Chapter 23 #2
‘Before you go,’ Kate says. ‘We have one more surprise for Mia.’
Everyone looks behind me.
I turn and see Jason coming out from the back room, wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and light blue tie.
He looks hot. Seeing him in the suit reminds me of when we met and the night we spent together.
The night that led to a baby that led to us getting engaged.
Sometimes I still can’t believe that going to a wedding ended up changing my entire life.
I smile as Jason comes over to me. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I needed to give you your gift.’
‘You’re the dad. You don’t have to give me a baby gift.’
‘This one isn’t for the baby. It’s for you.’ He takes my hand. ‘I need you to get up for this.’
I stand up and face him. ‘What’s this about?’
He looks into my eyes. ‘I screwed this up, so many times. I went back and forth. Pushed you away. Confused you. Made you wonder if we had a future. And what’s really messed up is that this is what I always wanted.
A wife. Kids. A home. But when I got the chance to have it, I ran from it.
Because it didn’t happen the way I wanted, the way I imagined. I was selfish, and I’m sorry.’
‘Jason, you don’t have to—’
‘Mia, I need you to know that my feelings for you were always real. No matter what we said this was, it was always real to me. And just to make that perfectly clear, I’m going to do this one last time.’ He takes something from his pocket and gets down on one knee. ‘Mia, will you marry me?’
He holds out a ring. Not a gold band, but a diamond ring.
I hear people whispering, but my gaze remains on Jason.
‘Yes.’ I smile. ‘For the last time, yes, I’ll marry you.’
He slides the gold band off my finger and slides the diamond ring on, then gets up and takes me in his arms. He leans down and talks in my ear. ‘The ring is real this time. No more faking it. It’s all real, from here on out.’
‘You guys, come check out the ring!’ Kate says. ‘It’s gorgeous!’
They all run up to me as Jason steps aside.
‘How did you guys meet?’ Haley asks as she looks at the ring. She’s a friend from school. She was in all my classes. ‘I never heard the story.’
‘They met at my wedding,’ Lacey says, a proud grin on her face. ‘At the reception. They were seated next to each other at the singles’ table.’
‘Wedding?’ I hear my mom say from the laptop.
‘I thought you met at the orchard,’ Candace, another friend from school, says.
I look at Jason.
He comes up beside me and quietly says, ‘It’s up to you.’
I’m not ashamed of how Jason and I met. I don’t care if people know. I just didn’t want my parents finding out.
‘Orchard?’ Lacey laughs. ‘No. They met at my wedding back in January. They were so adorable, dancing and looking into each other’s eyes. And now they’re engaged!’ She smiles at Jason and me. ‘I’d like to take at least a little credit for that.’
She says it jokingly, but no one’s laughing. Gina, Kate, and Lyndsay are giving me sympathetic looks like they want to help me out but don’t know what to say. The other girls look confused.
‘Mia, what is she talking about?’ my mom asks. ‘You said you met Jason last year when you went to the orchard.’
My fear of disappointing my parents rises up again, just like it did when I found out I was pregnant.
Trying to please them led to a fake engagement and then the town finding out and all the craziness that followed.
It turned out okay in the end, but I should’ve just told my parents the truth.
They might’ve been disappointed, but I know they love me no matter what.
‘We didn’t meet last fall,’ I say as Jason reaches over to hold my hand. ‘Lacey’s right. We met the night of her wedding.’
‘You met in January?’ my mom says. ‘But that would mean—’ She stops, her brows drawing together, which she does when she’s thinking. ‘Oh. I see.’
‘Mom, I didn’t mean for that to happen. But it did, and I can’t change it.’
‘I wouldn’t want you to,’ Jason says, his arm going around me. ‘If it didn’t happen, you wouldn’t be here with me now.’
I smile at him, then look back at my mom. ‘I should’ve told you the truth. I just didn’t want to disappoint you and Dad. So I told you we met last fall and then told everyone else that.’
‘Sorry,’ Lacey says to me. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘It’s okay,’ I tell her. ‘The truth needed to come out. I don’t know if Jason and I could’ve kept that story going forever.’ I look at him. ‘Although we might tell our kids the orchard story.’
Jason laughs a little. ‘That’s probably a good idea.’
‘Maybe we’ll keep telling your father that story too,’ my mom says. ‘You know how he is. He’s stuck in how things used to be. He doesn’t keep up with the times.’
‘Yes, I know,’ I say, not pointing out that she’s the same way. But she’s starting to come around. She doesn’t even seem upset by the news of how Jason and I met.
‘What’s important is that you’re happy and have a whole new wonderful family there,’ she says, ‘and a beautiful baby boy on the way.’
‘And soon I’ll have you and Dad here.’
‘Oh! The real estate agent has someone interested in our house. It’s not even on the market yet. We might be out there sooner than expected.’
‘That’s great, Mom! I’ll call you later and we can talk about it.’
She logs off and I thank everyone for coming. As they leave, I start to clean up.
‘That’s not your job,’ Jason says, taking the stack of plates I was holding and setting it back on the table.
‘He’s right,’ Kate says. ‘You’re the guest of honor. You don’t clean up. Besides, you have plans. You have to go get ready.’
‘Ready for what?’
‘I’m taking you to dinner,’ Jason says, taking my hand and leading me out of the store. ‘We’re going to the place we went when you first came to town.’
‘That’s a nice place. Can I go home and change?’
‘Yes, the reservation isn’t until seven. You have time to shower, take a nap, change clothes, whatever you want.’
I smile at him as we walk to the truck. ‘I might skip the nap for something else.’ My gaze drops to his body. ‘You look really hot in that suit.’
‘I’m all for skipping the nap.’ He walks faster. ‘I would’ve suggested that myself, but I was trying to be a considerate husband.’
‘Husband?’ I say as he helps me into the truck. ‘We’re not even married yet.’
He shuts the door and gets in the other side. ‘What do you think of September?’
‘For what?’
‘Getting married. The leaves will be changing. The weather will be cooler. Your parents will be here by then.’
‘Wait—you mean this September? Like next month?’
‘Yeah. Why? Is that too soon?’
‘No. It’s perfect.’ I’m thrilled he wants to get married that soon. I thought he’d want to wait.
‘We could get married at the orchard,’ he says as he drives out of the parking lot. ‘The place where we met.’ He chuckles.
‘Yeah, that story didn’t last,’ I say with a sigh. ‘I don’t know why I ever thought we’d be able to keep it going. I should’ve known the truth would come out eventually. Do you think my mom was mad when she found out?’
‘I think she was surprised, but she wasn’t mad. Mia, your parents love you. Despite what you think, you could never disappoint them.’
‘Maybe, but I’m sure my mom’s not happy about me hooking up with a guy at a wedding and getting pregnant.’
‘Hey, I’m not just any guy. I’m a Kanfield, of the famous Kanfield Orchard.’
I smile. ‘That’s right. I keep forgetting I’m marrying a celebrity. But I’m not sure that makes what we did that night any more acceptable to my mom.’
‘How would you feel if it was our kid who did that? Would you be disappointed in him?’
‘Not if he felt something for the girl and wasn’t just using her for sex.’
‘Is that what you think I was doing that night? Using you for sex?’
‘No, not at all. That’s one of the reasons I liked you so much. You didn’t pressure me. In fact, I felt like I was the one trying to convince you to do it.’
‘You didn’t have to try too hard.’
‘It was such a great night.’
‘It was.’ He reaches over and holds my hand. ‘And we’ve got a lot of great ones ahead of us.’
Tonight is one of them. We go home, make love, then go to the restaurant where we had our first date.
I guess that wasn’t a date, but it felt like one, and it confirmed that Jason wasn’t just a one-night stand but a guy I could actually see myself with in the future.
And now, here we are, living that future.