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I was shocked. “Do you feel guilty about what happened?”
“I should have been a better man, a better person for you. I feel like maybe you wouldn’t have missed the jump in 2016 if I hadn’t run from you in 2012. If we had talked about the loss of our baby.”
“Jacob, that was me. That was all me, getting in my own head.”
His hand reached for mine. He put my fingers to his lips. “Tonight, we’re going to fix that.” The kiss was more intimate in the darkness behind the blindfold. I heard the sincerity in his tone…he wanted to make things right between us.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I’d lost track of stops and turns and had no idea where we were.
“A few more minutes.”
“Why does your family know what’s going on?”
He laughed. “Grand gestures can’t be pulled off by oneself.”
“Oh, by oneself?” I laughed.
He chuckled, and continued holding my hand as he drove. I’d lost my sense of direction as soon as he’d pulled out of Mia’s driveway. We weaved and turned until the smooth hum of tires on pavement turned to dirt.
Suddenly, we stopped. He turned the truck off. “Wait right there.”
“As if I could go anywhere.”
He didn’t respond.
My door opened, and he reached in for me, cradling me in his arms.
His thighs hit my bottom as he struggled to climb some steps. I was enveloped in the warm air of a building but hadn’t heard him open a door. Someone whispered, “He’s here.”
A few more steps, and then he put me down. “Jacob?”
His knuckles brushed against my cheek. I heard murmurs around me. The blindfold was still firmly in place. “Camille, we haven’t worked very well in the conventional sense, and I realized a few weeks ago that we were never going to get over our past if we didn’t do something drastic.” He kissed me sweetly. “We were both stupid.”
“We were kids…”
He interrupted, “Let me talk.”
I made a lock gesture over my lips. I tried to stop the slow grin that was growing.
He went on, “We belong together. We need to leave all the baggage behind us to build a life together.”
I got hung up on his words a few seconds back. “What does drastic mean?” My heart raced. I put my arms out in front of me, feeling for him, but not moving my feet since I didn’t know where I was.
“This is how it’s going to be, Camille. I love you. We’re going to have little snowmobiling babies that ride horses in the summer. And Brooks Outfitters is going to offer backcountry horseback riding as a new adventure. Yes, I’m also thinking of the business. But we’re going to be together forever because we’ve wasted enough time, and I love you.”
My eyes were wet behind the blindfold. “I love you too.”
I felt his hands on the back of my head, gently untying the knot. As the blindfold fell away, he said, “And we’re starting tonight.”
I blinked my eyes into focus. With a quick glance around the room, I realized I was standing in the beautiful living room of my house, well, what was my dad’s house. Everyone from Mia’s was now here, seated in the familiar couches or standing by the glass windows.
A vintage style arch was placed in front of the windows, decorated with winter greenery and berries. On either side were ten candle candelabras. The firelight accented the gold in the archway.
In the corner was a twelve-foot-tall professionally decorated Christmas tree.
Everyone was smiling. Then I noticed my brother standing back a bit from the others. Next to him? A priest.
“Mach?”
