Page 114 of Indescribable
As discreetly as possible, I pull the ring out of my pocket along with the envelope.
Sliding the envelope across the table, her eyes widen and a smile breaks out across her face.
“Did you plan this? What is this? Itisa game, isn’t it?”
I lift a shoulder. “Open it and find out.”
Inside the envelope are letters on card stock all cut up so only one letter is on each piece of card stock. She dumps them onto the table and immediately starts trying to arrange them.
“What in the world?” she whispers to herself.
“Want some help?”
She shoots me a dirty look and I sit back in my seat. “Never mind.”
“I can get it. Just give me a minute.”
I take a sip of my sweet tea then twist the ring around the tip of my forefinger, watching as she moves and shifts all the letters around.
“It’s like a complicated version ofWheel of Fortune,” she grumbles. “But I’m getting it! I don’t need help.”
My stubborn girlfriend. I love that she’s confident and loves playing along with the strange games that pop into my head.
“How’s it going?”
“I got two words. I think.” She bites her lower lip. “Will and Me.”
I can’t believe she hasn’t figured it out yet. I’m a little glad it’s taking her this long, though. It makes it more fun this way.
“You! I got another word!”
“How many do you think there are?”
“Oh, shush. You know…” and that’s when it clicks. She blinks down at the remaining letters and the words she’s put together already. Her lips move as if she’s reading it over and over. “Brock?” she whispers.
She’s been so focused on the letters that she didn’t even notice that I’d slid out of my seat and got down on one knee next to her.
“Oh! Oh my gosh!” she cries out, putting her hands over her mouth. “Brock!”
“Hush. Will you let me do this?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t… what are you doing?”
“Do you really have to ask?” I chuckle then take her hand in mine. “Naomi. You’re the love of my life. I’ve loved you for most of my life. Maybe the diner isn’t the most romantic place to propose, but I wanted to do this here because this is the place I first realized I loved you for more than just a friend. You were sitting right there,” I point to the table across the room, “and asked me if I’d share an extra plate of fries with you. While we were eating, you dribbled ketchup down your chin and rather than wipe it with a napkin, you used a fry. That’s what did it for me.”
“That’s what did it for you? My terrible table manners?”
“That and a million other things. But it was then that I wondered how you could be beautiful even while you were using a greasy fry to clean ketchup off your chin. And it hit me that there was never a time I didn’t find you beautiful. Inside and out. I fell in love with you hard and in a way that’s never going to end. You’re my other half. My best friend. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?”
She nods, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. “Yes,” she whispers, a sob escaping her throat. “Yes, Brock. I’ll marry you.”
I slide the ring onto her finger and tug her out of the booth, crushing my lips to hers just as the family comes out of the kitchen area, shooting confetti guns and playing “When a Man Loves a Woman”by Percy Sledge through a portable speaker Cody’s carrying.
“She said yes!” I holler, even though I have no doubt they were listening the entire time.
Everyone crowds around us, including Dorothy, who couldn’t have been happier to be a part of the ‘special event’, as she called it. And Paisley’s here, too. She got the job and will be starting in a few weeks. Corbin and Naomi have been pumped to have her here but she’s still looking for a place to buy. She’s been staying with Corbin the last couple weeks, with most of her stuff sitting in a storage unit in town.
Then we eat. And pop some champagne that Cash smuggled in and somehow sweet talked Dorothy into letting us drink, even though it’s a dry establishment.