Faded Love - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 32: Fin-ally

🎶 She's The One — Robbie Williams 🎶

Rays of sunlight hit my face and I had to blink a few times before fully waking up. I turned to my left side to see Charles laying next to me, staring adoringly at me.
"I've already told you: staring is rude" I mumbled and pulled the bedsheets over my face. Doing this, I noticed something on my left ring finger and I immediately sat up in shock.
"Oh my God, did this really happen last night?" I asked Charles.
He was still looking at me and just nodded with a grin on his face.
"This is going to be a shocker for everyone" I chuckled and cuddled myself into him.
"What do you want to do?" he asked softly.
"Today? Tomorrow?" I chuckled.
"Every day for the rest of our lives?" he grinned.
"Til death do us part" I whispered and gave him a kiss.
"We need to tell everyone!" he said excitedly.
"How do you feel about a trip to the East Coast?" I asked.

——————————————

"We're here!" I shouted as we rang at the gates of the Kennedy house in Cape Cod.
The gates opened and I drove my rental car onto the Compound, turning right onto the driveway of one of the houses.
"Oh my God, I'm so nervous..." Charles said anxiously.
"Don't be. They gave me quite the headaches the past weeks for letting you go. And the boys are huge fans, Virginia also has a huge crush on you, she will be crushed when she hears the news" I chuckled.
Victoria and Johnny were already on the veranda, too curious to miss our arrival and they started waving frantically when they saw our car appear. I parked it behind Joe's A Class AMG and looked at Charles before opening the door. He flashed me the biggest smile and gave me a quick kiss before we both climbed out.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you guys are here!!" Tory shrieked and ran to me to hug me.
"Hey man" Johnny greeted Charles friendly and gave him his hand.
"Where's Joe?" I asked.
"Down at the boats probably" Tory answered and I gave Charles a nod.
"Come on, let's meet the other inside" Johnny said and slung an arm around Charles to drag him inside.

I went down to the boats and saw Joe cleaning his sails.
"You're back" he said and shot me a soft smile.
"I am. I have a new accessory" I said and showed him my hand.
Joe chuckled. "Wow! Let me see" he said and I showed him the rock on my finger.
"A worthy successor. Not only the ring" Joe said and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"I wanted to tell you first, I do hope that you are genuinely happy for me. And I also hope that we can come visit you, even when we're married and have a family of our own. I know I was never officially..." I said, but was interrupted.
"Mary, you're like a sister. Of course you will always be welcome here" Joe replied and pulled me into a hug.
"How are things with Grace?" I asked quietly as I didn't know how things had gone after my departure.
"Good. She's doing an internship in New York now, but we make it every other weekend. I'll be moving to DC in January and then I hope she'll be able to find a job there" he replied.
"She's great for you, Joe. You have my approval, as Bobby said" I said.
"Thanks, Mary. Really. I'll call you when I'll need help with ring shopping" he chuckled and I closed the gap between us to give him a hug.

We returned back to the house and everyone had already swarmed Charles in the living room. They had called every family member who was in the area and they were all ogling and crushing on my fiancé.
"Here comes the bride" Joe shouted and everyone let out gasps and shrieks of excitement. All the girls immediately ran over to me to check out the ring and all the guys shouted primitive manly sounds around Charles. It looked like a scene of some weird comedy movie.

The next evening, we had dinner all together. Unfortunately, Carolyne and her husband had to leave because they were hosting a charity gala in California, but they wished us all the best and were so happy for me. We invited Grandpa Joe over and to say Charles was nervous was an understatement. But the old man was very charming and in a great mood, obviously, after Joe's successful election results.
"So, when's the date? Have you thought about the location?" he asked curiously.
"Sometime in August as I'll be on summer break then" Charles answered diplomatically.
"Probably in Monaco. It's home for both of us now" I added.
"Is there still some single Princess there?" Johnny asked curiously and we all erupted in laughter.
"A niece of the Prince is still single. I could introduce you, she works for a sponsor of mine" Charles chuckled and Johnny made a victorious gesture.

We decided to leave the next day, as we still had to go to London to tell my family and then to Monaco to finally tell his family. We had gone MIA on our phones as we didn't want to spill anything. It was hard for me not to call Carmen and shriek the news into the phone, but we had agreed to tell the families first. I was nervous to see my parents again as our relationship had been a bit strained the last few years, but I knew that they would be ecstatic about the news. I was also looking forward to seeing my brother and my sister-in-law again. I had texted him to invite my parents over as I was bringing "someone special" and they were all freaking out about who it could possibly be. Amelia was sure that Lando and I had started dating and I only fuelled her imagination by chuckling weirdly over the phone at that theory.