Page 52 of The World Outside My Window

THEN – SEPTEMBER 1990

I gawped at the one-storey black and white building as our car came to a stop in front of it, and tried to get my brain to work out what was happening.

‘Well?’ Jim said, beside me.

Unclipping my seat belt, I climbed out of the passenger seat and walked closer to read the sign hanging above the door. ‘Gretna Green. Famous Blacksmiths Shop.’

‘Oh!’ I gasped, turning to face Jim, who was now out of the car too and standing just behind me. ‘I…’

He stepped towards me and took my hand, then lowered himself down onto his knee. The world seemed to slow as he dug around in his pocket with his other hand, and pulled out a small, bottle-green box and flicked it open with his thumb. There, nestled among the dark-green satin, was a sparkling sapphire ring.

‘Laura Coleman, I’ve loved you since the very first day I met you. You mean everything to me, and I want to prove it to you. Will you marry me?’

My head spun as I tried to take in the fact that any doubts I’d ever had about Jim loving me enough were so obviously a figment of my imagination. Because here he was, asking me to marry him. I knew without a second’s doubt what I was going to say.

‘Yes!’

‘Oh, thank goodness for that,’ Jim said, slipping the ring onto my finger and standing up to wrap me in a hug. ‘I don’t think my knees could have coped with being down there for much longer.’

I grinned and pulled away from him, planting a soft kiss on his lips. ‘You silly thing. You didn’t really think I might say no, did you?’

‘Well, of course not, who could resist this?’ he said, holding his arms out and giving me a goofy grin.

‘You idiot,’ I said, slapping his arm. ‘What happens now? Do we just walk in and get married?’

He shook his head. ‘I applied for our licence last week, and we’re booked in for three o’clock this afternoon.’

‘You were confident,’ I said.

He shrugged, sheepish. ‘Just hedging my bets.’ He turned and walked back to the car. ‘Come on, let’s go to the hotel and get changed.’

I followed him and as we drove I sat and studied my ring, turning it one way and then the other and marvelling at the sparkle that shone from it.

‘I can’t believe you organised all of this without me knowing anything about it,’ I said.

‘Oh, you’d be surprised at how sneaky I can be sometimes,’ he said.

I shot him a glance. ‘Not too sneaky, I hope.’

He flicked his eyes away from the road to meet mine briefly. ‘Of course not.’

‘But seriously. What made you decide to do it?’

Beside me, Jim shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road. ‘I knew it was important to you and I didn’t want to lose you.’

I shipped my head round to look at him again. ‘You thought you’d lose me?’

‘Yes.’

‘What made you think that?’

‘You more or less said so.’

‘What?’ What on earth was he talking about? I watched as several different emotions flickered across his face before he answered.

‘You said you thought being married would feel really different to just being together.’

I frowned, confused. ‘Did I? When?’

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