“I don’t know,” he replied. “I like my car.”
“What about a second house? Or a yacht. Or a hot-air balloon.”
“I was thinking more like a honeymoon…”
Oh no. Was this happening? I looked at him. His usual silly smile drained away, and he looked serious. He cleared his throat. He was nervous. This better not be a joke. Could it be…?
“That’s been on my mind lately, you know,” he began. “I don’t want to rush it. But it just keeps making more and more sense to me, and I don’t see the point of waiting.” He took my hand. “I talked to your sister to get her advice, and she freaked out of course, she was so excited. Your parents like the idea, too, your mom even made some recommendations on how I could propose. As for my grandmother and mom, you can only imagine. They’ve been calling me almost every day asking me when I’m finally going to pop the question…”
I tried to say something, but I was frozen. I couldn’t believe this was real. I wanted to pinch myself to make sure. Jack went on: “Jen, I know you and I are young and we haven’t been together that long. And I know it hasn’t always been good. We’ve had arguments and disagreements, and we’ll probably have more. But that’s part of the deal, right? And no matter what, we want to be together, and together is how we’re going to get through those things. I could never imagine saying that to anyone else. You’re the only person in the world I can see myself living my whole life with. And so…”
He reached into his pocket, and my heart started pounding like a drum. My cheeks were burning, my palms were sweating, I could hardly draw a breath. He took out a little velvet box and squeezed my hand.
“The first time we were together, it didn’t last long. Three months, but even then, I couldn’t imagine myself without you. A lot has happened since, but there’s one thing that’s stayed the same. And that’s my certainty that a life without you just isn’t a life I want to have. And I may be rushing things, and it may be cheesy… I mean, I know it’s cheesy, it’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever done, and it sounds even worse now than when I was practicing it in the mirror, but I don’t care. I want to be with you. And I know we don’t need a piece of paper that says we love each other, but maybe it’s nice anyway. So I’m putting myself in your hands. Jen…will you marry me?”
My heart ordered me:You idiot, if you don’t say yes now, you and me are done. But I wasn’t sure what words to choose. The box in Jack’s hand was open—I could see the streetlight glimmering off the yellow gold of the ring. My mouth was hanging open, my body was paralyzed.
“Now would be a good time to answer,” Jack reminded me. “I’d recommendyes, but hey, it’s your call.”
At last, I cleared my throat and started nodding frantically. Jack looked at me incredulously.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Was that a yes?”
“Yes!”
“For real?”
“Jack, yes! Yes! Now put that damn ring on my finger before I freak out!”
He did it, and I looked down at the glimmering stone and then back at him. I wasn’t sure who was more surprised, or if it was surprise, relief, or terror that we felt. This was a huge step, a step I hadn’t been sure I was ever going to take. But once it was done, I knew I’d made the right choice. I sighed with relief as Jack asked, “I guess this means we need to organize a wedding?”
I smiled, flashed the ring at him, and said, “I guess it means you’ll have to start calling me Jennifer Michelle Ross.”
We opened two more beers. And two more after that. And several more. I lost count as the sun started coming up, but I didn’t care.
Not every night is made for worrying.
24
Roo-Roo
Jack was lying on the carpet with Jane in the living room, and she was staring at him. He’d fall silent, she’d smack the toy in front of her with her fist, he’d pretend to be scared, and she’d crack up laughing. This from the guy who said he didn’t get along with kids.
Sue kept shooting them nasty looks because she was trying to read a book, but she didn’t complain, and for her, that was saying something. Will could tell she was agitated and thought it was funny, but he didn’t bother saying anything.
“How about this one?” Naya asked. “It’s perfect!”
I looked at her laptop screen, unconvinced. She had found a page about theme weddings, and one of the examples was Disney, and she was elated as she carried on about how she could be Cinderella, I could be the Beauty fromBeauty and the Beast, Sue could be Grumpy, and so on.
“I guess that makes Jack the Beast,” Will said.
Jack shrugged as if it didn’t really bother him.
“That’s sweet, though! You’d be a great Beast,” Naya reassured him, but I interrupted her to tell her I didn’t think a Disney wedding was a memory I would cherish for the rest of my life.
Jack agreed, and I said it was probably a bad idea to look for weddingideas on the internet. “Why can’t we just do a normal wedding like everyone else?”
