Chapter Ten
CLARA
Clara tried to compose herself as the massive airplane came to a stop right in front of her. Her head ached with confusion as she attempted to make sense of the situation.
Brent was about to come off that plane. The deployment was over. Had it even happened? Although she kept trying to explain everything to her brain, she was still having trouble believing it.
She could feel the energy in the crowd swell around her as the staircase was wheeled up to the aircraft door.
The families beside her waited with enthusiasm, their eyes turned upward to the plane.
Clara forced herself to do the same, realizing she was the only one in the crowd without a giant smile covering her face.
She decided to temporarily shrug off her confusion; it was just too hard to fully understand.
She’d sort it all out later. For now, she had a show to put on.
Clara knew she should act somewhat normal, whatever normal would be in this situation.
It would probably look strange to Janie if she greeted Brent with a casual “Hey, what’s up?
”—as if she had just seen him yesterday.
She had just seen him yesterday, but as far as Janie was concerned, Clara hadn’t seen her boyfriend in a year. She supposed she needed to act accordingly. She put on the widest eyes and happiest face she could manage.
And she should be excited—genuinely thrilled. He was back. It was exactly what she had wished for.
Clara noticed her perspective shift as she truly began to understand the incredible stroke of good luck she’d been handed.
They hadn’t missed Christmas together. They hadn’t missed anything.
How could they have when there was nothing to miss?
She and Brent would now be able to pick up right back where they had left off yesterday, as if the whole deployment had never happened.
Because it hadn’t happened. They’d skipped over the entire thing.
What was she so worried about anyway? She’d hit the jackpot with that wish coming true.
The most important thing was that this whole deployment problem was now behind them.
They would get to spend Christmas together.
This Christmas. So maybe it was now technically next Christmas, but who cared?
It was happening right now, and their relationship could go on as originally planned.
Clara looked up at the sky and thanked her lucky stars—or, in this case, lucky ornament.
She’d skipped over all that hard stuff and got straight to her goal—Christmas with her boyfriend.
Wow, that really was easy. She said a silent prayer of gratitude for Christmas magic and watched with sparkling eyes as the aircraft door finally opened.
Brent was the first to come out onto the staircase.
There he was, more handsome than she’d ever seen him.
She was surprised he wasn’t in his usual green flight suit.
Instead, he wore a dressier military uniform, one she’d never seen before.
An Air Force blue uniform jacket with matching trousers fit perfectly over his tall, attractive frame.
The jacket had silver buttons down the front and a tie underneath.
A gold oak leaf adorned each of his broad shoulders, and over his left breast sat a pair of silver wings over rows of military ribbons.
He looked so official, so formal, yet so drop-dead gorgeous at the same time.
He pulled on his uniform cap, and his gaze made its way straight to her.
He looked at her from underneath the brim and treated her to that familiar dimpled smile.
Clara melted. She lowered her head, returning his gaze from beneath her eyelashes.
She felt as though she were in a dream. Maybe she was.
Brent looked even more fit than she remembered him looking yesterday.
His hair was different too, cut a little shorter around the sides.
His face had a deep sun-kissed tan. She supposed it all made sense since it had technically been a year since yesterday.
At the sight of him, she felt the breath rush out of her.
At that moment, one thing was clear—Clara definitely had a thing for a man in uniform.
He descended the stairs, holding a single red rose.
Was this how they usually came home from a deployment?
As the other airmen began to file out behind him, it seemed that Brent was dressed more formally than everyone else.
Most of the others wore loose-fitting, sand-colored uniforms. Also, why was everyone watching him?
Maybe he was someone more important in the squadron than she’d realized.
Was Brent some kind of commander or something?
Clara scratched her head. She gave up trying to understand the intricacies of the military.
Trying to figure out anything about this absurd situation was complicated enough.
He made his way over to her.
Clara tried her best to act as if she hadn’t seen him the night before—for the sake of those around them.
“Welcome home!” She gave him a wink and wrapped her arms around him.
He pulled her in and buried his face into her neck. He held her tight.
She inhaled the familiar scent of his favorite soap. She lowered her head and whispered in his ear, “I can’t believe we skipped over it all.”
Brent ignored the comment and pulled back.
“Clara, I’ve missed you so much.” His face looked serious, but also warm and affectionate.
He handed her the rose, then reached into his pocket.
“I couldn’t wait to get home so I could ask you this .
. .” He dropped to one knee and held out a small velvet box.
As he opened it, her heart stopped. There stood a shiny diamond.
Clara’s mouth popped open. She stared at the ring, her eyes wide in disbelief. She stood motionless, feeling as if she had no concept of reality—and perhaps she didn’t.
Her stomach became queasy, and her legs gave way to an intense wobble. She quickly put both hands over her heart to calm the racing. What in the world was going on? He wasn’t actually—proposing—was he?
Down on his knee, holding out the ring, Brent looked up at her with total sincerity. “Clara, will you marry me?”
She stumbled backward. Her skin tingled like the sharp burn of an electric shock.
No! This was way too soon. They’d only known each other for a couple of months.
What could he possibly be thinking? Maybe this was some sort of act to throw people off to the crazy fact that they had skipped a year. Was she supposed to be in on it?
Clara couldn’t be sure if she was imagining this or if she had actually manifested it into reality. Was she simply a character in a story who didn’t realize her life wasn’t real?
She remembered how she and Lily would discuss different scenarios like this when they were younger and had played with their Barbies.
What if they were no different than their dolls, living a storyline in a world they didn’t know was imaginary?
She shook the thought from her head. This was no time for philosophy.
The tremble in her legs and the pounding in her chest told her that this was as physically real as life could get.
Brent looked at her, still asking the question with his eyes.
She folded her arms across her stomach, hoping she wouldn’t be sick.
She felt as if she was living in another dimension.
She supposed she was living in another dimension.
The top of her head was weightless. Her nervous eyes darted aimlessly at all the families around them.
They all stared back at her with excited faces.
A wave of panic coursed through her veins as she looked at Brent.
He was still looking up at her, waiting for an answer.
Clara nodded, too stunned to do anything else.
He looked at her, urging her to say something else.
“Yes,” she finally added in barely a whisper. The word came out sounding more like a question than she had intended it to.
She forced a smile upon her fear-stricken face as Brent lifted her up in another embrace.
Everyone around them cheered. Why shouldn’t they? They had no idea this couple had no business being engaged—that they had just met, really. Nobody knew, except the two of them, that they hadn’t, in fact, spent an entire year in a long-distance relationship.
A question suddenly pummeled her so hard she almost collapsed. Brent did know that. Didn’t he?
He seemed to notice her stiffen and immediately set her down so they were eye to eye. He grabbed her chin gently. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
Clara stared back into his concerned face. The reality of this entire situation—her magical Christmas wish—hit her like a freight train. As she looked deep into his eyes, she instantly knew the truth; he had known her a lot longer than she had known him.
Her eyes grew big. As if in a trance, she shifted the rose to her right hand as she held out her left so he could slip the ring on her finger. She held it up in front of her and frowned. She wished her hands would stop shaking.
Brent’s face grew more concerned. She heard whispers around them—people wondering if she was feeling okay. She could only look back at them with wide eyes that had lost all ability to blink. She grasped the back of her head, trying to regain control of her body.
Clara suddenly realized that her simple wish was, in fact, a complicated mess.
How could she not have thought this all the way through?
Probably because she never actually expected it to come true.
She had only been thinking of herself when she’d made that wish.
Clearly, that had been a huge oversight on her part.
Still paralyzed with shock, she finally understood the massive complexity of the entire situation. She had traveled a year into the future. But Brent hadn’t. Only Clara had skipped that year. He, however, had lived through it all.