Annie’s hands started shaking, and she gripped the bottle in her hand tightly so that she didn’t drop it as she lowered it back down into the ice bucket. She stared at Nick with wide eyes as he stood up and took a step towards her, then lowered his hands and put them in hers. He gave them a little squeeze and pulled her up to her feet. “Nick-” He dropped his index finger onto her lips to quiet her.
“Hold that thought.” He turned on his heel and disappeared through the window. Seconds later, he pushed his way through the billowing curtains and climbed back outside. He dropped to one knee and pulled out a ring box. “Marry me,” he breathed, popping the box open with his thumb to reveal a large, oval diamond, surrounded by a border of smaller diamonds that encircled the center diamond and scattered down the intricately engraved platinum band. She took in a sharp breath and brought her hand up to her mouth as she choked back tears. “I didn’t want to take away from your accomplishments tonight, and I was planning on doing it tomorrow before I have to head back out to LA the next day, but one of them was our accomplishment, and technically it’s tomorrow, and it seemed like a good time which is why I didn’t actually have the ring on me, but....”
“Yes!” Annie exclaimed excitedly as tears coursed down her cheeks. “Yes,” she said again, this time more of a quiet whisper, as she dropped down to her knees so that she could look at him face to face.
“Really?” Nick choked back the lump that rose in his throat and batted away his own tears with one hand while he still held the open ring box with the other. Annie pulled her hand up to his face and brushed one away with the pads of her finger, still smiling at him through happy tears.
“Really.”
“I-” His breath hitched in his throat. “I was kind of afraid you’d say no,” he admitted clumsily.
He thought of her old wedding ring that he’d found on the bathroom countertop the previous morning. It was the first time he’d seen it since he helped box it up and put it away in the attic back in January when they’d finally decided to give a relationship with each other a shot. Up until that point, she’d been prone to still pulling it out of her dresser drawer whenever she was really missing Andrew, and even wearing it occasionally. She’d given up the engagement ring, but the wedding band was something she still wasn’t quite ready to let go of. She ceremoniously “let go” of Andrew before she was able to fully be involved with Nick, but he still felt a pang of jealousy when he ran across that wedding band. He didn’t say anything to her about it, because he figured maybe she’d just been missing him and gotten it out. At least he hadn’t seen her wearing it. It’s not like he expected her to forget about her late husband and the father of the little guy he’d grown so attached to, but still, it kind of rubbed him the wrong way, hence his fear that maybe she’d say no. In the end, the ring disappeared later that afternoon, and she’d said yes, so it didn’t really matter. Strange though, that when he saw the ring, he also thought he saw a ghost.
Annie pursed her lips and gave him a knowing nod. Letting go of her past and allowing herself to forge a real relationship with Nick had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Once upon a time, she felt like she’d lost the love of her life at the mere age of 24, all her hopes and dreams dying in that accident along with her husband of only three years. Now, she knew she was staring into the face of her future-- the man she was truly meant to spend the rest of her life with, have more babies with, live happily ever after with. Oh, she knew the possibility of tragedy all too well, but now she also knew what her mother was talking about when she’d gathered her into her arms on the day of Andrew’s funeral, and told her “God always has a plan.” She closed her eyes and silently thanked Him that Nick was part of the plan. When she opened them, she looked down at the ring Nick was still holding in front of her face. “Well, are you going to put it on me?” she asked, holding out her left hand and wiggling that all-important finger.
Nick laughed and pulled the ring out out of its cushion in the box, then slipped it onto her finger. He held her left hand with his right, and brought it to his lips, grazing them over her knuckles.”You should have seen me going through your jewelry box trying to figure out your ring size,” he told her with a chuckle.
“Oh!” Annie thought to herself. “He must have gotten my old engagement ring out of the attic to check the size and forgotten to put it back!” Now she felt silly for thinking it could have been anything else.
