Brooke ought to have realized that Stephanie would have guessed that something was up. After all, whether or not she was aware of it, she was currently a bright beacon of happy, joyous emotions.

She hugged Stephanie back. "You're going to think this is insane," she said before she pulled away. "Certainly, in some ways, it is. I can hear the gossip now, but I assure it, it's not a shot gun thing. I'm not pregnant." Not that she thought Stephanie's mind would go there, but sometimes, things needed to be said. "Honestly, Alexander surprised me with this - for a moment, I thought he was going to break up with me, because what else do the words we need to talk usually mean, but that wasn't it at all."

She lifted her hand, then, and showed off the thin gold band with the large, princess-cut diamond. "He asked for my hand!"