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Christmas just passed and I’m trying to soak up the holiday decor before it’s all replaced by hearts and Valentine’s throughout the city. I couldn’t have asked for a better time with Shane and the kids, all gathered together to open presents on Christmas morning. We stuck to our plan, Shane coming by here when the twins were with me, but not having him spend the night at this point in our relationship.
Apparently, on weekends when I have dedicated time with Mallory and Jackson, Shane has been going upstate to see Liv. They’ve formed an easy bond together. They talk daily and seeing his face light up when she texts him fills me with such joy, I don’t know how I went so long telling myself she was fine without him in her life.
Shane is meeting me for lunch today. It’s New Year’s Eve and the twins are headed to stay with my parents and visit with Olive while they’re soaking up the last few days of break. This gives me some time to take a breath and prepare for the madness to return once our school schedule is back and running.
Shane arrives, trying to remove the snowflakes in his hair. While he moves through the restaurant, he catches the eyes of women and men as he heads toward me, clearly on a mission.
He oozes confidence, much like he did in that hallway years ago at our little high school in Nebraska, although now his hair has some grays along the temples. It blends due to his dirty blond hair, and it suits him. His sexiness seems to improve with age. He smiles toward me and I can feel my body heat. The things this man does to me. I smile back, knowing that everything about him is mine, and I feel that pull toward him like I always do.
“Hello, beautiful.” He kisses me on the lips. “You ready to marry me today?”
I roll my eyes and he chuckles, this question becoming his new greeting to me each time he sees me. Even with the twins around, he whispers it in my ear just for me to react to it. Each time my response is the same, with an eye roll and a scoff.
He gives me a smirk that holds way too much mischief in it, and I can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever be serious about it. He knows I want a proper proposal at some point, as I was robbed of that with him before. We had talked about it when we were teens, and I wonder if he even remembers those late-night chats under the stars.
We lay here, two teens in love, soaking up the nighttime summer in Nebraska, in the bed of his truck, looking up at the stars. My eyes gravitate toward the cluster of stars that seem to shine brighter than the rest. Much like my heart, those stars shine as if they’re the center of the universe, much like my love for Shane. I take a deep breath, and I can feel Shane shift by my side.
“What are you thinking about, Becs?”
He brings his hands over my head and starts to stroke my hair. I could fall asleep from the feeling of bliss right now in his arms.
“I guess I’m thinking of forever,” I say, a soft smile painting my face.
“Tell me what forever looks like for you.” He continues to move his fingers through my hair and as much as I want to tell him my story, I also just want to close my eyes and sleep all night in his arms.
I feel him poke my side, and I react.
“Hey, no tickling. Don’t play dirty,” I whine.
“Then tell me more about this forever business.” He eggs me on, and I know he will stop at nothing to hear my thoughts.
“I dream about us together after you finish your time in the Navy, and I am a full-fledged doctor. I can see myself in a white coat and a purple stethoscope around my neck, Shane.”
I look at him and beam my big smile toward him. He does the same in return as if he envisions the same future I do.
“Go on, baby. Let me hear more.” He encourages me and I feel so comfortable, that I let it all out.
“I see you going down on one knee and holding out a little purple box because it’s my favorite color. Inside you’ll have a ring that was made for me. But the most special part about it is the engraving that you put in there. I can’t tell you what it says because some things you’ll have to think of yourself.”
I notice a smile spread across his face when I say this.
“I see my swollen belly with your baby growing inside me. I can see you with a child up on your shoulders while I push a stroller around. I think we’ll have three kids, all little replicas of us running around. I hope one of them is a girl that has you wrapped around her finger.”
My smile begins to widen even more as I imagine this time in our lives when we can be together in such a way, building our forever.
“I see us at their graduations. I see us at their weddings. I see us growing older together. Maybe getting some land and building right here in Saddle Ridge one day. I see it all, so clearly, that I could almost touch it. But most of all, I see the man I’ve always loved by my side. I see love in your eyes as you look at me, even when we’re old and gray. I see so much more than I thought possible because, with you, there’s no limit. You bring me forever, Shane, in ways I never thought possible.”
He pushes me to lay completely on my back, my head now resting on the small pillow instead of on his chest. He looks me in the eyes, and I feel how much love he has for me in just that stare alone. He kisses me softly.
“Becs, I’d go up to the sky and get that cluster of stars if it meant you’d give me that reality to live. You are what makes my heart beat, and I will always love you.”
I blink as I pull myself from that memory from so long ago. Shane is seated across from me. The server has come around, leaving a glass of water for him. Shane pulls a menu onto his phone using the QR code, squeezes my hand across the table, and gives me a wink. Before I can say much else, I hear her footsteps approaching before I see her.
Shane looks up to find, what I assume from the huffing and puffing, is a frazzled Ellie.
“I swear, even on my holiday break, this asshole finds a way to make my life hell.”
She plops down beside me and leans in to kiss my cheek. She then waves toward Shane, and he nods his head in acknowledgement.
