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“I like dancing with you,” I admitted.

“Do you?” she smiled. “
I just thought you were humoring me.”

“Nope. When I get to hold you close I’m humoring myself.”

“
Maybe we could continue this at home, then.”

She took a couple of steps and tried to lead me away, but I gently pulled her back to me.

“Oh, no. I’m not re
ady to let you go
yet.
Indulge me. Just for
a little while?”

She laughed
with a shrug
. “Okay.”

When the current song ended she asked, “C
an we walk out t
here like we did last time?”

“Of course,” I replied, happy that she suggested it. I took her hand and
added
, “I’m tired of that waiter staring at you
,
anyway.”

She smile
d, like she had already noticed
as well. I glanced back at him and he looked away, embarrassed that he’d been caught.

“Maybe
our affection should be more
dramatic,” she said
as we walked along the boardwalk
.

We
stopped in front of
our special bench when I asked, “And what would you like me to do?”

“Kiss me.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and smiled at me.

“I don’t think that’s dramatic enough,” I told her. Her eyes got wide and I
chuckled
. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

She laughed in response but didn’t say anything further. We were here, exactly where I wanted to be, and now all of a sudden
,
I didn’t know what to say. I felt my heart beating
pretty hard
,
and just when I was about to chicken out
,
I
dove
right
in with
, “Jayden, I love you.”

With a smile she replied, “I love you, too.”

“And…you know that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what you
keep
tell
ing
me.”

“Well, it’s true, in case you didn’t believe m
e the first
dozen
times
.”

“Okay,” she smiled. “Then I’ll remind you that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to
me
.”

I slowly nodded. “That’s good. Because I don’t think
I could do what I’m going to do…
if you didn’t feel that way.”

Her face visibly changed. “Ty?” she whispered.

I took
her face in my hands
and softly touched her skin with my thumbs
. “Jayden, y
ou are my life. There’s nothing in this world that I want more than
to be with you
, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you
,
so… W
ould you
marry me
?
”

She
sort of
gasped, and stared at me for several seconds, completely stunned. As I waited patiently for an answer, it occurred to me that she might be waiting for the actual ring, just to prove I was serious. I was about to reach for it when she smiled and said, “I
will most definitely marry you
.”

With a grin I asked, “Are you sure? You have about five seconds to back out because once I put a ring on your finger, you’re mine forever.”

“I’m yours forever, anyway
,
”
she replied softly.

I paused, studying her expectant face, and finally I nodded my head and pulled out the ring. I held it for a moment as she stared at it with a smile
, then I took her hand and slid it on her finger. I could tell she was holding back her emotions when she held her hand out to look at it.

“It’s beautiful
.
I couldn’t have
picked it out any better myself.” She threw
her arms around me and held me tight
. It was the best feeling in the world and I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to make it official. I guess I was an idiot.

I held her close, allowing her whatever she wanted at the moment. When she finally
leaned
back to look at me, I kissed her. W
e stood together and I felt that no matter what happened, if I could have Jayden in my life, I would survive anything.

When she slowly pulled away she seemed to have something on her mind. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly
,
and she looked worried.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her.

Her face softened slightly and she put on a partial smile. “Nothing. It’s just…”
             
“Just what?”

She sighed. “I don’t want to ruin the moment.”
             
“You already have,” I smiled. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She smiled at my accusation, b
ut the worried eyes returned. “I’m just wondering
… Does this have anything to do
with
…
what
I said? –At the music festival? A
bout being married? I didn’t mean to push you into—”

“No,” I said firmly. “I’d already had that ring for a while,” I told her, kissing her hand.

“You did?” When I nodded she
asked,
“For how long?”

I was
n’t
quite sure as I thought for a moment. “
I guess
for
about three weeks.
Remember the day I came to your office to surprise you? We went to dinner and then a movie?”

She looked
surprised
.

“I didn’t work much
that day because I was shopping,
”
I told her.

“And you lied to me?” she said with narrowed eyes
, hiding a smile
.

“I didn’t lie to you. I said I got off work early so I could surprise you. How is that lying?”

“By omission?”
             
“Oh, come on,” I laughed. “Isn’t that the one time a guy can lie?
–To cover up something
good
? Well, at least I thought it was good.”

She laughed and gave me a playful thump. “It’s more than ‘good.’ In fact, I’m so happy I don’t even know what to say, so just kiss me again and maybe I won’t cry.”

I did kiss her, but her comment kind of struck me. I had
never
seen her cry, not once. She was a very passionate person and her emotions were easy to read, but I’d never seen her shed a
single
tear. She had once joked that she probably hadn’t cried since she was seven years old (when her mom left). I was beginning to wonder if it were actually true.

“So does this mean I have to plan a wedding?
” she said after a while.
“
You did make me promise, you know.”

“Yes, you did promise. But if it’s not something you want to do, then I’ll just figure something else out.”

“Like what?” she
asked,
eyeing
me carefully.

I shrugged. “Like asking Cali to do it.”
             
“You wouldn’t dare!” she exclaimed, lightly shoving me as I laughed. “Do you have any idea what she might actually
do
? We’d have an eighties-themed wedding, just like a friend of ours did last year. Cali has talked about it nonstop since.”

“Eighties, huh?” I pretended to seriously consider it. “That sounds interesting.”

“Tyler Matthew Huntington! I
won’t
show up.”

I gave her a shocked expression. “You wouldn’t dare stand me up.”

She glared at me to make a point. “I just might if you’re gonna be so difficult.”

“Difficult?” We were both laughing by then, but I ran my fingers softly along her hair and looked into her eyes. “But in all honesty, I’ll do whate
ver you’re comfortable with. If
you don’t want to plan a wedding, I completely understand and…I guess I’ll do it
instead
. I have
no idea what I’m supposed to do
though, so I
will
have to consult
somebody
.
If you’d be so kind as to point me in the right direction…”

When she put her arms around my waist and hugged me, I thought she was grateful that she
got out of it
. But instead she replied, “I should come clean and tell you that I really do want to plan
it. I’m so excited to marry you
and…the idea of a wedding has actually grown on me.”

“Really?”

She nodded against me. “Yes. But let me get through Megan and Jack’s wedding tomorrow, and then I’ll let you know if I feel the same way.”

She looked at me and I laughed, very thankful she was always so honest. “Okay. That sounds fair.”

Jayden had agreed to help Megan with the flowers, but when it looked like the task was going to be far too enormous, Megan let Jayden off the hook and hired someone. Jayden admitted that she was very relieved, and now she was just going to be helping adorn the wedding party
with
the flowers.

We ended up walking along the boardwalk a little longer.
Our conversation quickly returned to our own wedding. We both offered several suggestions and we talked about everything very candidly. I was pretty convinced that she really was excited
,
and it made me a very happy guy.
Plus we both decided we wanted to get married sooner rather than later.
However, as she was calendaring in her mind, trying to think of a proper date, we realized that every weekend contained something until the
end
of October.

“I’ll gladly give up my birthday to marry you,” I informed her.

“I don’t think so,” she playfully scowled at me. “I think October 21
st
is probably the best weekend.”

“That’s
too close to
your
birthday. Why do you have to make the sacrifice?”
             
“For one, it’s not right
on
my birthday, and another,
I
usually don’t really do
much
to
celebrate my birthday.”

“And your friends let you get away with that?” I couldn’t picture Cali letting that slide.

“No,” she growled, and it made me chuckle. “We usually go out and do something, but they learned long ago that I’m pretty adamant about them not making a big deal out of it.”

I nodded my understanding. I couldn’t picture her as the type to enjoy being adorned with gifts and blowing out birthday candles. “What did you do for your birthday last year?” I asked.

“Mmm,
we all went to Marrakesh
.” I must have looked confused because she added, “It’s a Moroccan restaurant.”

“Hmm, sound
s
interesting,”
I smiled.

“
Maybe I should take you there for
your
birthday.
You’d like it,” she assured me. “They have belly dancers.”

“Ah,
that does sound interesting,
”
I joked.

We finished out the rest of the night by wa
lking the rest of the boardwalk
, and then spending some time alone at my house.
I loved watching her look over her ring several times, smiling at the shiny diamonds set in white gold.
When I took her home around midnight, it was hard to let her go. I felt like she should be mine to keep, just because we had a date set to get married.

I went to work the next morning like any other morning, but I felt like a new man. All I could think about was my future with Jayden
,
and I had to remind myself to concentrate on what I was doing.

Jayden planned on sharing the news with her friends
that day
, but since Matt was
now
working with me, she wanted me to be the one to tell him. Lou was going over some things with him when I arrived, so I just
nodded a greeting
and got myself ready to work.

I was happy that Lou had liked Matt right away, and after the first two times Matt came in and did some work with us, Lou was anxious to know if I thought
he
would stay. When he came in again on Thursday, Lou offered him the job, and Matt accepted. I was very happy he was here
, but the downside was that we probably wouldn’t get the same Saturdays off anymore
.
Luckily the shop would be
closing
for Labor Day Weekend when we all went camping one last time.