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Charlotte looked up at the top of the tree, her mom’s gold-winged angel looking down with a beatific smile. “It’s a good scary, you know? Finally doing the thing you’ve dreamed of for so long.”
We’d open our doors the next day for the whole community. We had no idea how many people would show up, or if it would just be our family. But we had enough hot chocolate to serve hundreds, and Richard had been baking cookies with the kids for days.
“Everyone will love it,” I told her, kissing her cheek softly while she closed her eyes. “And if they don’t, they can get bent.”
Charlotte chuckled. “I think I’ll do the greeting at the door tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”
The train emitted a low whistling sound, and we both turned to watch it come around the corner into the entryway. It had taken us weeks to find something close to what she remembered. And I’d spentdays setting it up throughout the house to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to.
The first time she watched it go through the house—with all the trees up and holiday music playing in the background—she cried.
That’s when I knew how I needed to do this. Theonlyway I could do this.
As the main engine came into sight, I let out a quick sigh of relief when I saw the box was still strapped to the front.
“What is that?” Charlotte asked.
The train curved around the side of the stairs, looping under the Christmas tree, ready to start the journey again, when I hit the button to bring it to a stop.
Charlotte’s body stilled, her eyes whipping to mine. “Is that a ...”
She pulled out of my arms and crouched down to gently tug at the white ribbon that held the box in place.
It was an antique velvet box with a small gold clasp.
While she straightened, the box in her trembling hand, I got down on one knee behind her.
Charlotte turned, her mouth covered with her fingers and her eyes brimming with tears. Her gaze locked on mine for a moment, and I smiled.
A tear slid down her cheek when she plucked at the clasp, but her mouth fell open when she found the box empty.
I pulled my hand out of my pocket, the vintage ring glinting softly in the light from the tree behind her.
“Oh, you ass,” she gasped. “You should feel my heart right now.”
I smiled. “I didn’t want you to find it and do some peeking,” I told her.
Carefully, I slid my hand under hers and brought her hand to my mouth for a quick kiss against her knuckles. Then I looked back up into her face.
“I could’ve done this a million different ways. I’ve thought over all of them. Something big and flashy, something in front of all thepeople we love. But I wanted to ask you to be my wife in the place you first showed me your heart. It’s the most important gift I’ve ever been given”—I paused and let out an unsteady breath—“and if you’ll let me, I’ll take care of it for the rest of my life.”
She exhaled a tiny sob.
“Marry me, Charlotte,” I whispered.
Charlotte dropped to her knees and wound her arms around my neck. Her mouth found mine with a desperate whimper, and I held her as close as I could, as tight as I could manage.
“Yes,” she said against my lips. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Sliding the ring onto her finger and kissing her again under the light of the tree, I couldn’t help but think about how the past wove its way into our present, into the future, in a way we couldn’t always plan for.
For me and Charlotte, it was the past that gave us all the very best parts of our future.
And I couldn’t wait to start it.
