Last night - Bryce is fixing something in my garden and I am baking a Red Velvet cake for my friend's birthday, peeking out at him occasionally from the kitchen window. It's a normal evening, albeit a little warm for this time of year - so warm that I've been forced to turn the AC on already.
He pulls me outside under the pretense of showing me the new soaker hose he has installed. "Stand here", he tells me, while he runs around to the front of the house to turn on the water. I watch as water starts weeping out of the hose, just as it should. He comes back and stands next to me and we watch the water soaking into the ground around the vegetable plants for a minute.
"I need to ask you something", he tells me. "It's really important." I look away from the plants and wrap my arms around him. "What's up?", I say. He unhooks my arms from behind him, hanging onto my hands.
"Carolynne, you make me a better person and I can't imagine my life without you. I want you to spend the rest of my life with me. I love you. Will you marry me?". He is kneeling in front of me, pulling a red box out of his pocket - a bulge that I hadn't even noticed earlier.
I almost can't talk because I'm looking down at the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. It sparkles in the evening sun. I'm crying.
"Hell yes!", I say. He stands up and wraps his arms around me. He is shaking like a leaf. He tries to put the ring on my finger and is so nervous that he almost puts it on the wrong hand. We're laughing and then I'm crying. He's kissing me all over my face and neck. "Thank you", he keeps saying. "Thank you, thank you."
As if I could have said no.
