“Hadley, are you okay? I didn’t mean to…”
The woman starts laughing and peppering me with Nerf bullets again.
Until they stop coming out the barrel.
“Oh, you’re done for now,” I say. Tilting my head to the side and wearing a sly grin, I slowly close the distance between us. Her eyes grow wide. She drops the gun as I approach and tries to run, but I catch her around her waist and yank her against me. “Surrender.”
Hadley looks up, the blonde bun sitting on top of her head smushing against my chest. She’s so short I can see her full face, though it’s upside down.
“Never.” She tries to wiggle out of my grasp, but quite frankly, I’m not in the mood to ever let her leave my arms again. Hadley in my arms is the rightest feeling I’ve ever felt. A large growl erupts from her petite body. “Let me go so I can beat you!”
“Never.” I repeat her word, placing a kiss on the top of her head. She finally goes still. “If I let go, promise you won’t run. You know good and well there’s only one way to settle this. Even though I did technically get the first hit.”
“Fine. Let’s fight for victory.”
I let her go and she spins around to face me, hands at the ready. I match her stance. My heart races, though I don’t think it’s stopped beating at an abnormal speed since I began setting up earlier.
“Before we begin, I need to tell you some good news,” I state. “I’m going back to school to become a licensed architect and will be working with Michael.”
“Are you serious?” She breaks form, so I do too.
“Yep. No more offshore.”
A smile brighter than the moon appears on her face as she says, “You don’t understand how happy that makes me!”
“With that being said, let’s find out who won this war.” It’s time. We both take our stances.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” We yell. But instead of pulling a gesture, I slide down to one knee, pulling an actual rock out of my pocket.
A diamond.
Hadley stands frozen, her hand still resting in the scissors position.
“Hadley Anne Dawson.” I clear my throat, praying I don’t drop my mother’s ring out of my clammy hands. At her name, she drops her hands to her side. There’s enough light between the stars and the light pole in the back to see tears pooling in her eyes. I fight back my own. “You’re my best friend. The girl I’ve been choosing to spend time with since I was nine years old. Somewhere along the way, I fell deeply in love with you. God has His reasons for letting it take so long for this moment to happen, but I’ve always known it was you. I—”
“Braxton,” Hadley whispers my name through tears. She gets on her knees and takes my hands in hers. The ring presses between our hands. I bring my other knee to the ground. “You don’t want to do this.”
A tinge of anger appears. “Who are you to tell me what I do and don’t want?”
She cringes, and I regret my harsh tone. She speaks before I can apologize.
“I’m a basket case. I recognize my faults and know what I need to work on. But most importantly to you, I’m not a Christian.” I nod, letting silence settle between us. “I care about you. An unbelievable amount, which is why I know you can’t be fully happy with me until I figure out this Christianity thing.”
The silence stretches on as my heart shudders over and over.
“Are you saying you want to figure it out?” I ask, still unclear what she meant by that statement. My heart’s shudders turn to leaps when she nods her head yes.
“I’m not ready to commit or anything, but I do want to know more. What you said to me earlier, coupled with feelings I’ve been having and…the views from that snowy mountain top…He’s got to exist.” Tears flow freely from my eyes as I silently offer up my gratitude to Jesus. He’s working, and I don’t need to get in His way.
She continues. “I want to marry you. More than anything in this world. I want to wear your mother’s ring proudly, but I also want to be a woman worthy of that ring.”
“You are worthy of it already,” I say, standing to my feet and pulling her up with me. “You don’t have to say yes right now if you think that it will be too much pressure as you figure out all the things you need to. But regardless of it all,” I pause to stare into her eyes, “you are worthy of this ring and so much more.”
She wraps me in her arms and I pull her close.
“Yes,” she whispers in my ear. The world stands still. I push her away just enough to look at her face.
“Yes? You’ll marry me?”
