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“I love you too. And I want to show you by trying this date again. But we’ll do it differently: no lavish restaurants or expensive wine. Just us.”
Bradford eyes me with suspicion. He doesn’t fully trust that I get it yet. That’s fair, it’s on me to fix that. “Alright,” he says finally. “How should I dress?”
“Comfortably.”
That seems to raise his spirits. When we’re both ready, I grab a large pack from the closet and we head down to a lovely little deli I’ve heard about often. We order sandwiches and potato salad, bottles of craft soda, and slices of cheesecake. Then we head down to a park near the college campus. There’s no twinkling blue pond here, but there are geese and people walking their adorable dogs. There’s also a small string quartet playing covers of popular love songs, thanks to yours truly.
Bradford reclines on the picnic blanket, completely at ease and letting the sun kiss his tanned skin.
“This almost feels like Green Haven,” he sighs.
“Agreed.” I begin to feel that calm wash over me again. There’s too many people and cars and large buildings, of course, but there’s still that feeling of peace flowing in. “We can have more days like this, you know.” Anxiety starts to creep in, pushing that calm away. What if I’ve misjudged? What if he hates what I’m about to do, dumps me on the spot?
I shake my head to free it of such thoughts. This is what I must do. This is how I’ll show Bradford how much I love him.
He sits back up and crawls over to rest at my side. “I would love more days like this.”
“What if I promised to make every day feel like this one?” I ask carefully.
Bradford smiles. “I thinkeveryday would be a little unrealistic. We’d still have bad days together, it’s normal. But we could probably shoot formostdays,” he teases.
Those are the words I need to hear as I pull my grandmother’s wedding ring from my pocket. It’s sparkling and perfect, just as it looked the day she got it so long ago.
“I do think we could try for most days. And I want to spend those days, and the bad days, and every day with you at my side. Bradford,” I say, holding the ring up to him. “I have always loved you. I’ve never stopped loving you since the first day we shared a kiss. So now, I need to know, will you marry me?”
Bradford is stunned, completely lost for words. His eyes keep darting between my face and the ring, as if expecting me to pull the rug out from under him at any moment.
Finally, it seems he understands that this is real, as his shock melts to reveal pure joy.
“Yes! Ragnar, oh my God, yes!” Bradford throws his arms around my neck and a camera begins to click. As I slip the ring onto his finger, the quartet begins playing our favorite song. Right on cue. “Wait, no, did you.. ? Is that a cameraman? Ragnar, what!”
I chuckle and hold him close. “All for you. And this won’t be in some two bit gossip blog, this is going in the local newspaper. ‘Billionaire CEO to Marry World’s Most Smart, Beautiful, and Funny Supermodel’.
Bradford switches from sobs to laughter, choking on his breath and collapsing into me completely. “You goofball,” he says, hugging me tight.
“It’s not too much?” I ask with caution.
“Too much? Ragnar, this is perfect! This is showing you know me, you know what I want.” He sits up again and meets me face to face, our noses brushing against each other’s. “I love you, you big silly orc. I’ve always loved you.”
I put my hand on his cheek and take him into a deep, long kiss. I’m never going to mess this up again. Every day will be like Green Haven, I’ll make sure of it.
Bradford is worth all of it.
29
BRADFORD
Of course, we decide to hold the wedding in Green Haven.
That was the very first conversation we had. While Ragnar was driving us home after the proposal, he looked at me and said, “You know that we can hold the wedding anywhere, right? It’s a big enough event, people expect to travel. And if you’ve got friends or family who can’t afford it, I can handle that.”
I turn towards him. He’s got that grin on his face. “You mean we can go back there?”
“We could also go to some exciting tourist trap,” he reminds me. “We’re free to go anywhere. The beaches of Tahiti. The Amazon jungle. The Pyramids of Egypt. Don’t cut your imagination short here.”
“Well, sure, we could do all of that,” I say. “But they’re just cool places. They don’t mean anything, the way Green Haven does. And isn’t a wedding supposed to be a celebration of us?”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” Ragnar replies. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that I’d be in if you wanted some big, flashy destination wedding too. I don’t want you to think I’m cheaping out on you.”
