This is every dream I didn’t truly believe I could have, and sharing it with Ryan is more than I ever dared to hope for.
I’ll spend the rest of my life being grateful that fate twined us together in a beautiful way and gave us a love so profound I know nothing else in this life could ever compare.
Hardy
The second thegarage door is closed behind Brian, I leap off the bed, throw the dirty blanket in the laundry, put on a fresh one, and run to the shower.
I’ve probably only got ten minutes before Wilson, Justin, and Jade will be here to help me set things up. I wasn’t intending to fall asleep, but then again, I wasn’t planning to do more than kiss Brian or maybe give him a blowjob before he left. But watching him so delicately care for those plants made me too horny to function.
Everything about Brian does it for me, but his gentleness and vulnerability are always the things that give me a mega boner. They also draw me to him in a deeper way, which is why I needed that extra touch and connection with him.
Of course that might have something to do with the fact that I’m proposing to him tonight.
Over the last year, I’ve come up with a ton of different proposal ideas for him, but I kept coming back to this. Our home. Our future. The peace he craves and the garden he loves.
Once spring and summer get underway, things will be busy. He’ll be focused on the garden or we’ll be traveling. This is the calmest part of our year.
We would’ve moved up here a little sooner this year, but we decided to wait until after Mark and Frannie’s wedding at the end of February. We spent some time down in Anais Bay with them before and after the wedding, and they’re still there on an extended honeymoon. We went straight to the city from South Carolina, then packed up and came here yesterday. I couldn’t wait another day to do this.
I’m just pulling a shirt on when I hear car doors in the front circle of the driveway, and I hurry out to meet Wilson, Justin, and Jade—and a fourth person climbs out of the car too.
The minute I see her strawberry blonde hair, I know who it is.
Jade’s friend Amanda, who is an incredibly talented event planner. She ran an event for Wendell and Alannah’s charity to support trans kids, and she did a fantastic job. And she’s a friend to the Baker Girls group since Mark’s cousin is one of her besties.
“I thought I’d bring some professional help,” Jade says.
“I appreciate everything I can get.” I look at Amanda. “Thank you.”
“No problem. I actually kind of bullied Jade into bringing me once I found out what was going on. This is one of my favorite things to do. Creating something special to celebrate love.”
“At least one of us is going to end up crying today,” Justin jokes.
Wilson laughs and shakes his head. “Come on. We better get to it if we want to get this done.”
Like the excitable puppy I always am for anything involving Brian, I lead them into the house and tell them the plan.
I wave to Justin,Jade, Amanda, and Wilson as they leave. The sun has just dropped behind the hill, and darkness is settling in. Finally, I can get a good look at everything.
We checked through it all as the pink sunset lit the sky, but it didn’t give the full effect.
Phone in hand, I video chat Christy, who is in some little town outside Vancouver right now.
“Hey,” she says, then she looks around to see if I’m alone.
“He’s not here yet. I’m doing a walkthrough, and I thought you might want to see.”
She squeals. “Yes, please.”
I walk onto the patio, then make my way to the garden where I turn on the small switch on a post by the iron gate.
The entire garden lights up, and I switch the view on my camera so Christy can see.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispers. “Ryan, it’s perfect. He’s going to be… overcome. Seriously. This was the perfect idea for him.”
“You haven’t even seen the best part.” I take a slow walk up the center aisle of the garden toward the other iron gate, the strand lights illuminating everything as I go. When I get there, I pause for a second so she can see the gate and fencingsurrounding it all lit, then I continue through and take the walk up the little incline to the flat spot that overlooks the valley.
At the top is a wooden arbor that Wilson put together for me, also adorned with lights.
