Page 28 of Ella’s Data

I Love U.

Kiss Me.

I’m Yours.

Hug Me.

“Data?” she queries as she turns to me. “What’s going on?”

“All will be revealed, Ella,” I reply. As I turn to follow her out, I grin when I see that the scary witch now has pink boas draped around her.

Moving through the kitchen, I hear her murmur, “Wow, y’all cleaned up fast. I figured you’d come back in the next day or so and close it all down until next year.”

“We will, but this is something special. Do you hear that?” I ask as the song begins playing a bit louder.

“Oh, I’ve seen some videos where flash mobs do this to help a friend who’s proposing,” she says, turning to me.

“Really? That’s different,” I muse as we head toward the den. I nearly laugh out loud when I see her take in a deep breath in preparation for what she thinks she’s going to see.

Instead, as the song continues to play, the skeleton family turns to her, their glowing eyes now hot pink instead of red, and each of them, except the dog, are holding a red rose clutched in their skeletal hand. One of the brothers must have gotten Fee to help, because what’s playing on the tv is a video of Ella since she’s been here. Playing with the kids, helping Esther on her farm, walking through the kiddy haunt. Someone captured pictures of the two of us riding out on my bike, me swinging her around, us hugging, which is a nice touch.

As the song reaches a crescendo, I drop to one knee behind her and watch as she stares, enraptured, at the screen with her hands covering her mouth. When she turns, I hear her gasp out loud. “Eddie?” she questions, her voice wobbly.

I reach out and take her hands in mine. “Ella, years ago we crossed paths and spent an incredible month together. I fell in love with you, and it broke my heart when you left. So, when I pulled up to the triage site in the Carolinas with the bigger RV for Prophet to use instead of the tent and saw you, I knew it was my second chance. Will you marry me? Be mine for the rest of our lives? Travel together when needed and hunker down here in between?”

By now, tears are streaming down her face as she nods her head so hard, she looks like a bobblehead. “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you!” she exclaims. As soon as I slide the ring on her finger, she practically leaps into my arms. I waste no time sealing my lips to hers, while wishing we were already in her RV so we could celebrate the way I want.

Breathless, I pull back and see her smiling. “You happy, baby?”

“I didn’t know I could feel like this,” she replies. “For so long, I haven’t let myself hope, but you wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept chipping away. Thank you for that, Data, because life looks so much better now than it did when I rolled into town.”

“Just think, when you have to leave next week, he gets to go with you,” Prophet calls out.

Ella turns and starts laughing because everyone is standing there, watching. For a bunch of rough and tumble men, I’m proud of the fact that my brothers managed to move around so silently.

“But first, we’ve got cake in the kitchen,” Phoebe adds.

Ella leans in and places a kiss on my lips and whispers, “Let’s go eat some cake then blow this popsicle stand. I wanna finish celebrating someplace where we’re alone.”

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” I whisper back. Holding her hand in mine, we walk to the kitchen where the women have busted their ass to create an impromptu party of sorts, complete with a cake, some finger foods, and a creepy looking punch.

Fee, seeing where I’m looking, cackles. “Look, it’s Halloween, we had to have something spooky, Data!”

“Give me a cup of slime punch then,” I tease, “and one for my woman as well, please.”

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

Ella

“I can’t believe they did that for us,” I say as Data heads to the RV park. I keep turning my hand back and forth, watching my ring sparkle in the overhead streetlights as we pass them.

“The song wasn’t too cheesy, was it?” he asks, glancing at me.

“What? No way! I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve watched a ton of videos where it’s been used to propose. Plus, Psycho told me that y’all captured all of it on the cameras,” I reply.

“We did, because I wanted you to have that memory,” he admits, pulling into the parking lot before he navigates to where my RV is set up.