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“Ha ha, funny girl. You ready?”
“I am now.” I grin up at him.
We walk out the door and Barrett immediately reaches for me. I look down at our laced hands slowly swinging between the two of us and feel such peace. I glance up into his dark hazel eyes and momentarily feel lost in the depth of love I have for him.
“Me too.”
“Huh?” I respond.
“Me too. I feel it, too, Tess. Whenever I’m in your presence. I feel it. Always. Forever.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I let out a breath I actually knew I’d been holding. I smile at him because, honestly, that’s all that he needs. He knows my inner thoughts just as I know his.
And he’s right.
Always.
Forever.
My smile widens when I see the pickup parked on the street in front of my parents’ house. A dark maroon, late 80s-model Chevy pickup sits waiting for us, looking immaculate. I look up at Barrett with wonder. It’s exactly what he drove the first time I rode in a vehicle with him. “How did you get this thing?”
His smile is wide, and eyes full of mischief. “I have my ways,” he says. I have no idea what he has going on right now, but this certainly surprises me. He opens the passenger door for me, and I slide in before he closes the door behind me. I take a deep breath, the smell permeating my senses, memories of all those hours spent in here washing over me in waves.
The driver side door opens, and he climbs in behind the wheel. He looks over and quietly says, “C’mere.”
So I do. I slide over the velvety cloth bench seat until I’m nestled in close to his side.
“Close enough?” he asks with a smile on his face.
I shake my head as I try to burrow in closer, and he chuckles lowly. He throws an arm around my shoulders and leans down to place a kiss right below my ear. Heat blossoms all over, just as it does every single time he kisses me there.
“Hi.” He smiles at me. “That was the proper greeting I wanted to give my girl but not with her daddy breathing down my neck,” he says, mock teasing me for my use of the word daddy. He knows I’ll never change no matter how old I am, and he doesn’t expect or want me to.
“I like that greeting. And you’re right. Daddy probably wouldn’t have enjoyed that particular greeting. I’m never allowed to grow up, according to him. So what’s the plan?”
“Well, maybe you’ll have to wait and see. It’s a long overdue date night with my girl, and I have no intentions of wasting a single second,” he says as he shifts the pickup into drive and pulls out into the street.
* * *
Since the moment Barrett picked me up at my parents’ house, the memories have been flooding through me. Between seeing him in his ridiculous outfit, climbing into the pickup that held so many memories, wearing his letterman’s jacket that even smelled like I remembered him smelling when we were first dating, the perfection of our time at the drive-in… it’s all come to a head. And now sitting here, on the bench that holds the best memory of all, tears begin to prick the back of my eyes. This place has become special to us. For every special occasion, we come back to this place. Pictures on our wedding day… pictures with each of our children here shortly after they were born... It’s become a place that holds such value in our hearts but brings such comfort as well.
As Barrett slowly stands up and then lowers himself down to one knee, the emotions that have been sitting at the surface all evening begin to bubble over, and I can’t hold back the tears that begin to trickle down my cheeks. My right hand goes to my mouth, my left being held by Barrett as he smiles up at me. With his free hand, he brushes away the tears with his thumb.
“My emotional sap,” he murmurs and smiles lightly at me.
I smile back at him and sniff unattractively as I wipe the rest of the tears from my face with the back of my hand, not wanting to miss a moment of what is about to happen.
My mind is racing, shifting back and forth between past and present when this same beautiful man dropped to one knee in front of me so many years ago, dressed quite similarly, but with far more nerves radiating off him then. He spoke so clearly, so sure of himself, even though his hands and mine were shaking.
“Te…” His voice shakes and cracks before he clears his throat and squeezes his eyes shut tightly. When he opens them up again, he stares straight into my eyes, “Tess. My pretty girl. I don’t remember a time when you weren’t in my life, but I remember a time when I considered you only a friend. I also remember a time when I sat in those gym bleachers back at Liberty High and noticed you for the beautiful woman you had become. We were just kids. Are just kids. But I fell in love with you then. I fell in love with the idea of us.”
“Tess, my pretty girl, I fell in love with you so many years ago. It seems there hasn’t been a day on this earth that I haven’t had you a part of my world. We started so young. I had the pleasure of considering you a friend, then one day my eyes, thank goodness, were opened. You walked into the gym that day, and my heart no longer was mine. It was forever yours.”
“There’s nothing I won’t do for you. I will lay down my life for you. I want to give you all that I have. I want to give you the good. I want us to go through the bad together. I want us to stand by each other for all of our lives, building our lives together.”
“I love you more than anyone else on this earth. That might sound terrible considering that we have four examples of our love, but it’s true. I’d do anything for you. So many years ago I told you I’d lay my life down for you, and it’s still true. I asked you once to walk with me through the good, through the bad, building a life together.”
“Tess, I want you to build a life with me from the ground up. Will you do that? Will you let me show you what love is, that love is more than just a feeling? It’s showing you that I’ll serve you, give to you, that I will prove to you what it is to be loved your entire life. Will you let me continue to choose you above all others for the rest of our lives? Will you allow me to give you my name for you to carry for the rest of our lives? Will you do me the honor of becoming Tess Josephine Ryan, for as long as we both shall live? Marry me?”
