“Fun. Like camping out.”
“Exactly.”
He sat in a chair, and for a long moment, neither spoke. Every few seconds, she toed the ground, and the swing gently swayed beneath her. The slight squeak of the swing chains broke the silence around them. Ken just sat there. She didn’t really know how to start, so she said nothing.
Finally, he cleared his throat. The sound startled her. She stopped the swing with the ball of her foot and looked at him. He said, “I handled that talk at Jon’s wedding badly.”
She snorted. “You’re not the only one.” She crossed her fingers in her lap and stared at them. “I’m so embarrassed about that day. I don’t even know what to say.”
“You have no reason to feel embarrassed.” She lifted her head and looked at him. His mouth firmed. His eyes glowed with intensity. “I handled that talk badly. I should have apologized right away. Instead of staying put, I should have chased you down and let you vent.”
Breaking eye contact, she looked back down at her hands. “I thought your family would turn away from me. I love them so much and didn’t want to lose them, didn’t want you to be placed in the middle.”
Ken moved quicker than she expected. Before she could react, he sat next to her on the swing, covering both of her hands with his hand. His skin felt warm, the callouses rough. “Daisy, my family knows about the baby.”
“Yeah, now. I had lunch with Valerie.”
He squeezed her hands, and she looked up. He shook his head. “Before the wedding, before you had dinner at their house that first night, both my parents already knew.”
Emotion flooded her throat. They had treated her with such kindness, had welcomed her like someone special and treasured. “Do they think the baby is yours, like Jon and Alex?”
“No. I don’t hide anything from my folks.” He reached out and cupped her cheek. “They know this. I love you, and, as far as I’m concerned, the baby’s already mine. Or, I want it to be.”
Even though she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. She slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to choke back a sob. Before she could think, he had his arms around her, the exact thing that she needed all along. She breathed in the smell of him, listened to the pounding of his heart, felt the warmth of his skin.
“I’m sorry I left like that,” she said, remembering storming out of that pool house in the middle of the wedding festivities.
“Me too.” He pressed his lips to her hair. “I missed you.”
She raised her face to look at him. “I was in such a bad place mentally and emotionally. I don’t know how to explain where my head was. It was almost like I was looking for an opportunity to walk out. It was so strange.”
He nodded. “Your stress level would probably fell most humans.” He leaned back and cupped her cheeks with his hands. “If I’ve contributed to your stress at all, you need to tell me. I want to help you, not burden you.”
“You don’t add to my stress. Like I said, my head was in a very strange place, and I’m out of that now. People are starting to find out. It’s not been the horrible thing I thought it would be.” She shrugged and thought about her lunch Thursday with her grandparents. “Well, almost not horrible. My grandparents had a problem. My grandfather even cried.”
Ken’s eyes roamed down her body. “Soon, it’ll be hard to hide. I can see it.”
She felt a flush of heat and ran her hands over her slightly rounded stomach. “Sixteen weeks. That’s crazy.”
He shook his head slowly from side to side. “Not crazy. Wonderful.”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. That very instant, everything in her world set back to right. It all fell into place, and she knew everything would turn out okay. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into his kiss, trying to let her lips convey her feelings in a way that her voice never could.
His lips spoke to her in return. Clouds swirled around her at this mountaintop altitude. The air felt thin, and the wind felt cool against her skin. Her pulse rushed in her ears, sounding like a roaring surf.
Ken ripped his mouth away and pressed his forehead against hers, his eyes closed, his breathing ragged. He had a hand gripping her hair and slowly relaxed, eventually running his fingers through the strands.
He raised his head enough to look into her eyes. “Marry me. Marry me, Daisy.”
She smiled and said, “I thought you’d never ask.”
“I’m not asking anymore.” He pulled the ring box out of his pocket. “I’ve had this in my pocket since the middle of July, in case you think the baby is motivating me in any way.”
She held her hand out and noticed the faint tremor. “Ken, I can tell you in all honesty that I believe the baby is not what’s motivating you. I can’t believe it’s taken you seventeen years to finally ask me to marry you.”
They laughed together as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
Daisyslipped the file folder into her bag as she and Ken walked out of the courthouse doors. Inside the manilla pages lay their birth certificates and now their wedding license. She couldn’t stop the grin that covered her face.
