Luca's POV
Aria sat cross-legged on the bed between us with her rabbit in her lap and the focused expression of someone who had decided this was important before she'd heard the question.
I looked at her.
Four years old. Her mother's directness and something around the eyes that my mother had recognized immediately. A person who had been entirely herself since before I knew she existed.
"I want to ask your mother to marry me," I said. "But I wanted to ask you first."
Aria was quiet for exactly three seconds.
"Why me first," she said.
"Because you're the most important person in her life. And if you say no, then I don't ask her."
She looked at this from several angles. "What if I say yes, and she says no."
"Then I respect that, and I won't ask again."
"But you'd be sad."
"Yes."
