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"Yep. I know it. It's real. I'm engaged," I answered, smiling at her. I was confident about marrying Charlie, but I still couldn't shake the nerves associated with telling my friends. Stacy still looked shocked and dumbfounded, and Landon patted her on the shoulder and told her everything was going to be okay. She had taken the news fine when I told her I was moving to Miami, so I wasn't sure why this seemed like a bigger deal. Either way, I was completely comfortable with our decision to get married.
It was another ten minutes later when I got out of the car at the marina and figured out why Stacy was acting so funny. Charlie was at the marina in the big boat instead of the small one. There were ten or more people already on it. Caleb and Max were standing next to Charlie, they were the first ones I saw. My Brother, Eric, was there also, along with his girlfriend from Nashville. And that was when I started to know something was really going on. I started walking faster, going toward them while still scanning the crowd. My mom was there and so was my dad. I could see them all as we walked up, and my heart really started to pound. There were even a couple of my friends from work.
"My mother and father have not seen each other in years," I said to Landon and Stacy.
"I know. This is supposed to be a surprise," Stacy whispered stiffly as we walked up. "We didn’t know about last night. We thought you were getting proposed to tonight."
"I think maybe I still am," I said, smiling at everyone on the boat.
I took a deep breath and turned to make eye contact with Charlie, who was looking back at me. I bit my lip and shook my head at him and he smiled. I held my hands in the air as if to saywhat's going on,and he grinned even further and shrugged at me.
It only took a minute for us to reach the boat and begin to board it. I greeted my brother and talked about the amazing fact that he was finally back home. His girlfriend, Jillian, was with him, and I spoke with them briefly before looking around and greeting my mom and dad and the others.
"I know we all know why we're here," Charlie said at just the right time. He didn't raise his voice, but everyone knew he was trying to get our attention, and we went silent and looked at him, waiting to hear what he would say next.
He moved to stand closer to me and we converged and got settled near the edge of the boat. "I did not come to Arkansas to fall in love," he said. "I came here to run from it—to heal from it. I certainly wasn't looking for it." He looked at me. "Hope wasn't either. When we first started spending time together, we were friends with neither of us wanting anything else. I was the one who fell first. I had to talk her into this."
Everyone laughed when he said that and I defended him. "Aw, you didn't have to try too hard."
They all reacted. They made various noises like they thought we were sweet. Charlie took me into his arms and then continued speaking.
"As you all know, I planned this last week, but then Hope and I decided to get married last night, so technically, I've already asked her. We love each other very much and we know this is the right thing to do. In our conversation last night, she specifically told me that she didn't care about a traditional engagement. She said she would not know what to do if I got on my knees and held up a ring box. She actually used the word mortified in that conversation, so I'm not going to kneel… but…" Charlie took a box out of his pocket and held the closed box comfortably in front of us like he wasn't in a rush for me to take it from him. "I'm going to make this quick okay, my love? I love you. I love your memory, and your empathy, and your way with kids. My heart is more full of love today than it has ever been in my life. I know we already decided that we were getting married and you didn't expect any of this, but I already had it planned, and I wanted to have everyone here when I gave you this. So, here. And since you've already saidyes, you can just smile and kiss me now."
