“Shane!” she squeals. “What is this? Is this… what I think it is? Are you serious? What’s happening here?”
“Tia Cooke.” My face breaks out in to a bright smile. “I love you. I think you know that. I tell you that every single day. I love you so much that it hurts to be away from you. You’re an incredible woman. You were amazing when I first met you but the person you have become is even more phenomenal. You’re the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with. The last couple of years have been the best of my life and I cannot wait for more.”
I get a little choked up and I can tell by the expression on her face that the feelings are getting to her too.
“Oh, Shane,” she gushes. “I don’t have the words… I adore you so much.”
“I want to spend the rest of our lives making each other happy, I want to claim you in front of the world, for everyone to see. I want us to be married, then to have the best honeymoon ever, and to go on and have a family with you. So, what do you say, Tia Cooke? Will you be my wife?”
She bursts in to laughter, but the loving kind with a sweet smile on her face. I can see the love shining through her eyes. “Are you serious? You really want to marry me?”
“Of course I do. You honestly don’t think I would ask you if I didn’t want to?”
She throws her arms around me and kisses my face. “Yes,” she gushes out in between her lips connecting with my cheek. “Yes, yes, yes, of course I will. I would love nothing more than to be your wife.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried that you were going to say no then.”
“You were not!” she insists. “You knew that I would say yes. Of course I want to marry you.”
As she slides back I get the ring out and I push it on to her finger, immediately overwhelmed by how right it looks on her hand. It looks amazing and everything that it symbolizes is awesome too. She’s going to be my wife and I will be her husband, we’re going to belong to one another forever.
I love that.
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Tia
“You’re my fiancé now,” I comment while looking at my ring. “Can you believe it?”
“Well, I planned it, so yeah I can believe it.” He laughs. “But I’m glad that you said yes.”
He leans in and kisses me lightly on the lips. As he does, my chest expands with even more love. I kinda knew that there was something going on the moment I saw Shane in a suit but I didn’t know it would be this. This is unbelievable. Lily and the other girls from the movie set, who are actually becoming firm friends of mine, and real friends, I can recognize their kind spirits now that I’m not as naïve anymore, wondered how we have managed to be together for so long without an engagement, but I have always laughed it off. Yes, it’s been two years but I know we’re going to last forever. I didn’t need a proposal to complete things.
Although I have to admit I’m happy to have the ring now. It looks good on my hand. Really good actually, I like the way it feels. It’s kinda heavy, but that’s nice. It means I will always be aware of it. And thank goodness I won’t be able to lose it. I bet this piece of jewelry was very expensive.
“So, when are we going to get married then?” I ask coyly. “Soon or are we in no rush?”
“Hey, that’s up to you. I have done my part,” he teases. “I would marry you tomorrow if I could.”
“So, you aren’t in a rush for a big massive wedding? You don’t want a church deal?”
“I don’t mind what we do. We can elope if you like? Get married on a beach somewhere.”
He’s being sensitive because things are so strained with my family. But actually I like the idea. There is something kind of romantic about the idea of running off to get married somewhere alone.
“I don’t know; we can make some decisions later on. We don’t need to decide right now.”
“Yeah, exactly, we don’t need to rush. We can do whatever you want.”
I like that plan. Whatever I want. I don’t know what I want yet, but it’s nice to know that I have a choice. One day I will wear a gorgeous white dress and Shane and I will say our vows to one another. We can declare our love in front of the whole world, or just for us, and then we will be official.
He leans into me and I tilt my head up to kiss him. Softly at first, romantically. I just enjoy the sensation of kissing the man who has just proposed to me. My fiancé, the man who will be my husband. But the kissing soon becomes something more. It becomes passionate and deeper; his tongue massages the inside of my mouth making my heart skip about ten beats. He pulls me up and my body immediately presses against his, molding in to him.