Chapter Forty-Three
LEE
6 months later
It’s been six months since I accepted the transfer in my job location, six months since I found out that I’m the father of an incredible young man, and six months since I was reunited with the only woman who has ever made my heart stop and beat faster in the same minute.
I have fallen in love with life again and I’ve started to see all the beautiful things that I dreamed of having come to reality.
Today is my birthday. I just turned thirty six. Most men my age are thinking their lives are half over, but me – I feel like my life has just begun. Despite not wanting to take anything slow with me and Ellie, I decided to hold off on asking her to marry me until I knew for certain that she wanted me in her life. I think I knew that the first night I spent back in her arms, but I couldn’t help but take my time and plan out the most perfect, Hallmark movie worthy proposal I could muster. I had to enlist Dylan and Carrie’s help to pull it off, and it had to be tonight, on the twenty first anniversary of the night we met.
I’m sitting at a table in the bowling alley with a diamond ring burning a hole in my pocket and my heart pounding away as I watch her walk toward me. That instant flame reignited when our eyes locked and she smiled.
Damn! Those eyes.
Big Brown Eyes.
I’ll stay lost in those eyes forever.
The moment that she stepped in front of me, my plan rolled into action. I smiled, kissed her cheek and held out a pair of bowling shoes for her. We sat to put them on.
“You know, today is my birthday. I just turned thirty six.”
I tell her and she shakes her head, smiling while she finishes tying her shoe.
“Happy birthday. What did you wish for?”
When she looked up, I was down on one knee, holding the ring in my hand.
“A future of stinky, borrowed bowling shoes with you by my side for the rest of our lives.”
She dropped to the floor with me, eyes glistening with tears, and she nodded her head.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Yes! I would spend a hundred lifetimes in these disgusting shoes if it meant you were by my side!”
She kissed me, and I slowly pushed the ring on her finger. I think this is now my favorite birthday ever.
* * *
Lying in bed that night, Ellie was twisting the ring around on her finger, I could tell her mind was going a mile a minute.
“Whatchya thinking?” I ask.
“I can’t stop thinking about everything,”
she murmurs.
“About where we’re headed, about what we’ve gone through to get here and how the world has been working against us since we met.”
I reach out, gently tracing the lines of her hand with mine.
“There’s not always going to be a force against us, and we don’t have to have it all figured out right now,”
I reassure her, my voice soft.
“We’ll figure it out together, one crazy day at a time.”
“I don’t want to wait,”
she says, sitting up.
“We’ve waited long enough, I think. Let’s get married tomorrow!”
“That doesn’t give us much time to plan. Don’t you want a big wedding with all your friends and family?”
“I don’t need all the fancy stuff, Lee. You know me better than that.”
I nod and she goes on, “All I need is you and Dylan by my side to have the wedding of my dreams.”
“Okay, let’s do it!”
I pull her into my arms, so they’re wrapped around her tightly and kiss her, breathing into her mouth, “I’m not letting you go, now.”
* * *
The next evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, and the sky was painted with hues of orange and pink, we stood hand in hand on the creek side beach of her property.
The gentle waves lapping at our bare feet, and the whispers of winter blowing through the bare trees. With our son by our side, we exchanged vows that echoed over the serene waters.
The perfect moment frozen in time against the backdrop of a perfect sunset, marking this new beginning of our journey together.
She was finally my wife.
My forever girl.