Watching Zoe belting out Rachel Platten’s ‘Fight Song’ with gusto – a girl who knew exactly what it meant to fight – I had no doubt in my mind that my parents had answered my wish again.
50
TARA
On Easter Sunday, a week after Carly’s hen do, Jed said he had somewhere special to take me.
‘It isn’t far and you don’t need to get changed,’ he said, pre-empting my questions.
He drove us to Sea Cliff above South Bay and past the hotel where I’d stayed on my very first night in Whitsborough Bay before taking a side road and parking about halfway down.
‘I’ve never been down here before,’ I said as we exited the car and I looked around me. On our left was a beautiful old building – possibly a small hotel or a manor house – which had evidently been left empty for quite some time judging by the ivy creeping across the windows and how overgrown the front garden was.
Jed took my hand and led me through a squeaky wrought-iron gate into the grounds.
‘Are we trespassing again?’ I asked him, thinking about the time we’d nipped into the grounds of Whispering Winds before Mum and Dad had put their offer in.
He grinned at me. ‘I promise you this view is also worth it.’
We skirted round the back of the building and I stopped,smiling widely. ‘The viewisworth it.’ There were several shrubs and bushes in the unkempt back garden but a large gap between them perfectly framed Whitsborough Bay Lighthouse. ‘It’s stunning. How did you find this place?’
‘I wanted to create a collection inspired by the lighthouse but I wanted more than the obvious views and I wondered if there might be vantage points along the coast that I hadn’t considered. I stumbled on this one by accident and found it inspiring.’
I’d already seen Jed’s lighthouse collection and each piece was fabulous but I couldn’t recall seeing one from this angle.
‘You decided not to draw this view?’ I asked.
‘I did draw it but not for the collection. I went for something different without any animals – a triple piece more in the style of the drawings I did of you in Castle Street and by the Bay Pavilion. Would you like an exclusive reveal?’
‘Definitely.’
I expected him to take out his phone but, instead, he led me to an easel set up with a cloth over it. I’d been too busy looking at the view to even notice it. Jed partially pulled back the cloth to reveal the first image. It showed a woman on a clifftop looking at the distant lighthouse and, as I peered closer, my heart began racing.
‘Is that me?’ It was the exact scene I’d described to him of seeing the lighthouse on my first evening in Whitsborough Bay and realising I’d come to the right place.
He didn’t answer me. Instead he pulled the cloth further along, revealing the second image. This one was of the lighthouse from a different angle – the angle we were at now, in fact – and there was a man proposing to a woman on it. My heart leapt and I turned to find Jed smiling at me before dipping down onto one knee.
‘Tara Porter, you are the most incredible,inspiring, courageous woman I’ve ever met and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I promise to always see you, to remind you of your magic when you’ve forgotten it’s there, and to follow your lead in helping others. Will you marry me?’
‘Yes!’ I cried, rushing up to him and showering him with kisses. ‘Absolutely yes!’
He rose to his feet and removed a ring from his pocket. ‘This is not your official engagement ring. It’s just a cheap costume ring because I want you to choose your own. I was going to get one but then I realised I didn’t know what your last ring looked like and I didn’t want this moment to be marred by a bad ring choice.’
I put my hand out so he could slip the silver-plated ring onto it then drew him into a deep, passionate kiss.
‘It means the world to me that you thought about that,’ I said when we pulled apart, a little breathless. ‘Thank you.’ I gazed down at my costume ring. ‘This is pretty. You have good taste.’
‘Of course I do! I chose you.’
I smiled at him but my eyes were drawn to the easel behind him. ‘What goes in the third frame?’
‘I’m glad you asked me that.’ He removed the sheet completely but the third frame was empty.
‘As you’ve already worked out, the first two drawings are of key moments bringing us together – when you first arrived in Whitsborough Bay and when I proposed just now. Both of them involve the lighthouse and I want the third frame to be another key lighthouse moment for us – the next stage of our future together – but, because it’s the future, it’s unwritten. I’ve had this idea that I think you might like.’
Jed removed a third piece of artwork from behind the other two and placed it on the end of the easel.
‘It’s just an idea,’ he emphasised. ‘As I said, the future’s unwritten and it’s got to be something that’s right for both of us.’
