I stopped walking and stared at Corina. She was wearing gray flannel pants and a long-sleeve, pink flannel shirt. She looked beautiful as she stared out through the windows at the heavily falling snow.
I set the coffee cup down and rushed back up the steps and grabbed the ring box. Silently I crept back down the stairs. Corina was still on the phone with Chloe.
“I promise when I get back I’ll read that book to you. Yes, I’ll do the voice.”
My heart was overfilled with love for this woman. She was everything I wanted in life. Everything I needed. Hearing her talking to Chloe only made it that much clearer to me.
This was the perfect moment to ask her to marry me.
“Okay, Chloe cat. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Yes. I promise to make sure Uncle Mitchell is awake before I call. You be a good girl and help Mommy with your baby brother. They both need you.”
“Love you, too. Bye, pumpkin.”
Corina pulled the phone away from her ear and hit End. She set the phone on the table and drew her knees into her body. With her chin resting on her knees, she let out a contented sigh while she watched the snow fall.
“Hey, beautiful.”
Glancing back at me, she dropped her legs. “Oh, you just missed Chloe. She called to talk to us. I thought you were still sleeping.”
I smiled and pushed the hand that wasn’t hiding the ring box through my hair. “Just woke up. Someone kept me up half the night getting freaky with me.”
Her cheeks flushed and my chest tightened. “I believe it was you, Mr. Parker, who was getting freaky with me.”
I wiggled my brows. “Looks like we may be snowed in. We could get freaky again, if you want.”
Corina pulled her legs up on the sofa and sat crisscrossed. “What I think we need to do is go get some food. Look at that snow coming down.”
Looking out the window, I nodded. “We could get stuck in here. I knew there was a chance we could get an early storm.”
She laughed. “Just our luck, huh? It’s beautiful though.
I peered out the window. She was right. It was beautiful. Snow covered everything. The rushing river cut a path through all of it, large boulders covered in fresh snow rising in various spots throughout the river.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so breathtaking in my entire life,” she said.
“I have.”
Corina was still looking out the window when I walked up next to her. “Really? Mitchell, look out that window and tell me that isn’t the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.”
Dropping to one knee, I took her hand in mine. Corina turned and faced me. Her blue eyes seemed to catch the reflection from the snowflakes falling from the sky. She smiled, and I lost the ability to breathe.
“You are so beautiful. You literally steal my breath when you look at me.”
Her eyes filled with happiness. It was the perfect moment to ask her to marry me. The white backdrop, the soft music coming from the radio she had turned on. The fact that we were both in our pajamas, talking about the possibility of being stranded in a snowstorm.
Perfect moment.
“The first time I ever laid eyes on you I was mesmerized. You somehow managed to grab a hold of my heart, and I’m positive I loved you from that moment on.”
A tear slipped from her eye and slowly traveled down her beautiful face.
“That first night we were together, I knew you were the one. I was stupid and scared and ran as fast as I could because I wasn’t ready to admit what I felt in my heart. I’d never in my life experienced it before. Even then I knew I had fallen in love with you. It took me awhile to admit that you were the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The woman I wanted to have children with.”
Corina covered her mouth, trying not to cry harder, but losing the battle.
“I wanted to make this moment special for both of us. I’m not good at things like this, and Amelia’s romance audiobooks can only help me so much.”
Corina shook her head and let a slight sob slip from between her lips.
I swallowed hard and cleared my throat, trying to get my voice back. “I know this isn’t the most romantic way to ask you to marry me, but I figured if you allow me, I’ll spend the rest of my life working on the romance part. Corina, will you do me the great honor of becoming Mrs. Mitchell Parker?”
Dropping to her knees, Corina threw her arms around my neck. “Yes! Yes, I will marry you!”
I pulled her to me and held her tight. Her body shook as she cried.