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Blaine smiled and flipped his phone over, forced himself to wait a few more minutes, and then said a prayer that his odds would be on the side where everything was perfect when he led Tam outside. When thirty minutes had passed, he finally got up and walked over to the refrigerator.
“Okay,” he said. “You want to see what I’ve come up with?”
“I’ve been dying a slow death,” she said.
He returned to the table and sat beside her again as she moved their plates out of the way. “Okay,” he said, his pulse beating irregularly. “If you don’t like it, it’s fine. I’m not married to it. If you don’t want to do it at all, because you love this house as-is, that’s fine too.”
Tam reached up and cradled his face, her eyes moving up to the brim of his hat and back to his eyes. “I want you to be happy living here too.”
Blaine swallowed, the very idea of that so appealing to him. He opened the folder and pulled out the first sketch. “This one keeps the original stairs. It simply expands the porch from left to right, across the whole front of the house. We’d redo the roof over the whole house, because you said that needs to be done anyway, and we can add the roof over the new part of the porch at the same time.”
Tam studied the sketches, her eyes wide. Blaine watched her, hoping to find a clue as to how she felt about the idea. She finally looked up at him. “This would be great,” she said. “We could put a table and chairs out there and watch the sun rise.”
Blaine grinned at her. “Since we’re both up at the crack of dawn.” He reached down and picked up the corgi that kept putting his paws up on Blaine’s legs.
“Jasper,” Tam admonished. “You don’t have to hold him.”
Blaine let the dog settle in his lap. “He likes me.” He liked the corgi too, because it comforted him to stroke the animal as he laid out the second drawing. “This one expands the steps so they’re twice as wide. They’ll be more like a farmhouse, and I know you like that.”
“I do,” she said, studying the plans.
“The porch goes around the left side and connects to the back porch. We’ll cover the whole thing. Then you can sit out there while it rains and listen to the thunder roll through the sky.” He smiled at the thought of that, imagining him and Tam on the south side of the house, listening to the thunder and watching the sky for lightning.
“Or, we could put a hot tub there. Think of that, Tam. In the winter, we can sit in this deliciously warm water while it snows.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “We can’t put a hot tub on a deck.”
“Sure you can,” he said, his heart pounding like a drum now. “We’ll just raise the foundation a little in the corner, and it’ll be set downintothe deck, baby.” He reached for her hand and stood up. “Come see. I’ll show you.”
She put her hand in his, and Blaine set Jasper back on the ground before heading for the front door. Once there, he paused and took a deep breath.
He opened the door and scanned the porch. The lights had been hung. The flowers laced through the wires. Olli had spritzed something that smelled like love in the air. The roses sat on the tiny table Tam had on her porch now. Blaine reached for them as he went outside, and when he turned back to Tam, he held them in front of him.
“Oh, my,” Tam said, sucking in a breath.
Blaine reached for the ring box sitting on the windowsill and dropped to his knees. “Tamara,” he said, his voice shaking slightly. “I love you.” Everything after that scrambled in his brain, and he had no idea what he was going to say next.
This was why he didn’t want anyone here to see the proposal. His brain finally caught up to the uncomfortable surface beneath his kneecaps. “Will you marry me?” He opened the box and lifted it up so the white Christmas lights he’d asked his brothers to hang would illuminate the ring.
“I knew you’d go back and get that ring,” she said, her voice pitching up.
Blaine had no defense for himself. He didn’t even need one. “I want you to be happy,” he said, pieces of his speech returning to his mind. “I don’t know if I can do it all the time, but I’m willing to try. I love you, and you’d make me the luckiest and happiest man in the world if you say yes.”
Tam pressed both hands to her heart, her smile wide. “Yes,” she said simply, not a hitch in her voice whatsoever.
Blaine grinned at her too, got to his feet, and drew her into his arms. He kissed her beneath the twinkling lights, with the scent of love in the air, joy pouring through him. He slid the ring she loved onto her finger, and the two of them looked at it together.
Tam put her other hand on his chest and their eyes met. “I love you, Blaine.”
“I love you, too, Tam.”
She kissed him, and Blaine thought he could kiss her on her front porch forever. Someone honked their horn in several rapid successive beats, and a cowboy yelled, “Yeehaw! She must’ve said yes!” before the truck revved its engine and sped down the street.
Blaine watched it, a frown pulling at his eyebrows. “They are so annoying.”
Tam laughed and put her hand in his. “You love them. Now, come on. Show me what you mean by raise the foundation a little.”
“You don’t have to say it like that,” he said. “I know what I’m doing.”
