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“I love it,” Nikki said. “It’s just perfect.”
Jonas smiled, “It is a temporary position, maybe six months or so, possibly eight? Our house is over there, just beyond the trees and I’m sure Allie will slowly start showing her face as soon as she is ready to come back to work.”
We spent the night in the inn, trying out one of their top suites, a charming Victorian bedroom with a four-poster bed and flower wallpaper.
“I’d revamp their website,” Nikki said in bed that night. “They need new photographs and nicer shots of the bedroom. It looks okay on the site, but it is so much better in real life! Don’t you think? They should be doing picnics and weddings here!”
“Would you have your wedding here?” I asked casually.
“Oh, definitely,” Nikki responded without giving it a second thought. “I would have it outdoors, by that creek, a little gazebo for the ceremony and do the reception indoors. Not a big wedding, obviously, but a smaller one, for sure. It would make for such lovely photographs!”
“You don’t want a big wedding then?” I asked, still playing along.
She was slowly catching on though.
“Not a big… what do you mean?”
I slid out of bed, onto one knee. I was wearing boxer shorts, but it still wasn’t the most dignified of poses. I wasn’t sure if this was the way we’d tell the story to our kids one day, but that didn’t matter either.
“Nikki, I know you’re young and I know I’m a dad with a crazy ex and two cats that get separation anxiety every time we leave the house, but I think we should be together, and the fortune teller said it was so, so it must be so.”
I took a breath.
“Will you marry me, please say yes?”
Nikki got up and kissed me, her cheeks wet with tears.
“Yes, I will.”
“Then I give you my blessing to work in this incredibly romantic venue for a few months while I sort out my life. Then, I’m never letting you out of my sight again!”
We fell into each other’s arms, a hug that seemed to go on forever.
The next morning, as Nikki and Allie signed paperwork and went over the finer details, Jonas told me that he would work on Sundays to give Nikki a break and allow us to spend time together. He said there had been a few applicants for the position, but no one had impressed them as much as Nikki had.
As an engagement gift, I bought Nikki a car, to make it easier for us to commute between New Haven and the city. Zoë didn’t take well to the news that Nikki was leaving but not leaving, as she put it.
“You’re getting married?” she asked, crossing her arms, unhappily. “When?”
I could see Nikki was uncomfortable with Zoë’s reaction.
“Probably later, in the summer,” I said. “There’s no rush, right, Nikki?”
She turned around and ran into her room. I followed her, found her on her bed and asked her what was wrong.
“Jade said we would be a family!”
“Really?” This was news to me, of course.
“When was this?”
“All the time! She says she will live here and cook French toast for me the way the French people do it, with sugar and stuff!”
“I see. And what else will happen then?”
“We will be happy!” Zoë yelled, her face red and blotchy.
“Aren’t we happy now?”
