Ben nodded. “Sure, we can go home.”
“Forgive me for sticking my old nose in,” said Joe, “but just where are you calling home? That place on Lexington that you’re renting? I know it’s not the apartment because I never see either of you there.”
“It’s home for now,” said Ben. He was a little surprised that Joe would ask. He’d already told Joe that he was staying at Charlotte’s place, and that they’d started house-hunting.”
Charlotte smiled at Joe. “You’re not worried I’m corrupting him, are you? Because you know, if you are, you’re too late. I corrupted him years ago.”
Joe laughed. “I know that, little girl. What I’m worried about is the two of you living in some little rented house. We need to talk about that.”
Ben wasn’t sure what he meant, but he really didn’t want to stick around to discuss it now. Charlotte had said she wanted to go home and he was more than happy to take her. He hadn’t wanted to ask her here, but he did want to ask her tonight. “Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
Joe nodded. “Yep. I think we’ll have a lot to talk about tomorrow, won’t we?”
Ben met his gaze; he’d swear his grandpa knew what he had planned. But that shouldn’t surprise him. It seemed that Joe had been able to anticipate his moves his whole life. He nodded. “Probably.”
He and Charlotte made the rounds saying goodnight to their friends. He stopped when he spotted Angel sitting in a corner talking to one of Smoke’s student pilots. They looked quite cozy.
“I’m not going to ask if that bothers you,” said Charlotte with a smile. “I had a chat with her earlier and it turns out that now both she and I understand that she wouldn’t be what’s best for you anyway. I am, and I know it.” She reached up and planted a kiss on his lips. “And you’d just better get used to it.”
Ben hugged her to him and smiled. “I plan to spend the rest of my life doing just that.”
Angel smiled at them and waved, and Ben felt a sense of peace.
“You’re not leaving already, are you?” asked Renée when they found her and Gabe.
“We are. We just came to say congratulations one more time.”
“We’re so happy for you both,” said Charlotte.
“You can’t go yet. I haven’t even throw in the flowers.” Renée smiled at Charlotte. “April and Lily are in the running, too, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you.”
Charlotte laughed. “That’s okay, let one of them catch them. I don’t need them.”
As they finally made their way back out into the cool night air, Ben had to wonder what she’d meant by that. Whatever she’d meant, he was about to find out. “Do you want to go home because you’re tired, or because you’d had enough?”
“I’d had enough. I love being back with everyone, but I still want you to myself every chance we get, and if I remember rightly I was going to get you out of that suit when we get home.”
Ben grinned. “You’re definitely not mistaken about that, and much as I love that dress on you, I’d much rather see it off you. If you’re not tired, though, I wondered if you wanted to go for a walk before we go home.”
She nodded. “Where do you want to go?”
“Down to the beach.” Even saying the words brought a lump to his throat. They’d walked on the beach the last night they were together as kids. They’d gone down there to watch the sunset that night before she left for Mexico. He’d said she needed to be careful. The first few months were the riskiest time. And she’d said perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea to take some risks. That was the night that their lives had taken a turn. A turn that it had taken all these years to recover from. It just seemed right that they should go back to that place. He wanted tonight to be the night that they got their lives back on the right track.
Charlotte searched his face. She seemed to understand the significance. “We haven’t been down there since I came back.”
“I know, and now I think it’s time.”
When they got there, they walked in silence down to the water’s edge. Charlotte clung to his hand. “You remember what happened here?”
He stopped walking and put his hands on her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “Of course I do. We can’t change everything that happened. You were the one who told me we can’t change the past, but we can change the future. I wanted to come here because the last time we were here we changed our future for the worst. This time I want to change it for the better.”
She wiped the tears away from her eyes and nodded. “How do we do that, though? I mean, everything changed for the worse in a moment. I know how that happened. But how do we—can anyone ever—change things for the better in just a moment. Doesn’t that take time? Isn’t it a process that happens over weeks and months and years?”
“It is a process, and yes it takes weeks and months and years. In fact, I hope for us it will take the rest of our lives. But it starts with a moment.” He drew in a deep breath and knew that that moment was now. He fished around in his pocket for the little box he’d brought back from Laura’s store earlier. Then, taking hold of her hand, he went down on one knee. “Charlotte, it’s taken us sixteen years to get back to this point, I don’t want to waste any more years. In fact, I don’t want to waste another day. I want you to marry me, I want you to be my wife. Please, say that you’ll finally marry me.”
She dropped to her knees in the sand beside him and cupped his face in her hands. “Yes! Yes, Ben, I will marry you. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make up for all the years we lost, and doing my best to be a good wife and to make you happy.”
“You don’t need to try, Charlie. You make me happy just by being you, by being with me. And I don’t want us to try to make up for the years that we lost. That’s impossible. We can’t change yesterday and we know better than anyone that we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. All we can do is live the hell out of every day we get together.” He opened up the box and showed her the ring before taking it out.
