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“You know you didn’t have to pay,” I said as I pulled up to the curb outside Karrin’s house.
“For the last time,” she said. “I wanted to.”
“But you didn’t have to,” I insisted. She got out of the car carefully to avoid mussing her dress.
“You didn’t have to give me a sock full of diamonds,” she said pointedly.
Fair. “Still, aren’t we supposed to split the check?” I asked. “I know I’m out of practice, but I don’t think that secretly arranging to pay when you make the reservations is standard date fare.”
“Let it go,” she said. “Your ego will survive.” She waited for me to lock up the car and join her, and we walked towards her house together.
“You still haven’t told me the occasion,” I said.
“Did I need one?” she asked. “I thought that casual dinners out were one of the perks of dating.”
Warmth bloomed in my chest at her words. It felt like we’d been orbiting each other for an eternity, and I still could hardly believe that we were together. Actually together. I smiled down at her for a moment before replying, “Casual? Is that what just happened? Because my definition of casual includes take-out boxes, not tuxedoed wine guys.”
“They’re called sommeliers,” Murph said. “A fact which I know you know.”
“Wine guys,” I repeated. “Fancy.”
“Okay,” Murphy admitted, a little smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “It was fancy.”
I liked that smile. That smile promised happy things.
“You look good in heels,” I said.
“Not that they make much difference, you gigantic lump,” she said with a snort.
“Oh, they make a difference. Trust me.” She looked up at me through her eyelashes, giving me bedroom eyes that did not completely cover up the simple happiness on her face. I grinned. “Murph, I hope you’re not trying t-”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled uncomfortably. I threw out an arm to stop her, trying to locate the source of my unease. Murphy’s house was dark and quiet. Nothing was out of place, and yet... “Something’s off,” I said quietly.
“It’s fine,” she said, pushing my arm down gently. “Nothing’s wrong.”
That surprised me. She never questioned my spidey senses, unless- “Oh God.”
She smiled.
“Tell me you did not invite people. Was this a really elaborate set-up for an intervention? Because I appreciate the effort, the food was great, but-”
“Dresden, be quiet,” she said, her voice serious but her eyes crinkling with humor. She took my hand and began pulling me the rest of the way towards the house.
“Murph,” I pleaded. “There are people in there. I am in a suit. What did you do?”
“You didn’t spill anything on yourself earlier, you look fine,” she said.
“That is not what I meant!” I yelped. I glanced at the front windows and lowered my voice. “I don’t like surprises!”
“You don’t like ‘attacked by a demon’ surprises. You’re fine with the other kind,” she said. “The other kind gives you things to complain about.” She reached into her purse and pulled out- Hell’s bells, a blindfold?!
“Uhhhhh,” I said.
“I promise you’ll enjoy this,” she said. “And I'd like for it to be a surprise. But if you’d rather not, we can just walk inside.”
What can a guy say to that? I put on the blindfold.
There was no loud noise or sudden music when we walked inside. In fact, nobody did anything. If I didn’t know better, I would have said that no one else was there at all. Hand on my arm, Murph led me towards her living room. For lack of anything else to do, I sharpened my hearing and Listened. My heartbeat. Karrin’s. In the back room was another five, no, six heartbeats. Also, someone was panting? So, five humans and Mouse, and if my dog was here then so was my daughter.
We reached the living room and my brother’s baritone came from the corner. “Nice monkey suit.”
“I’d say you look pretty, too, but thank God I can’t see your smug mug,” I shot back.
“My mug is flawless,” he said easily.
My personal seeing-eye friend directed me to the couch and, obligingly, I sat. Then frowned. “This isn’t your couch, Murph.”
“You know, I was thinking the same thing,” she said dryly. “Thomas?”
“Your sofa was too small,” he said. She must have given him a look because he laughed and said, “Relax, it’s just in the other room.”
“This is fun and all, guys, but am I going to wear this for the rest of the night?” I asked, jerking a thumb at my face.
“God, I hope so,” Thomas said.
I almost flipped him off before remembering Maggie was probably in the room. I settled for ignoring him, like a mature and responsible adult. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying.
“Just a sec, Harry, almost done,” Butters said from the far side of the room.
“Here you go,” Will said, entering the room and handing Murphy something that smelled like popcorn. “We may have made a little mess.”
“We’ll clean it up,” Georgia said from the direction of the kitchen. “He’ll clean it up.”
“How do you make a mess out of -? You know what, I don’t want to know,” Murphy said.
“That should do it,” Butters said.
“‘Bout time,” Thomas complained.
“I didn’t see you helping,” Butters replied.
“I moved the couch,” Thomas said loftily.
“Boys,” Murph said. “Sit.”
“Yes ma'am,” Will said. The couch depressed noticeably. Will was a heavy dude.
“Of course the werewolf knows ‘sit’,” Thomas said, pushing off from the wall. Will growled.
“That’s not nice, Uncle Thomas, say you’re sorry!” Maggie said, crawling into my lap with only a minimum of painfully placed knee jabs.
“Thomas?” I said expectantly. I used his heartbeat to track his movement across the room with my head, purely because I knew it would unsettle him.
“Ugh,” he said. “I’m sorry, and you’re creepy.” He flumped down on the couch beside me, despite there being an entire side of the couch unfilled and not enough room between me and the sofa arm. “Move over.”
I rolled my eyes under the blindfold and scooched over as much as I could, making sure to elbow him in the side a couple times as I went. As a happy side-effect, I was now pressed right up against Murph, and I belatedly wondered if that wasn’t Thomas’s original plan. Still didn’t feel bad about elbowing him, though.
“Ladies and gentlemen, are we ready?” Butters said. There was a short, quiet commotion as everyone loaded onto the sofa and the floor in front of it. “Harry, you may feel a little something.” Before I had time to worry about what that meant, a circle snapped into place around us, followed by the hum of electronics powering on.
“Close your eyes,” Murph whispered.
“I’m already wearing a blindfold,” I pointed out.
She softly touched my cheek, with just enough pressure to turn my head towards her. “Just do it,” she murmured. She was close enough that I could feel her breath.
“Okay,” I said. “Eyes closed.”
“Ew,” said Maggie from my lap. I put my hand over her giggling face and leaned forward, trusting that Murphy would be there. Her lips met mine, gently, and her hand moved up from my cheek to slide the blindfold away. Thomas whistled. Murph’s mouth turned up, smiling into the kiss. With my kid’s eyes safely covered I was free to give my brother the finger, and cheerfully did. Grinning, Murph and I broke away, and I opened my eyes.
“Hey,” I said.
“Cheater,” she said. “I didn’t say to open your eyes.”
“Who could pass up this view?” I said. She tried to school her face into stern disapproval but a light blush rose on her cheeks. I wasn’t joking, either- she really did look lovely. I’ve seen Karrin in a dress fewer times than I’ve seen proto-apocalypses, which is sad no matter how you look at it.
“You have no respect for the rules,” she said archly.
“Just noticing this now?”
Any further talk was interrupted by the most iconic of all trumpet fanfares, and I nearly broke my neck whipping around to see the gold letters written on the widescreen television across the room. Whatever my face looked like, it was enough to make everyone in the room start laughing over the sound of John Williams’ masterpiece theme.
“How- ? You- Star Wars! ” I gasped. “It- it’s in theaters, drive-ins don’t open for months, I didn’t think I’d-”
“Aw, jeez,” Will said. “I think he might cry.”
“Be quiet be quiet be quiet ,” I said, flapping my hand in his direction with my eyes still glued to the opening crawl. “No talking! No talking! ”
The scrolling words retreated and the shot panned down to the view of a planet from orbit. As some adorable second-generation R2D2 beeped and hooted across screen and the action got underway, I whispered, “God, Murph, I love you.”
My brain caught up with my mouth a second later, but the words were already out. We looked at each other in equal surprise. I’d said it before, more than once, and I’d meant it every time, but it’d always been... well, when I said it, there was typically a chance somebody was about to die. Usually me. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever said that I loved her off-hand like that.
But as I sat there, surrounded by friends and family and the soaring swell of brass and cymbals, I knew that I did. I really, really did.
Murph smiled and said, “I know.”