The last shot had them all in it, not just his entire family but his parents, her mom and aunt and uncle, even Manny and Max and the entire extended family—the restaurant crew—sitting and standing around a table at the restaurant.
Sarah swatted away the tears that blurred her eyes because she didn’t want to miss a second of it. The camera panned out over all of them waving and blowing kisses. Then Angel stepped into the picture.
“Just remember, baby, if you say yes to me, you’re saying yes to—” His eyes opened wide as the camera panned away from him and out onto the crowd behind him.
“All of us!” They all yelled out at once. “So say yes!”
The TV turned off, and Sarah was glad to see she wasn’t the only blubbering mess. Sofie and Valerie were in tears as they all turned to watch Angel get on his knee in front of her, holding a ring.
“Now that you’ve been thoroughly warned, will you make my life complete and become part of this crazy family?” Sarah could barely see the ring, her vision was so blurred. “Will you marry me, Sarah?”
Nodding like crazy to make up for the fact that she couldn’t speak, she watched as he slipped the diamond on her finger then wrapped her arms around his neck nearly knocking him over.
“Rewind to the part with me,” Romero said. “I look pretty good. Maybe I’m in the wrong business.”
Sarah laughed, finally able to pull it together to say what she wanted to say. “Yes, yes! A million times yes!” She turned to the rest of them. “To all of you. Thank you so much!” She looked around then turned back to Angel and nearly broke down again. “Thank you,” she whispered, knowing exactly why he’d gone out of his way to do it this way. “I didn’t think it possible to love you anymore than I already did. Thank you so much.”
After being torn apart and practically smothered by Sofie and Valerie then hugging all her other genuinely happy family members, she was finally free to hug her fiancé again. They fell back onto the sofa laughing and kissing.
Angel held her tightly for a long time then inhaled deeply. “Thank you for saying yes,” he whispered in her ear. “The day you marry me my life will be complete.”
Sarah held on to him, never wanting to let go, but finally had to pull away. “Now can we sneak away?” she whispered.
Angel jumped to his feet, taking her hand in his, and they rushed away towards the stairs.
“Talk about being discreet,” Sal said with a smirk as they rushed by him.
Angel looked back, laughing. “Since when does anyone in this family do discreet?”
“Yeah,” Sarah laughed. “And you guys are the ones who insisted I say yes. Maybe Angel forgot to mention I can be just as obnoxiously indiscreet as the rest of you, but it’s too late. You’re stuck with me now.”
They turned the corner, and she could hear Romero laughing. “In case you didn’t notice, Manny and Max were in that video too. Ha! Now who’s laughing?”
Sarah laughed stopping midway up the stairs to kiss Angel. Here she’d been so preoccupied with having a bigger family, and for years she’d had one all along. And she loved each and every one of them. Even Manny and Max .