Page 40 of Wishes at Water's Edge
His lips parted, but then his resolve flew away.
I can’t propose now,he thought, almost scolding himself.This isn’t romantic enough. She’s standing there holding mugs of coffee. I need to wait for a better time.
They went back into the living room together and settled down for the second movie. This time, however, Dean didn’t get caught up fully in the storyline. He kept thinking about when he should propose to Noelle.
He felt a ripple of frustration as he realized that there weren’t any great parts in the movie to stop and propose during. It wasn’t exactly a romantic film. He could hardly sit there with Noelle while orcs chopped trees down on the screen and then turn to her and say, “By the way, will you marry me?”
Maybe I should have set a better stage for our engagement,he thought regretfully.This just doesn’t seem right anymore. It seems like it would almost look like an afterthought if I just turned to her and proposed in the middle of the movie.
He felt distracted and torn all throughoutThe Two Towers.When it was finished, he cleared his throat. Noelle, sitting beside him and starting to look sleepy, turned to him with a smile.
“Yes, Dean?”
“Noelle, I—” He cleared his throat again. “I just wanted to tell you how much I love you. You mean the world to me, and I think you’re amazing.” He felt tongue-tied. He felt so deeply for Noelle, but he seemed unable to put those thoughts into words, at least in that moment.
“You mean the world to me too, Dean,” she said. Although she was smiling at him, he could tell that she was beginning to wonder why he was making another speech about how much he loved her. “I love you so much. I’m so happy we’re watching these movies together.”
She held her face up for a kiss, and her expression was so sweet and innocent that a rush of affection swept over him. He inhaled, about to let out the words, “Will you marry me?” and then the next thing he knew he was kissing her and snuggling back down to watch the third movie.
He couldn’t explain exactly why his resolve had failed that time, but as the third movie began, he sighed internally. Clearly, the right time to propose wasn’t that night either.
I can only hope I’ll get it right the next time,he thought, lacing his fingers through Noelle’s as she wiggled in excitement over the movie.I’ll have to think of the perfect set-up so that it actually happens. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I don’t want things to feel this informal either.
He began to feel a wave of sleepiness overtake him about half an hour later. He told himself that he should get up and make himself more coffee and maybe eat a cookie or two. He glanced down at Noelle and saw that her eyes were closed.
A smile spread across his face. He shut his eyes as well and let himself fall asleep. They’d already seen the movie, and they could finish it another time. Clearly, any opportunity for proposing that evening had passed him by. He took a few deep, comfortable breaths, and before he knew it, he was sound asleep.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Alexis pushed the vacuum cleaner across the living room rug, moving as quickly as she could. She felt beads of perspiration on her brow, and she wiped at her forehead, not wanting to become sweaty enough to damage her makeup job.
Isn’t this just the way it goes?she thought with a wry chuckle.Here we were planning on going out with Lewis tonight, but our little man had other ideas.
Although she’d tried to get Cash to take a nap that afternoon, he had simply refused to fall asleep. Alexis had taken him for a drive in the car, which usually did the trick, but even that had failed. Left with a baby that was much too crabby to be taken out to dinner anywhere, she and Grayson had asked Lewis if he would be willing to come to their home for dinner.
He’d agreed immediately, which was good—but it meant that Alexis and Grayson had to scramble to get ready for company. They hadn’t had anyone besides family over since Cash had been born, and their home was hardly ready for a visitor. They’d worked together as a team, something that they did well, and Alexis had tidied up the house like a whirlwind while Grayson stopped at the store after work to pick up ingredients for chicken parmesan and a salad, along with a bottle of wine.
Thankfully, Cash had just fallen asleep at last, which made cleaning up easier for Alexis. She and Grayson had prepared the chicken together, and now she was hurrying to clean up as much of their home as she could while Grayson chopped up cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad.
Alexis turned off the vacuum, surveying the living room. Somehow, despite the fact that the floor was clean and the coffee table was uncluttered, it still felt messy. She noticed with a sigh that there was a bottle of hand lotion on the mantelpiece and a baby sock hiding behind the armchair.
She grabbed the offending items and hurried to put the vacuum away. Lewis was going to be there soon, so she didn’t have time to do everything in the house that she would have liked to do. She’d done a hurried job of cleaning the bathroom, stuffing objects into the medicine cabinet and into the bathtub before pulling the shower curtain closed. Their bedroom and the nursery were both still a mess, but she could hope that Lewis wouldn’t ask for a house tour.
She hurried into the kitchen, where Grayson was putting the salad together.
“That chicken is smelling wonderful,” he said, grinning at her.
She was glad to see he was so eager to see his friend again. She herself was feeling a bit frazzled but also looking forward to hosting again. It had been a long time since they’d had a friend over for a meal. Ordinarily, she would have wanted to put something a little more elaborate together. A basic salad and a quick meal were not her idea of fancy, but it was going to have to do.
“It does smell wonderful,” she agreed with him. She looked around the kitchen, wondering how much she could clean up in a few minutes. There were globs of baby food plastered to the kitchen table—she’d forgotten to wipe them up that morningwhen Cash had decided that playing sports was more exciting than eating his breakfast. There was also still an array of dishes in the sink, most of them baby dishes and tiny spoons. Cash usually went through several plastic bowls and spoons when eating because he liked to throw his food.
“The house looks fine,” Grayson said, grinning at her as if he could read her mind.
Alexis laughed. “You’re right. There’s no disguising the fact that a baby lives here.”
Grayson pretended to snap his fingers regretfully. “I guess we’re just going to have to let Lewis in on our secret. We have a tiny child to take care of, and it’s a lot of work.”
She laughed, appreciating his humor, and kissed his cheek. “It sure is. I couldn’t do it without you. Do you want to check on the chicken while I set the table?”
