Chapter 20 #4
“We’re going somewhere far away?” she asks over the loud engine of the plane, shielding her eyes from the dipping sun. It was around 5 pm, and the sun was starting to take on that golden hue that Tristan loved so much. He always said it made Tessa look even more ethereal than she already way.
“Kind of,” he says with a shrug, taking her hand in his and walking towards the plain.
“Tristan, come on!” she whines, but willingly follows him up the steps and into the luxurious cabin on the plane. “You’re really not going to tell me until we get there? I’ll just make the flight attendant tell me.”
“They’ve all been sworn to secrecy,” Tristan says with a grunt as his very large body settles into the small seat, pulling Tessa into his lap.
“And you’ll be put right back into a car you can’t see out of when we get there.
I’m not letting the surprise come out until we’re at our final destination. ”
“So we’re staying in the States?” she asks, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Mmhm, and that’s all you’re getting out of me.”
About 2 hours later, the plane finally descends and lands, and Tessa tries to sneakily look out the airplane window but is only met with the darkness of nighttime and faint city lights.
She grunts in frustration and looks up at Tristan who is stretching his aching legs from sitting in a cramped seat.
Even having his own private jet doesn’t make any difference with having to stuff his massive 6’6 frame into the seats.
“Are you going to tell me now?” She asks, crossing her arms defiantly and tapping an impatient foot. In her attempt to intimidate Tristan, he only laughs and places a warm kiss on her lips, finding her little pout to be incredibly endearing.
“You gonna make me blindfold you, Smith?” he asks with a cocked eyebrow, and a giggle escapes from her frowning face.
“Come on,” he urges as he begins to walk off the plane. “For someone so eager to find out where we are you sure are prolonging this.”
“Ugh!” sshe huffs and throws her hands up, following him off the plane.
Her eyes dart around as she walks down the stairs, but again, it’s too dark around and all she can see are city lights and a few planes out in the distance. The car they’re taking is even parked in a way where she can’t see the license plate.
She climbs into the car behind Tristan and settles into his side and rolls her eyes at him as he pulls shades down around the windows so she can’t see out.
“This is quite the operation you’ve got going,” she says with a laugh, and he only gives her a warm smile in return.
“You’re worth all the bells and whistles, sweetheart.”
Tristan keeps Tessa tucked under his arm during the short car ride, a comfortable silence enveloping the car.
The energy around them is heavy and charged – but in a good way.
Tessa can feel deep in her bones that wherever Tristan is taking her will be a special moment between the two of them – something pivotal that they will remember for the rest of their lives, and she welcomes the contemplative look on his face as the car continues to gently sway along the roads to wherever they’re going.
When the car finally comes to a stop, Tessa looks up into Tristan’s eyes and sees something she’s not sure she’s ever seen before – nerves.
As she has come to find out over the time they’ve spent together, both past and present, there is not a moment that is ever too big for Tristan.
He has always walked through life with confidence and joy, and even in some of the most stressful and strenuous situation, always was eager to face a challenge head on.
So the fact that he suddenly looked like a little boy on the first day of school made her heart skip, and before she knew it, it was full on pounding against her rib cage.
“You ready?” he asks, his voice shaking but his smile warm and genuine, and she can only nod eagerly at him.
He takes a deep breath before opening the door and stepping out, allowing her to follow behind him. Once her feet hit the pavement, her eyes glance upward, and a small gasp escapes her lips.
Before her, illuminated in the quiet, dark night, is the stadium she once knew so well, the words Vanderbilt University shining like a beacon in the night.
Suddenly, all of her senses heighten, and she can smell the unmistakable scent of the Oak trees lining the streets, the overwhelming chirp of crickets and tree frogs, and the breeze that whips through the air, slightly chilly and humid from recent rain.
Tessa hasn’t been back here in 10 years.
It feels like home.
“Oh my God,” she whispers, grasping Tristan’s hand as he starts to pull her forward.
“Is it just like you remembered it?” he asks, and she nods tearfully.
“Me and Jordan come back about once a year,” he says as he slowly guides her through the front entrance of the stadium. The is not another person anywhere in sight, and their footsteps seem to echo eerily against the pavement.
“It always made me sick coming back here,” he confesses in a hushed tone, causing her to squeeze his hand in support.
“Which I feel awful about because this school gave so much to me when I gave it so little, you know? But being back here was like being haunted by you. At least in Kansas City I could get some sort of relief because I felt like I was so far away from everything that happened. But here, Tess?”
His voice turns shaky again as they continue to walk into the stadium hand in hand, her eyes darting around at all the familiar signs, shops, and seating sections that once were so familiar.
“Here I couldn’t escape you. It was like you left your scent in the air and it would suffocate me. And I hated that I couldn’t come back here without feeling crazy.”
“I’m so sorry, Trist,” she whispers, unable to look at him. “For what it’s worth, I was never able to come back here. I was barely even able to let my mind wander towards my life with you here without having a breakdown.”
A sad chuckle escapes her and Tristan stops abruptly.
Tessa looks up at him and sees nothing but love and admiration shining from his green eyes, and she immediately relaxes.
“So then let’s turn this place from a sad memory to a happy one. How does that sound?”
Her blue eyes glitter up at him and she bites her lip in anticipation, her breath coming out in short, excited spurts.
“Yeah, okay.”
Tristan takes her hand again and pulls her though a long corridor, and she quickly recognizes that they are on the ground level and that he’s leading her towards the field. The same field that she watched him play so many times and the same field where he brought her on their first date.
Her stomach twists into knots thinking about how her own choices had to turn such amazing moments and memories between them into something sour, but then her breath hitches when the field comes into view, and her feet nearly freeze.
Tristan has to keep urging her forward, his carefree laugh echoing off the walls as he looks at her face filled with shock and awe.
On the large football field were easily thousands of candles, the turf scattered with countless roses, and a soft glow illuminating from the impossibly high ceiling, draping the space in a soft glow perfectly accompanied by the flickering lights of the candles.
“Tristan,” she breaths, her hand coming up to her mouth.
Tristan only smiles at her, carefully maneuvering her around the candles on the field until they come to stand in the center.
He takes her small hands in his and leans down to kiss her, her trembling lips welcoming his as a small tear escapes from her eye.
She looks around one more time, taking a deep breath, and then smiling up at him.
She can tell he’s just on the edge of saying something to her but is taking a second to collect his thoughts.
So she stands patiently with a rapidly beating heart, memorizing his face in this moment, making sure she remembers every detail so she can tell their kids one day.
“Tessa,” he starts, the emotion evident in his voice.
“I was just a kid when I first fell in love with you. I didn’t know anything about life or about myself.
I didn’t know how to properly nurture a relationship with a girl as incredible as you and I certainly didn’t know how to make good choices.
But what I did know, without a shadow of a doubt, was that you were it for me.
That I didn’t need anything or anyone else.
And when I lived without you, I searched for you in every single place and every single person I encountered.
I was wandering around, aimlessly, Tessa.
Just an empty shell of a man trying to distract myself with football and friends and meaningless women and making money.
But I was so goddamn empty inside without you. ”
Tessa reaches up to wipe his tears away before giving him a reassuring smile, letting him know that she’s listening, present, and supportive.
“Never once did I think I’d have you again,” he says quietly.
A few moments pass as he sniffles and gathers himself again.
“I thought I’d be punished to a life where I was either alone or I’d marry someone that I didn’t love.
And I always thought about you living your life, moving on, happy, men tripping over their feet to get to you, and it made me sick with envy and grief. ”
“Oh Trist,” she breaths, clutching at his hands as tears pour down her face.
“I don’t know what the fuck I did that made the universe have any kind of mercy on me to bring you back to me, but I will spend every single second of the rest of my life loving you.
I swear to you, Tessa, I will be so fucking good to you.
I will take care of you, protect you, support you, encourage you – whatever you need baby, it’s yours. All I ask, Tess…all that I ask…”
Tessa gasps and takes a step back as Tristan gets down on one knee, reaching back into his pocket and pulling out a black velvet box.
He turns it in his hands playfully, taking a few moments to smile up at her and really take in the look of shock and pure joy on her face.
Slowly, he pulls the box open and reveals a stunning ring that makes her knees weak.
She wipes furiously at her eyes so she can get a good look at it through her tears, and a sob escapes as she sees a ring so perfect and so uniquely her that it makes her heart split open.
“All I ask baby, is that you marry me. Is that you be my wife and the mother of my children. That you be my partner in life and go through all the stages of the rest of our lives together.”
She smiles and nods, reaching out a shaky hand towards the ring, being so drawn to it’s beauty that she feels like she needs to touch it.
He chuckles and takes the ring out, placing it onto her finger, and another happy sob escapes her lips.
“How’s about it, Tess?” hse asks with a smile. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” She says, clutching her hand to her chest. “Yes of course I’ll marry you!”
He immediately rises to his feet and wraps his arms around her, picking her up off the ground and twirling her around before placing her back down and bringing his lips to hers in a kiss so possessive and filled with promises that she feels like she might faint.
That is, until she hears commotion coming from behind her and whips around to see her closest family and friends, and then her knees actually do buckle.
Tristan laughs and holds her steady as their loved ones come into view.
Tessa and Tristan’s parents along with Abigail, Amber, Jordan and Katie, and Phillip and Brinley race toward them on the field, somehow dodging the unimaginable number of candles scattered on the ground.
“Oh my God!” Tessa gleams up at Tristan and playfully slaps his shoulder right before they are nearly knocked over by the group with I love you’s and Congratulations being shouted into the air.
They are somehow able to lock eyes in the chaos of happiness surrounding them, and the world suddenly quiets and calms under their gaze.
After 10 years of experiencing a life-changing love followed by unimaginable loss, Tristan and Tessa finally found their way back home and to their forever.