Page 99 of Cognac & Cornflowers

“You’re everything to me, Becca. I love you with all my heart and soul. Say you’ll marry me. Say that you’ll be my wife. Say that you want to take my name and have my babies. Say that you want me to love you forever – because I’m going to, whether you say yes or no.

“Will you marry me?”

Tears were streaming down her face as she looked down at him; he started to worry as the silence lengthened. Relief washed over him when she dropped to her knees in front of him and cupped his face between her hands. “Yes! Of course, I want to marry you. I want to be your wife, I want to have your babies, and I’ll love you forever.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Forever and ever and ever!”

He laughed and brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs before he had to wipe his sleeve over his own face.

Then, he slid the ring onto her finger. “You’ve been mine since that first time, Becca. This ring just makes it official.”

She looked down at the ring and then up at him again. “Holy crap!”

He laughed. “What?”

“It’s … it’s …. huge!”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Why, thank you.”

She laughed and slapped his arm. “You know what I mean. The ring!”

“Hmm, maybe we need to go home soon, and I’ll remind you what else is huge, too.”

She slapped his arm again but nodded eagerly as she did it.

As he helped her back to her feet, she looked around at all the flowers. “How the hell did you pull this off?”

“I’d love to be able to take the credit, but your dad made it happen.”

“Aww. He must love you already. He wouldn’t have helped you if he didn’t.”

“I don’t think he was too keen to help at first. I think he thought I was nuts, but when I explained why I wanted them, he warmed up to the idea.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him about how you’d said that they remind you of home – because they line the driveway here. And I told him that I wanted them to be a part of the way I proposed to you because I want you to know that you’ve found your home with me – that when you marry me, I don’t just want you to think of our house as home, I want you to think of me that way, too. And whenever you remember the day that I asked you to marry me, the cornflowers – and the feeling of home – will always be a part of it.”

“Aww. You are the sweetest man I’ve ever known.”

He laughed. “I try.” He grew more serious as he looked down into her eyes. “I’m worried that I won’t always be sweet enough. I’d say that it doesn’t come naturally to me, but it does with you. But I know that sometimes, I might not be sweet enough and …”

She put her finger over his lips. “It’s okay. I understand what you mean, Jacob. I love all this, and I love the romance and how sweet you are. But I’m looking forward to the reality of being married to you – I’m not looking for the fairy tale.” She gave him a wry smile, “You won’t always be sweet, I know that; real life doesn’t allow for that to be a constant. And the time will come when I’m big and fat and hormonal and pregnant.”

“You’ll still be beautiful.”

She laughed. “I’ll ask you if you still think that when we get there, but my point is, I will be crabby, too. We won’t be all sweetness and light the whole time – either of us. But we have something more important than that – we have the love, and maybe even more importantly, we have the trust, we’ve proved it. We’re going to make it, you and me.”

He dropped his head and claimed her mouth in one of those kisses that made the rest of the world fade away. She was right; reality awaited them, just as it did every couple. And they’d get to it. They’d go in and tell her parents, then they’d go home and share their good news with his family and their friends. Life would come at them, but he had no doubt that they’d weather whatever it brought their way.

It might have taken half a lifetime, but he’d found her now. When they finally came up for air from that kiss, he looked down into her eyes and smiled.

“You might want to go all practical, Kansas farmgirl on me, but I plan to give you one hell of a wedding before we fall into a life of marital drudgery.”

She laughed. “I’m not saying it will be like that.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know. But I am saying that I want us to have the wedding of your dreams.”

“Do you like my mom?”

“I do – why?”

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