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“I’ve got Triple A, and he’s probably got a gun on him. He’ll be fine,” I say.
“What about us? We’re just going to go tromping off into the dark with mud and bugs?”
“God, I love you.”
“I love you, too, Reed, but I didn’t survive those five years without you to die out here.”
“You’re with me, you have nothing to worry about,” I say as I walk through a thick row of trees and out into the clearing ahead.
It takes her a second to register what she’s seeing and she gasps as I get closer.
“You didn’t…” she says, and I hold her closer to me.
“I did,” I mumble into her neck and walk towards the light ahead.
We’re at the back of the elementary school where we used to play as kids. But I’ve had the whole thing set up like our high school prom. The one she missed out on and the one I couldn’t take her to.
“I can’t believe this. When did you have time?”
I set her down on the concrete and go over to the little table nearby. I hit play on the radio to turn on the music and I grab the box next to it.
“I believe these are yours,” I say and hold up the shoes she got with my mom all those years ago.
“Oh my god,” she whispers, putting her hand over her mouth, and I get down to help her put them on.
“You planned all of this?” she asks with tears in her eyes.
She lifts her feet and slide her shoes on. But instead of getting up after I’m finished, I stay down on my knee in front of her.
“This is the place I gave you the ring for the first time,” I say, reaching into my pocket and taking out the same ring again. “This is where I knew I wanted you to be my wife even though I had no idea what that meant. I just knew that I would love you and protect you as long as I lived and nothing has changed since that day.”
“Reed,” she says, her voice filled with so many emotions.
“Don’t worry, I asked my mama this time,” I say. I wink at her and slide the ring on her finger. “Marry me, Cami. Marry me and let me love you forever.”
She nods and tears stream down her cheeks because she’s unable to speak. I stand up and she falls against me as I wrap her up and swing her around in circles. The lights from above shine down on us and the announcer comes on the radio to begin the countdown.
As they count the seconds I press my lips to hers and kiss the woman my heart tied itself to in this very spot all those years ago. I feel her love in her kiss and it’s the only thing I ever want from her in return.
When I was a little kid I didn’t picture our lives like this. I thought that we’d play video games and eat pizza while we stayed up all night. I dreamed of building forts together and playing hide and seek until it got too dark and my mom told us to come home.
Then when I got a little older and I knew that boys and girls could kiss, I thought about doing that with Cami while we still did all those fun things I dreamed up for us. But about the time my dad told me about sex, all those dreams of us together began to change and new ones came to life.
If I could somehow go back in time I’d tell young Reed that it’s like all of that but so much better. I’d tell him it’s staying up all night and eating pizza and making blanket forts after we play naked hide and seek. Maybe I wouldn’t tell him all that, but I’d tell him that life with Cami is fucking epic.
Or maybe I knew it all along and that’s why she was the one. For whatever reason she’s here with me right now and will be by my side forever.
“Happy New Year,” I say as I smile at her.
“What a way to ring it in,” she says, leaning up and kissing me once again.
Epilogue
Reed
Eight years later…
I fire off one last email on the new project Cami and I have been working on together. Working together never gets old and it’s nice we can make our own hours. She wanted to do more with helping missing girls after becoming fascinated with my work. With her passion and fire and my skills we make a great team. We’re able to pick when and where we can help and that’s great since having four children has made our lives really busy. We don’t get to do as much hands on as we once did, but we still do what we can. We’re lucky Mom and Dad are happy to lend a hand and in fact they've been asking when we’re having another.
I shut my laptop and glance over at the clock. My parents stopped by earlier to pick up our youngest and then asked if they could pick the other three up from school. They wanted to take them out for ice cream at some new place in town and I know they’re just going to spoil them rotten. I don’t recall being able to get half the crap out of Mom when I was their age. I guess it’s the joys of getting to be the grandparent. I push back from my desk and go to find my wife.
One of her favorite things is our family dinner and I know she’s probably in the kitchen prepping for it. My parents will likely join us, too. They do most nights. Since we built our house next to theirs, it’s made life easy. This land holds too many good memories to leave it. I never spent time here when she was gone because I couldn't bear it. I felt like I was suffocating when she wasn’t here, but when I brought her back we both knew without saying a word this was where we would spend our lives. We’d always call this home and we’ve make our family here.
