Page 120 of This Memory
“Brystol Marie Duggan, will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife and the mother of our child?”
Her hands dropped, and she nodded. “Yes! Oh my gosh!Yes!”
Leaning down, she cupped my face and kissed me. I stood, slipped the ring on her finger, then gave her a proper kiss.
“Let’s get a few photos of the happy couple before we all freeze to death!” Janice laughed.
She had us pose a few different ways together before she took pictures of the ring itself. When the last bit of sun fell below the mountains, she declared we had to go in or her hands were going to fall off.
“The door must have automatically locked,” Dan said, trying the handle. “We’ll have to walk around to the front door.”
I slipped Brystol’s coat on, and she pulled it tight as we walked around the deck. I reached for the door to the private room. “Actually, this one’s unlocked.”
“I don’t know if I can eat now.” Brystol giggled. “I’m so happy!”
Motioning for her to go in, I couldn’t hide my smile.
Everyone cried out the second she was in the room.
“Congratulations!”
Brystol let out a small yelp of surprise, then turned to me. “Youbooked this room?”
I laughed. “Yes! I thought you’d have figured it out by now.”
She threw herself into my arms and hugged me. “I love you, Gavin Quinn. This is the best day of my life!”
“For now,” I said as I drew back and winked. I gave her a quick kiss, took her coat off, and we were soon surrounded by our family and friends, all trying to get a look at the ring and offer their congratulations.
The rest of the evening was filled with good food, great conversation, and one very happy Brystol.
“Gavin!”
I closed my eyes and Declan laughed. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s either going to ask me to build something, or she is going to ask me to get her some kind of weird food combination.”
“If it were me, I’d be hoping for the food.”
I laughed. “You would think. But last week she asked me to blend meatloaf and mashed potatoes in the blender because the texture of the meat was making her feel sick. Let me just tell you, pouring that into a glass and watching the woman you love chug it…it’s not pretty. I almost threw up.”
Declan screwed up his face. “That sounds disgusting.”
“It was. And the way she downed it.” I shivered. “I feel like I’m going to throw up just thinking about it again.”
“Gavin!” Brystol called again.
“You better go; her voice went up a few octaves.”
I jogged up the steps and found Brystol in the nursery, on a ladder. “What in the hell are you doing? Brystol! You’re seven months pregnant!”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I was trying to hang these curtains, but I’m afraid to go up any higher.”
I quickly made my way into the room and helped her off the ladder. “If you want anything hung up, just ask me, okay? I don’t want you on the ladder.”
Smiling, she reached up and kissed me. “I will. I thought I could do it, but I guess I’m bigger than I thought I was. My belly was getting in the way of climbing up.”
I laughed. Picking up the curtains, I looked them over. “How do they go up?”
