car while the bodyguards took her car back.During the ride, she asked Zachary, “Any news on the kidnapping at the zoo? Was it not the Newmans?” Zachary took a moment in silence before answering, “The only thing confirmed is that Mr. Newman wasn’t in on it.” “If it wasn’t him, was it Mrs. Newman?” He mentioned nothing about Mrs. Newman. “Josh is still investigating. Nothing is concrete for now, but we have our eyes on Mrs. Newman.” Zachary had believed the prime target was him right from the start. After a series of investigations though, he realized that the mastermind was after Serenity, not him. Since Mrs. Newman and her daughter had a grudge against Serenity, they zeroed in on Mrs. Newman. “Mr. Newman and his wife seem to have a lo