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Chapter 1
Evie glanced at her left hand and sighed with contentment. She was well on her way to achieving another goal on her list… marriage. She looked at the single solitaire diamond on a simple gold band and ignored the feeling of disappointment that tried to emerge from somewhere within.
It was a simple ring… nothing unique, but the ring had a story that she had already repeated various times to her family and friends.
Evie glanced at the man she now called fiancé as he drove them to the restaurant. Keith proposed to her three days ago after they enjoyed a quiet dinner at his parent's house. His parents were cleaning up the kitchen and Keith ushered Evie outside where he walked her to a bench, had her sit down, and asked her to marry him.
Keith then proceeded to pull out the ring from his pocket and told her the ring was his great-grandmother's and he had inherited it from his grandmother. Originally, the ring was just a band of gold when his great-grandfather made it before he crossed the plains of the United States to join his family in Utah. Keith’s grandmother later added the diamond after her husband passed away. She gifted it to Keith when she passed away because he was the eldest grandchild.
Evie liked simplicity.
She liked rules.
She liked lists.
It made her feel safe and grounded as the world around her seemed to spin out of control.
“You are not meant for simplicity,” came a voice from within.
Evie quickly glanced at Keith to see if he had heard the same words. Keith briefly glanced at Evie, gave her a sweet smile, and then turned back to focus on the road as he drove.
Evie also turned to face the road ahead and visualized the check-off list she had made shortly after she graduated from high school. The list was what she wanted in a husband. Her list had four categories: intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical.
Under the intellectual section, she had written; college degree or trade certificate, similar political opinions, and easy conversationalist. Keith had graduated from BYU as an engineer and was in the middle of his second year working at a manufacturing plant that built sports equipment in Colorado. Keith and Evie shared the same political opinions and even though their conversations could often be boring, it wasn’t all that bad.
Two out of three was better than one out of three.
For the spiritual section, Evie had written; returned missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, currently active with a church calling, and studies the scriptures. Keith served his mission in Canada and was currently a Sunday School teacher at the local singles ward, which also required him to study his scriptures.
Check, check, check.
The next section on her list was emotional. She had written; even-tempered, shares his feelings, enjoys laughing, protective over his family, and gets along with her family. That one was harder to positively pinpoint, but she was pretty sure Keith didn’t have an angry or mean bone in his body. He seemed pretty easygoing even though he didn’t laugh like she did. He talked a lot, which didn’t equate to sharing his deep feelings, however as long as he talked, Evie was sure she could sense his emotions.
Keith seemed to get along with her family. More so with her sisters, but Evie’s brothers were pretty intense, and it would be difficult for anyone to mesh with their high testosterone-filled lives. As for being protective over his family, he said he’d do anything for his parents and she hadn’t seen anything in their relationship that would contradict that statement, so she took that at face value.
For the last section… the physical section… she had to tell herself that lists could be reviewed and changed. She originally wrote; good hygiene… which Keith had. Physically active… even though he engineered sporting equipment and could talk all day about which sports equipment would be best for which activity, Keith really wasn’t a sports-inclined person. He would rather sit on the sidelines than participate and that made Evie question their relationship at the beginning.
Ultimately, Evie rationalized that a good marriage doesn’t revolve around whether someone could throw a ball or catch a frisbee.
The next item under the fourth category was being attracted to him. Keith was a good-looking man and many women in the young single adult ward were goo-goo over him but she had yet to feel that feeling her sisters told her she’d have when she met the one. They told Evie that when that special someone kissed her, she would feel like someone knocked off her socks.
She prayed she would get that feeling… sooner, rather than later.
Her list had one more item that she had added later. After her youngest brother, Wyatt, got some ink permanently etched on his skin, Evie added: No tattoos. She thought tattoos were a poor judgment of character and she was grateful Keith didn’t have any.
“Have you thought about when we should get married?” Keith asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Yeah, I have,” Evie replied.
“So have I,” Keith added. “You go first.”
“Well, I have always wanted a spring reception full of flowers,” Evie said with a smile.
“Oh,” Keith responded with very little excitement.
“What do you mean, Oh?” Evie inquired.
“I’ve always thought a white winter reception would be romantic.”
