At least it stopped snowing for a little bit and the night sky above us is clear and filled with a billion stars.
“You’re lucky I’m still in a coma from that massage, followed by more napping, followed by eating the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life up in our room while we watched Netflix,” Tess mutters as I continue walking us out through the snow in the backyard of The Redinger House. Our destination is about a hundred yards away from the barn where they show Christmas movies every night. “Two surprises in one day? You’re so lucky I’m in a good mood.”
“I swear it’ll be worth it.”
Stopping right where Jason told me to, I remove my hands from Tess’s eyes and try not to bounce up and down next to her. As soon as I came up with the perfect idea, I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and I hunted down Jason to see if he could help. He was more than eager to assist me, making something I thought would be horribly complicated and impossible into something I’m able to do with just the touch of a button.
I don’t even know why I covered Tess’s eyes to walk her out here. It’s not like she can see everything Jason and I set up earlier in the day when the sun was out and she was napping. We’re far enough away from the house and right at the tree line that it’s almost pitch-black out here, aside from the soft glow of some multicolored Christmas lights lining the big red barn back behind us that let me see just enough while I was guiding Tess through the snow that we didn’t trip and fall.
“I know it’s cold, but I swear we won’t be out here long,” I reassure her, rubbing my hands up and down her black hoodie-covered arms while she rubs her hands together in front of her and bounces her knees a little to keep warm. Sliding one hand in my pocket, I wrap it around the small remote Jason gave me and rest my thumb over the button.
He assured me that everyone would be busy watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in the barn, as long as we planned this for right around 8:00 p.m., and no one would come out here and see what’s about to happen. I don’t know the first damn thing about electrical wiring or any of that complicated shit, but thankfully Jason does. I took one of Shepherd’s Pinterest ideas and got a little creative with it to make it more Tess, including making sure there isn’t an audience. I think she’ll be much more agreeable without the pressure of a bunch of strangers watching. All we have is Jason, who’s hiding somewhere back behind us by the house, just in case anything goes wrong.
I’m going to ask the woman of my dreams to marry me the right way. Absolutely nothing will go wrong, because this was meant to be, and she’s going to fucking love it!
Quickly clearing my throat, I move around Tess to stand in front of her with my back to the long line of luminaries we set up right at the tree line. Each red-and-green bag has its own letter cut out of the front that will spell out Will you marry me, Tess? As soon as I press the button on the remote in my pocket, each bag will light up individually, one-by-one down the line with some sort of electrical charge or some shit Jason set up, which will ignite the small votive candle nestled down in each bag, giving me time to tell Tess everything I love about her before I ask her to marry me. It’s romantic, and it involves a tiny bit of fire, and Tess is going to be so proud of me that I came up with something so grand and over-the-top that she can tell the whole world.
“Tess, I just want to take a minute and say something,” I begin, pausing to take a deep breath, before pressing down on the button in my pocket as I continue. Right now, the luminary with the letter W should be flickering to life with its little candle. I smile down at Tess, wanting to let the rest of the luminary letters slowly ignite behind me before I eventually move out of the way so she can see it all at once. “All I want for the rest of my life is—”
“Fire,” Tess interrupts in more of a bored voice than I would like when I’m professing my undying love and there’s romantic luminaries coming to life behind me.
That she can clearly see now that she’s leaning her body to the side to look around me, dammit!
“No, fire is what you want.” I laugh quietly as I shake my head at her, bolstered by the fact that her eyes are really wide and excited right now as she looks around me and sees my grand romantic gesture. “I actually want to say—”