Page 114 of The Crush
Ninety-One
Isabel
Wednesday, January 18, 1995
There’s a knock at the window.
A softtap, tap, tapon a January night that makes me turn my head, makes me catch my reflection in the glass and remember all the times I had been on the outside waiting to get let in. But I’m not anymore.
Interestingly enough, Daniel is this time, a grin on his face that I immediately return as soon as my confusion lifts. I hurry to get out of bed, cross the distance, and give the window a firm push open.
“What are you doing?” I ask him with a laugh. The winter chill that the opening lets in makes me hug my arms tight across my chest as I lean against the window frame.
He grins, holding up a pair of my boots. “Come on, let’s take a drive.”
“A drive?” I question back, even as I am already preparing to climb through the window. “Why aren’t we using the front door?”
He chuckles, setting my boots down so he can help me through. “I thought you said the other night that sometimes you miss when we were sneaking around?”
Ihad, in fact, said that. However… “I think you misunderstood the part that I was feeling nostalgic for—”
I fall into him as I reach the other side, never quite figuring out how to do this gracefully, but he catches me like always. Kissing me before my feet can even touch the ground, and the last thing I think before I can’t think at all is that he had understood fine.
I’m already warm with excitement as he helps me into my boots and puts his coat around my shoulders, keeping me tucked close to his side as the two of us walk around to the front of the house and head for his truck.
He has the engine on before we even get there, extra blankets stashed in the cab as if it’s far colder than it is, and I can’t take my eyes off him as he puts his arm behind me and backs down the drive. Clearly already with a destination in mind.
“Give me a minute.” He throws the truck back into park again out in an open back field under a clear night sky, kissing my forehead lightly before he opens his door and jumps out. Then there’s more blankets and pillows pulled from a bin in the truck bed, stashed wood for a fire that he crouches down to start, and a Thermos that I am delighted to find contains rich hot chocolate.
He’s planned this, I think as he eventually helps me out of the truck and gets me situated next to him on the soft blankets. Anticipatory nerves build in my stomach while the way he has been wound up since he woke up this morning suddenly starts to make me wonder.Is he going to…?
“This is perfect,” I tell him, meaning every bit of it as I lean back into his chest and keep my eyes on him rather than the stars.
“Thought it would be nice to have it only be us for a bit.” His fingers are fidgeting where they rest against my leg. “And I figureddriving out into the middle of nowhere was the only guarantee we wouldn’t get interrupted.”
“Danny?” I place my hand over his. “You okay?”
“I am,” he says quickly, his voice a bit unsteady. “What about you, bonita? Do you need anything?”
“Nope.” I set my mug aside and turn so that I’m facing him, the firelight softly illuminating all his features that I know so well.
Daniel Ríos. Daniel Ríos. Daniel Ríos.
How many lines of my diary had I filled up with his name? How many dreams had I written into those pages?
How can it still never come close to the real thing?
“Isabel,” he says, taking my hands with both apprehension and eagerness in his expression. “I’ve been wanting to ask you something…”
My heart is starting to race even as I try to commit every moment of this to memory.
“I keep worrying that maybe you’ll think this is too fast,” he continues, and when I open my mouth to argue, he laughs. “But I know we’ve never really taken this slow. And I think maybe we’ve both already spent enough time waiting.”
He reaches into the pocket of his jeans, revealing a ring that glints in the light from the fire as he holds it up. Beautiful and simple. And perfect.
“This was my mamá’s ring. And when I asked my dad for it, he told me that, sometimes, you just know. And I do.” His eyes search mine, his smile broadening at what he finds. “I know you’re it for me, Isabel. And I know there’s nothing else I want to do in this life that doesn’t haveyou in it.”
He moves, shifting until he’s in front of me on one knee, and I quickly kneel likewise in front of him, remaining eye to eye.
