Chapter 82

• Stacey’s POV:
• The next few days blurred together in a haze of congratulations.
• It began the morning after the proposal. I woke to the sound of my phone buzzing endlessly on the nightstand. Notifications lit the screen like a strobe light: texts from Chloe, from acquaintances back home, from people I hadn’t heard from in years. Somehow, word had gotten out. Maybe Michael told his family, maybe someone from the library staff had whispered. Whatever the case, by breakfast, it felt as if the entire world already knew that I was engaged.