“Come with me.” I don’t answer her because she will soon see. “I have something to show you.”
Latesha drops her bag and gives me a strange look. “What’s going on? You’re acting very strange.”
“Just come with me.” I smile at her, trying to reassure her. “You will soon see.”
I take her out in to the back yard where she gasps when she sees the lights twinkling everywhere, the roses all around the place, the people who we love the most all around us. Tracey grins and waves at her best friend, Mom gives Latesha a thumbs up, and Amelia races over to Latesha to throw her arms around her.
I grin to myself seeing how much my daughter loves my girlfriend. They really do get on so well that it’s incredible. Latesha has quickly become the mother figure in Amelia’s life that she was missing. She might not be biologically connected to her, but she is so much better for her than Karen ever could be. All of this makes me so grateful that Karen is long gone. She did us a favor because now we have a calm life rather than the chaotic one that she might have brought along with her. We can just love and be happy.
“What is going on here?” Latesha asks Amelia as well as me. “This is all so nice.”
“Daddy made it for you as a surprise.” Amelia finally gives Latesha the roses like I asked her to.
“Oh, this is beautiful. Thank you so much, Amelia, this is really lovely. I love roses.”
Tracey and Mom come to lure Amelia away from Latesha just for a moment. They ask her for help with the dinner inside and as much as she doesn’t want to go, she finally does. As they head inside, leaving me and Latesha alone, which is the moment she gives me an odd look like I have lost my mind.
“What are you doing here? Have I forgotten some kind of anniversary or something like that? Because if so, then I am sorry. I have just been so busy with work and everything. My head is all over the place…”
“No anniversary, I can assure you. Nothing for you to worry about.” I take her hands in mine and smile at her. My eyes are filled with love and I can see the same emotions reflected on her face as well. I’m so happy that she is in love with me just as much as I am her. “I just wanted to do something nice for you. Is that okay?”
She nods slowly, clearly accepting what’s happening here even if she doesn’t yet understand it, but as I pull away from her and I reach my hand in to my pocket to grab out the little box that I have stored away inside of there, I know that she’ll be aware soon enough. All I need to do is slowly drop down on to one knee…
“Oh my God.” She claps her hands to her mouth as she spots what I’m doing, and she sees the diamond ring inside of there which is just for her. “What is this, Zack? Have you lost your mind here?”
I haven’t ever proposed to anyone before. I never even asked Karen to marry me despite the fact that she was the mother of my child. I must have been smarter and more switched on to her than I first thought. But Latesha is different, she’s special, I just know that me and her are destined to be together forever. I have known that ever since our first kiss and I still know it now. I really don’t feel like that feeling is going anywhere.
“Latesha Aston, you are the most perfect woman I have ever met in my life. You are the love of my life, and I have known that for a very long time. I have full confidence that this love will last a life time, and I’m pretty sure that you feel the same way.” She nods eagerly with tears pouring down her face. Happy tears though, I’m sure. “So, it might have only been about six months, but I don’t see any point in holding back. There’s no need for me to wait for what others might consider the ‘right time’. I want to make our romance official right now. In fact, I want to yell it from the roof tops so that everyone knows you are mine and I’m yours…”
“You might as well do that all the time,” she laughs. “You’re always telling people about me.”
“Because I’m so proud to have you on my arms, that’s why.” I shrug one shoulder. “But now I don’t just want you to be my girlfriend. I want you to be my wife. Official step mother to Amelia, daughter in law to my mother who loves you, my wife forever, the woman living by my side for the rest of my life. I can see a good future for me, and you and I want that to start right now. I want to start our lives together officially; I want to spend forever making you happy and loving you with every part of me. Will you marry me, Latesha?”