Epilogue
“Get back here!” Preston yells loudly into my ear.
I’m now deaf, I think cheerfully to myself. He’s trying to catch Ashlyn as she runs around the firehouse for the tenth time. Unfortunately, she has the engagement ring tucked away in a box on her.
Preston thought it would be romantic to propose for real rather than constantly telling me I was going to marry him. Plus, I did threaten him within an inch of his life that if he didn’t do a real proposal, I would find the tape of our high school choir performance where he tried to ask me out for the first time.
Needless to say, this is why I’m waiting patiently at the fire house for Preston to chase around his dog. The same dog I mistook for his wife. Sometimes when I think about the whole fiasco, I contemplate medicine for insanity. I mean what was I thinking? I got all of that from a few text messages.
I shake my head and cross my arms, looking the part of annoyed girlfriend, when actually I wouldn’t want my life any other way.
“I can’t find her,” Preston pants next to me. “And if you say one thing about my cardio being low I’m going to tackle you.”
I snap my mouth shut because that was exactly what I was going to comment on. He’s faster, but I can run for longer amounts of time. Not that he ever lets me remind him of such things.
He turns quickly to look at me and smiles “Did I mess up the proposal?”
I smile back. “We’ll get the ring when she tuckers out.”
He laughs and gets down on one knee “Amanda?”
“Yes, Brad,” I answer seriously.
He laughs and corrects himself “Angelina?” My eyebrow raises in appreciation. “Would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
I wait as long as possible and watch him slowly become paler by the second. I finally pull him up, wrap my arms around him, and whisper yes into his neck.
He picks me up and twirls me Hollywood movie style then kisses me forcefully on the mouth. “Challenge accepted.” He mumbles against my lips.
“What?” I look at him puzzled. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re a challenge….always challenging me, at least. I appreciate that. So I accept all future challenges from here on out!” He looks delightfully giddy.
I clap my hands together and smile. “Really? All challenges?”
He nods. Oh men, the weaker sex.
“Great!” I say jumping up and down “On your mark—”
“Amanda!” He’s looking at me with his mad eyes.
“Get set!” I plant my feet, knowing he’s going to lose because he’s been chasing the dog around the firehouse for the past hour. I love winning.
“Go!” I take off like a crazy person and fall just as fast. What in the world?
Preston sits on the floor with me and laughs, “I was trying to tell you. Your shoes are untied.”
I look at him and blush slightly before I lean over and kiss him on the mouth. “I love you.”
He chuckles. “Like I said before, you’re crazy, but I love you too.”
About the Author
Rachel Van Dyken is a Graduate of Northwest Nazarene University, with a degree in Social Sciences with an emphasis industrial psychology and a minor in Spanish. She is also a Post Graduate of California Coast University receiving a MBA with an emphasis in Human Resource Management. She resides in Nampa, Idaho and counsels children. Starbucks is a daily must, spiders make her scream, and she loves chocolate but is allergic, of course. Nate, her husband makes her laugh so hard she cries and they share their home with a very loud snoring boxer named Sir Winston Churchill.