Epilogue - Attempting Happily Ever After
(Six months later)
“ S o, do you want to go skinny dipping?” Aiden asked Olivia.
She’d met him in their front yard when he got home from work.
Olivia was covered in mud. She had been in the field helping Maddy get another set of vegetable seedlings transplanted and trying to get all of their dahlia tubers into the soil in time for them to bloom before the growing season ended.
“It’ s sixty degrees outside,” Olivia said dubiously.
“Hmmm, you’re right. We should probably just hose you down.”
She walked toward him casually. When she was within a foot of him, she dove, wrapping him up in her muddy arms. She smeared her dirty face on his button-up shirt, and he hollered in protest.
“What are you doing, you wild woman?” he said, laughing. His clothes were shot, so he pulled her down to the ground, tickled her side, and covered her giggling mouth with his.
He pulled back and asked, “So, did you get all of your dahlias planted?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s good. I heard they’re critical for wedding bouquets.”
Olivia laughed. “Oh, we’ll make a farmer out of you yet, Dr. Wescott.”
His smile broadened. “Well, I was wondering…if we were to get married, who would make your bouquet?”
Olivia pulled back, her eyes wide as she searched his face.
Aiden pulled Olivia up so they were on their knees facing each other. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box. When he opened it, a light shone onto a beautiful, old-fashioned diamond ring. It sparkled under the tiny light.
Olivia immediately recognized the engagement ring as her great-grandmother Olivia’s. It had been added to her mom’s jewelry collection when her grandma passed away, and Olivia had loved playing with it as a little girl.
She looked up from the ring into Aiden’s eyes, breathless with anticipation.
“Olivia Olsen, will you marry me?” Aiden asked .
“Yes.” She laughed. “Yes, Aiden Wescott, I will marry you.”
She let him slip the beautiful ring onto her left hand, over the dirt and the calluses, before pushing him back onto the cool earth and covering his body with hers.