Lip had been thinking about marrying Mandy long before she ever said anything about it.

It wasn’t one of those ideas that hit him all at once in some perfect moment. It had been there for a while, sitting quietly in the background of everything else, becoming more obvious the longer he ignored it. The conversation in the kitchen hadn’t planted the thought. It had only dragged it into the open and made pretending pointless after that.

He already knew.

Mandy was the one he wanted beside him.

That part had stopped being complicated a long time ago.

He just hadn’t done it yet.

Not because he was unsure. If there was one thing Lip Gallagher knew about himself by now, it was that once he was certain about something, he didn’t sit around doubting it for sport.

He had just been waiting on one thing first.

Bitcoin.

Years earlier, back when the business first started turning into real money instead of lucky money, Lip had started quietly setting some of it aside. Not all at once. Not in some stupid reckless way. Just steadily. Whenever a month went especially well, he bought more. Sometimes a little. Sometimes enough that even he felt it afterward when he looked at the numbers.

He never talked much about it.

Mandy knew he put money into things sometimes. She knew enough to understand that he was always thinking a few steps past whatever was in front of him. But she never really pressed him for details, and Lip never felt like listing off numbers just to hear himself sound smart. So the coins sat there. Year after year. Quiet. Untouched.

And eventually they piled up.

By the end of 2017, the total sat at around three hundred bitcoin.

That night he was at the kitchen table alone with the laptop open, watching the chart move in the way only Bitcoin ever seemed to. Too fast. Too stupid. Too real.

Ten thousand.

Twelve.

Fifteen.

Seventeen.

Then it hovered close enough to eighteen that the number stopped feeling theoretical.

Lip stared at the screen for a while without moving.

He had played the scenario out in his head before. Plenty of times. Where he would sell. How much he would sell. What number felt like enough without being greedy. What number felt like the smart exit for at least part of it.

He leaned back in the chair and looked at the chart one last time.

“Yeah,” he said quietly to himself. “That’ll do.”

He sold half.

One hundred and fifty bitcoin.

The confirmation came up on the screen a moment later.

Roughly 2.7 million dollars.

The full payout would take a little time to settle, but the transaction itself was done. Real. Locked in. The other half stayed exactly where it was.

Untouched.

Lip sat there for another minute, the glow of the screen reflecting against the kitchen window, the house quiet around him.

Then he shut the laptop.

“Alright.”

Tomorrow.

Mandy woke up the next morning to an empty bed.

At first she didn’t think much of it.

Lip got up early sometimes now. That had become normal over the last year. He liked quiet mornings, especially when he needed to think. So she rolled over, reached across the mattress, found cold sheets, and assumed he was somewhere downstairs with coffee and the laptop already open.

But when she got up and walked out of the bedroom, the house was still.

No coffee smell.

No keys on the counter.

No laptop open.

That made her stop.

She went to the front window first.

His car wasn’t outside.

Now the quiet felt different.

She grabbed her phone and called him.

No answer.

Mandy stared at the screen, jaw tightening slightly, and called again.

Still nothing.

That was when her brain, because it was her brain, immediately started doing what it always did when something felt off. Pulling together the worst version of everything before she had anything solid to work with.

Had she pushed too hard the night before?

Had the marriage thing actually gotten to him?

Had he freaked out and decided to disappear for a few hours instead of just acting like a normal person and saying so?

The third call finally connected.

“Hey.”

Mandy exhaled sharply. “Where are you?”

“In town.”

That answer did absolutely nothing for her mood.

“In town where?”

“I had stuff to do.”

“You could’ve told me.”

A beat of silence.

“Yeah,” he said. “I could’ve.”

Mandy crossed her arms even though he couldn’t see it.

“When are you coming back?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“I’ll be there.”

Then he ended the call.

Mandy stared at her phone for a second like maybe the rest of the answer would magically appear if she glared at it hard enough.

It didn’t.

So she walked outside.

The morning was cold enough that she should have gone back in for a jacket, but she didn’t. She stayed in the driveway instead, pacing once, then stopping, then looking down the street every few seconds. Her phone stayed in her hand the whole time.

After about half an hour she heard a car turning onto the block.

It wasn’t theirs.

The first thing she noticed was how new it looked. The second was that it was slowing down in front of the house.

A sleek black BMW 7 Series rolled toward the driveway and came to a stop.

Mandy frowned.

The driver’s door opened.

Lip stepped out.

He took one look at her standing in the driveway in socks and no jacket and frowned right back.

“…Why are you outside?”

Mandy pointed straight at the car.

“What the hell is that?”

Lip glanced over his shoulder at it like he’d almost forgotten it was there.

“Oh. That?”

She stared at him. “Yeah. That.”

He shut the car door and walked toward her with a calm that immediately made her more annoyed.

“Your car.”

Mandy blinked once.

“My what?”

“Your car.”

She stared at him again, slower this time, as if hearing it twice had somehow made it less believable instead of more.

“You bought me a car.”

“Yeah.”

“A BMW.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Lip stopped in front of her like this was all perfectly reasonable.

“Felt like it.”

Mandy dragged a hand down her face.

“You vanished for hours and came back with a car.”

“More or less.”

She looked from him to the car and back again.

“You’re out of your mind.”

“That’s been covered.”

Then he reached into his coat pocket.

Mandy saw the box before her brain really caught up.

He opened it.

The ring inside was simple. Clean. No ridiculous oversized diamond, no flashy nonsense, no attempt to make it look bigger than it needed to be. It looked exactly like something he would pick if he actually cared more about her wearing it than showing it off.

Mandy looked at the ring.

Then at him.

Then back at the ring again.

“…Lip.”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand for a second, which on anyone else might have looked nervous. On him, it looked more like he was irritated with himself for not knowing how to make the moment smoother.

“So,” he said. “Yeah.”

Mandy stared at him. “That’s what you’ve got?”

He gave a slight shrug, but his eyes never left her face.

“I’m not doing some rehearsed speech in the driveway.”

That made her laugh despite herself, and the sound seemed to ease something in him at once.

Then he looked at her properly and said, much more simply, “Mandy, marry me.”

For half a second she just looked at him.

The house behind them was quiet. A car went by somewhere down the block. The cold bit at her bare ankles. The new BMW gleamed behind him like the whole morning had gone completely insane in under a minute.

Then Mandy laughed again, softer this time, and the next second she had her arms around him.

“Yes.”

Lip let out a breath that was almost a laugh and wrapped his arms around her.

“Alright,” he said. “Good.”

She pulled back only enough to look at him.

“You’re insane.”

“You keep saying that.”

“You bought me a BMW.”

“That wasn’t even the main part.”

He took her hand, steadier now, and slid the ring onto her finger.

Mandy looked down at it.

Then at him.

Then back at the car.

“You really bought that for me.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Lip leaned one shoulder against the side of the BMW and looked at her like the answer should have been obvious.

“I had some money come in.”

Mandy narrowed her eyes immediately.

That answer sounded too casual. Which meant it was hiding something.

“…What did you do?”

Lip watched her for a second, already knowing the reaction he was about to get.

“Remember that thing I told you I was investing in a long time ago?”

She thought about it. “Vaguely.”

“That was Bitcoin.”

Mandy blinked.

Then she blinked again.

“Wait.”

Her whole expression shifted as the rest of it started connecting.

“How much did you have?”

Lip gave one shoulder a small shrug. “Around three hundred.”

The silence after that was beautiful.

Mandy stared at him.

“Three hundred Bitcoin?”

“Yeah.”

“And you never thought that was worth mentioning?”

“It was long-term.”

“That is not an answer.”

“It’s the answer you’re getting.”

She pointed at him. “How much did you sell?”

“Half.”

Mandy did the math in her head.

Or started to.

Then stopped halfway through because even the rough version already sounded ridiculous.

“…Lip.”

He folded his arms loosely. “Yeah.”

“That’s millions.”

“About 2.7.”

Mandy looked at him for a long second.

Then she started laughing.

Not a polite laugh. Not a surprised little breath. A real one. The kind that hit all at once because the situation had officially gone too far past normal to process any other way.

“You are actually insane.”

Lip grinned. “Still marrying me.”

She grabbed the front of his coat and kissed him hard enough to cut off anything else he might have said.

“Yeah.”

When she pulled back, she looked over at the car again, then at the ring, then at him.

“…I’m still mad you bought this.”

“Too late now.”

Mandy smirked despite herself.

“Yeah.”

Then she looked down at the ring once more, her thumb brushing lightly over it like she still needed the touch to confirm it was real.

After a second she stepped closer again and slipped her hand into his.

“Worth it,” she said.

This time when he smiled, it was quieter. Less smug. Less amused. More like something in him had finally settled into place.

He squeezed her hand once.

Then Mandy looked at the car again and said, “I’m driving first.”

Lip laughed.

“That was fast.”

“You disappeared all morning, scared the hell out of me, proposed in the driveway, casually told me you made millions, and showed up with a BMW.” She opened the passenger door and looked at him over the roof. “I’m driving first.”

Lip held up a hand in surrender.

“Alright.”

She got in behind the wheel like she belonged there already.

He walked around to the other side, slid into the passenger seat, and looked over just in time to see her glance at the ring again before putting both hands on the wheel.

There was still disbelief in her face.

Still amusement.

Still the faint edge of someone who was going to keep bringing this up every chance she got for the next twenty years.

But underneath all of that was something calmer.

Something sure.

Mandy started the car, looked out through the windshield, then over at him.

“Where are we going?”

Lip leaned back into the seat.

“Anywhere you want.”