Connor
I took in a deep breath and gazed up at the grassy hill
ahead of us, where fifteen umbrellas with letters taped on the back spelled out
the most important question I ever planned to ask.
Today was going to be epic.
“Quit daydreaming and pay attention, Connor!” Granny swiped
the walkie-talkie out of my hand and held down the talk button. “Whoever is
holding the Y in MARRY better stop twirling that thing this instant! I can see
you through these binoculars, little blonde girl!”
Maybe today would be epic as in an epic disaster. With
Granny, you never knew. I was regretting a lot of things when it came to
including her in all this—letting her supervise, teaching her how the buttons
on a walkie-talkie worked, and dropping my guard enough for her to first steal the
binoculars out of my hands and now the walkie-talkie. I was never getting either
of them back. A tug-o-war with an octogenarian at a public park wasn’t exactly
on my list of things to do today.
“The line looks good, Granny. Don’t worry, Melissa will love
it.”
Granny turned and glared at me. “One little slip up with
those children you hired, and it might say, ‘WILL YOU ARM ME?’ or ‘ILL YOU ARE.’”
Granny put the binoculars up to her eyes again. “‘YOU WILL MARRY ME.’ That one would really knock her socks off. There’s
nothing a woman loves more than an ultimatum.”
“First of all, there is no child labor involved in this
proposal. Everyone volunteered to be here because they love Melissa. And second
of all, nobody has swapped any words around. They’re just excited and a little
twirly.” I had underestimated how much kids liked to spin umbrellas, although
an upside down letter wouldn’t be the end of the world. The neighbor kids and
their parents had been ecstatic at the idea of helping me pull this surprise off.
After all, they’d been there the day I met Melissa. Surprise birthday party,
surprise proposal. Why not?
Not that popping the question would be a surprise. Melissa
and I had talked about marriage a lot. I was getting very familiar with her
wedding Pinterest board, and the thing was growing by the day. But despite
that, I wanted the moment when I dropped to one knee and gave her the ring in
my shirt pocket to be more than a casual gesture. I wanted to wow her.
My phone pinged and I pulled it out of my pocket to read the
text from Natalya. Almost there.
My stomach gave a kick of excitement. This was it.
Melissa
Everyone was acting weird today. Connor’s head had been
somewhere else this morning when I stopped by his place. We had a good time
making waffles and eating breakfast together, but he’d been antsy, and when I
asked if he was interested in going to the park with us later, he’d declined.
Maybe he was just trying to give Natalya and me some girl time.
But then, Natalya showed up dressed like it was prom night,
and thanks to her last minute makeover, now I was too, although I’d drawn the
line at wearing heels. My rose-colored sneakers matched this dress better anyway.
She currently had a death grip on the steering wheel which
was in complete opposition to the goofy smile on her face.
“Okay, what is going on, Natalya? Why couldn’t we bring the
dogs to the park? And why are we dressed like this? Is there some hot jogger
you’re hoping to run into or something?”
Natalya gave a high-pitched laugh. “Well, wouldn’t that be
nice, but no, I’m not counting on any hot jogger action. And as much as I love
Buster and Sarge, they jump on people too much so they can’t come today. I’m
lucky my dress survived as it is, just walking into your house.”
“What people?” This particular park wasn’t busy, and I was
always careful to keep them away from everyone else out walking their dogs.
“You’ll see in a minute.” Natalya pulled into the parking
lot of the park and turned to grin at me. “I have a blind-fold for you. Don’t
freak out.”
A normal person would freak out. But that news actually made
everything that much less weird. “Oh, this is a Granny thing.” I should have
known, although I didn’t know why I wasn’t in on planning this adventure. Maybe
they wanted my reactions to be genuine. I was probably about to be stuffed in a
trunk or pulled into a van or something. Granny was going to love this.
Natalya came around to the passenger side and put the
bandana blindfold around my head, careful to keep it from tugging at my hair as
she tied a knot in the back. “Okay, I’m going to take your hand and lead you.
Just walk, friend. I think you were right to say no to heels today.”
“Am I supposed to act scared or confused?” I asked. I
gripped her hand harder as we slowed to step up onto the curb. I did not want
to fall and have a wardrobe malfunction. This dress showed off my legs, but
that was all I wanted to show off in public. “Am I a rich socialite being
kidnapped for money?”
Natalya laughed. “Oh, honey. You pretend to be anything
you’d like for the next few minutes.”
“Well, that’s vague.” I hoped this wasn’t going to be so
over the top that we had the cops called on us. A trip down to the police department
was not my idea of a relaxing afternoon.
We slowed, and from my other side, an arm went around my
shoulder. “What did you tell her, Nat?”
“Mom?” I turned my head towards her voice. “Are you in on
this, too?”
“Yep. Dad’s here too.”
“Hi, honey.” Dad’s deep voice came from right behind me.
“Hi, Dad. Who else is here?”
“You’ll see in a minute,” Natalya answered for him. “We have
about ten more steps.”
We walked a little farther across the grass and then
stopped.
“Positions! Everyone get in position!” That voice was
definitely Granny’s. Maybe she had decided to turn the tables on me, and she
was now the one planning the spy adventures while I was just along for the
ride. It figured.
“Granny, am I being kidnapped?”
Granny cackled. “In a matter of speaking. The romance is
overwhelming me, Connor, my boy. Good luck with this.”
“Connor?” I turned my head back and forth even though I
couldn’t see anything but red cloth. Was Connor here, too?
His warm hand took mine. I recognized the callouses on his
fingertips, the temperature of his palms, and the familiar way he laced his
fingers with mine. “I’m right here, Melissa. I have a question for you.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out. Okay, now things made sense. Much more than
fake kidnappings or scoping out the park for Natalya’s next boyfriend.
Connor kissed the
tips of my fingers. I ran my hand across his jaw. I could tell he was smiling.
It made me smile, too.
“Ready for the blindfold to come off?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“Just look right at me when I take it off, okay?” His hands
slid behind my head and undid the knot before pulling the bandana away. I
looked up at him and blinked at the sudden change in light while he smoothed my
hair. Then I watched him pull a little black velvet box out of his shirt pocket
and drop to one knee.
I was so intent on his smile and the most perfect sparkly
ring winking at me in the sun, that it took several seconds before I realized there
was a line of kids holding umbrellas that spelled out WILL YOU MARRY ME? up on
the hill behind him. Some of the letters were dancing. It was the most adorable
thing I’d ever seen. He’d done all this for me?
Connor turned and gestured to the umbrellas. “Melissa, will
you marry me?”
I laughed and reached down to hug him. “Yeah, I totally
will.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.