She was trying not to enjoy herself at his expense, but she was. Kit had told her how much he regretted not telling her about the mission he was to go on, and how difficult it had been to keep the secret from her. He’d said, “Back then, I thought my country was more important than you were. I was a fool!”
“And what would that be?” she asked. “Did Uncle Freddy’s family send you here to put some muscle on him?”
Kit didn’t smile. “I’m going away.”
“Oh? Anywhere interesting?”
“Olivia,” he said slowly, “I was wondering if you’d...”
She drew in her breath. Was this it? The moment she’d regretted not having for the last forty-plus years?
“Marry me before I leave.”
She drew in her breath at his words. This was different. It hadn’t happened the first time they did this. If it had, what would she have said?
Whatever the reason, this was what she wanted, but... There was something missing.
For one thing, where were the words of “love forever”? She felt herself hesitate. “We’re very young, you especially. And you have college to finish and—”
He rolled over so he was looking down at her. “I’m with the military. I can’t tell you any more than that, but they’ll come to pick me up and I’ll be away for a year. If you and I are married, they’ll tell you where I am. They’ll send my paychecks to you. They’ll—”
She lifted her head to kiss him. “Is this the only reason you want us to marry?”
Kit lay back down beside her. “You know how when you go to a car dealership and right away you know which vehicle you want? Maybe it wasn’t the one you thought you’d want but when you see it, you know.”
“Are you saying I’m like a used car?”
Again, he didn’t smile. “The day I saw you in that tight green dress and you sailed over the cabbages and ordered everyone around and cooked a second lunch just for me and—”
“You knew that?”
“You think the kids could keep that a secret?”
She laughed. “Of course they wouldn’t.”
“But it didn’t matter how you felt about me. Even if you truly believed I was a worthless boy, I still knew. You’re the one I want.”
Olivia lay on the sweet-smelling grass, looking up through the tree leaves to the sky, smiling. Kit had told her all this on their honeymoon, but how she wished she’d known it earlier. And why was it changing now? What had made him ask her this time around? It didn’t make sense. It was as though he remembered that they had been separated and he was trying to prevent that. “When?” she asked.
“Six weeks? Is that too soon?”
The military would come for him in half that time. “So you do know when they’ll pick you up?” She could feel the tiny stiffening in his body. He didn’t want to tell her more.
“No, I don’t. They said it would be in the fall.”
“What happens if we aren’t married before they show up?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I’ll go away and you won’t hear from me until I knock on your front door a year later.”
It will be three years, Olivia thought, then more time for him to recover from a vehicle turning over with him in it. She wanted to be there while he healed. She turned to face him. “Okay. Six weeks.”
Kit blinked at her a few times. “You’re saying yes? You will marry me? I never in my life believed—”
She lay back down. “Me neither. Especially with this unromantic marriage proposal. No ring, no one knee, no—”
She broke off because Kit had sat up and was now on one knee in the traditional proposal stance—which was awkward since they were both completely naked.
He picked up his shorts, put his fingers into an inside pocket, and withdrew what Olivia knew was his grandmother’s ring. It was so beautiful in its old-fashioned setting.