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“Hi,” I whisper, my throat tightening.
“Hey, man,” Alex touches the top of the stone, “We’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of talking, and we wanted to come here and have a little chat with you, too.”
I let them speak, wondering where this might be going.
“You married a truly amazing woman, Toby, and the two of us love her very much,” he says, glancing at me and smiling.
Tears trickle down my cheeks, but I smile back through them.
“And we’ve both come to the conclusion that we want to be with her for the rest of our lives,” Theo says, stunning me, “We want to show her the love she deserves and do our damndest to make her every moment on this planet a happy one.”
A sob escapes me and I cover my mouth with my hands.
“So we’re here to ask you for your blessing to make this amazing woman our wife,” Alex finishes.
They both fall silent, and I try to quiet my sniffles. I notice Alex’s brow furrow a bit and he sniffs the air, then sniffs at Theo. “Were you wearing cologne?”
He shakes his head. “No, I was gonna ask you the same thing, I just caught a whiff of it, too.”
I take a breath and the immediately recognizable scent leaves me breathless. “He’s giving his blessing,” I whisper.
They both turn to me in confusion, and a slow smile spreads over my face. “I’d know that cologne anywhere. It was the only one he ever owned, because I was the one who bought his first bottle for him when I got sick of the cheap deodorant sprays.”
There’s no one else around, so it’s not like we’re catching a whiff off of some other mourner. If I were the only one smelling it, I’d chalk it up to my own imagination, but with Alex having been the one to point it out, there’s no doubt in my mind that Toby’s here, listening, and wishing us well.
“Well, we were going to wait and do the whole ring thing at dinner, but I don’t think we can ignore a sign like that,” Theo remarks with a chuckle, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a tiny velvet box.
I already know what’ll be inside, but when he flips it open, the diamond nestled inside still takes my breath away and sends me into a fresh flood of tears. “Josie Finch…” he begins, then turns to Alex to let him finish.
“Will you be our wife?” Alex asks.
“I think if I say no, I’ll end up possessed or something,” I joke through my tears.
They both laugh. “But yes, of course the answer is yes.”
They slide the ring onto my finger. I know it won’t be all legal and official, but I don’t really care. I’ve gone down that road, and that’s not what matters. What matters is that the three of us will be together, forever.
And sure, maybe this proposal was unconventional, but so’s everything about us, and I can’t think of a way that they could have made it more meaningful.
“Would it be inappropriate to kiss you here?” Alex asks, glancing at the tombstone.
As if in answer, the gentle breeze that’s been blowing suddenly swells in an unexpected gust that catches me off-balance, nearly toppling me into Alex’s arms.
Theo snorts. “That answers that.”
I exchange a kiss with Alex, then Theo, then watch them share a kiss. We’ve tried a three-way kiss once or twice in sillier moods, but it usually just leads to noses bumping.
I stare at the two of them in the fading light of the sun and my heart feels so full it could burst. “Thank you,” I whisper, kissing my fingertips and touching them to the headstone.
My past will always be a part of me, but it only makes the here and now mean that much more. Every day is precious, and I’ve wasted too many on mourning. Time to step forward into a bright and shining future full of love and laughter.
THE END
