Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“This is cool,” he said, stretching it slightly before he pushed it down on his ring finger. “And it fits good. Where’d you get this?”
I told him the name of the business that’d sent it to me, and his lips tipped up.
“That was right next to the place where I got yours,” he said. “Open it.”
Looking down into my lap, I picked the box up, lifted the lid slightly and peaked in through the narrow opening as I immediately gasped and opened it all the way.
“How’d you know?” I gulped, pulling the ring out and sliding it onto my finger.
He shrugged.
“Thought it was cool,” he said. “And I saw it pop up on the side of your computer each time you got on Facebook. It was one of the ads that showed ‘you also might like this’ shit. Found that one at the store and thought it looked an awful lot like that one.”
It was a simple ring. And I loved it.
The band was two colors, black and white diamonds. The two alternated all the way around the ring, and I’d loved it at first sight.
I didn’t know why I kept going back to looking at that ring, but now that I saw it sitting on my finger, I wanted to cry in joy.
“Thank you,” I whispered, looking up at him.
“Can I call you grandma when the baby gets here?” Attie teased from her perch on the couch.
I tossed the empty box at her.
“Only if you allow me to spank you as if you were my child,” I shot back.
She snorted as she stood and threw her arms around her dad’s belly.
“I’m glad he picked you,” she said. “I can’t wait until grandma meets you.”
I gasped, tuning my horror filled eyes to Drew.
“We can’t get engaged yet,” I said, pulling the ring off my finger and handing it back to him.
He wouldn’t take it.
“No takebacks,” he laughed, shaking his head and backing away
I glared at him.
“We have to make sure your parents like me first!” I assured him. “What if they hate me? Christmas will be incredibly awkward if that’s the case.”
He shook his head. “Honey,” he said, moving closer to me. “My mom’s going to love you.”
I took a deep breath.
“But what if my mom doesn’t like you?” I asked.
“Your mother likes me,” he said.
“They don’t know you.” I told him. “I can’t marry someone that my mother hates.”
“Wanna bet?” he asked, pulling me up snugly against his side. “All mothers like me.”
I shook my head.
“You’re full of it.”
“You call your parents, and I’ll call mine. I have a week off starting this Saturday. We’ll meet up at Beaver’s Bend. That’s about halfway for my folks and halfway for us. Sound good?”
I nodded, but I couldn’t help the nerves that took flight in my belly.
Maybe I was ready.
***
So there I was, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at two dresses. One was a simple black number that hit me right above the shins. The other was a white number that flowed all the way to the bottom of my ankles.
“What should I wear?” I asked Drew, looking up to find him doing push-ups next to the window.
He looked over at me, then moved his eyes to the dresses without stopping.
“Black. You’ll get the white dirty,” he puffed out.
He then moved to the jumping push-ups, his hands alternating close and wide. In. Out. In. Out. His hands moved as if he weren’t even trying.
If I were to be doing the same thing, he’d likely have to pick me up off the carpet.
“I feel like I’m going to barf,” I said, counting for him in my head.
Ten. Fifteen. Twenty-three. Thirty-five.
On and on he went until he reached a hundred.
Then he stopped, went up on his knees, and stared at me.
Sweat trickled down his neck and arms in rivulets, and I had to clamp my teeth shut to keep myself from licking my lips.
He’d already ran a full two miles while I barely walked one, and then he’d started this as soon as we’d gotten back to the cabin we were renting.
Attie was staying with his parents, in the cabin next to ours, although they weren’t there yet. All of our cabins were in a row, so we didn’t have to go far to find the rest of our families.
We’d been the first to arrive, and I kept tossing surreptitious glances out the window to see if I could get my first glance, even though I knew they weren’t going to be there for at least another hour or two. I wasn’t sure if they were unloading their car first, though, so I kept peeking.
We were actually meeting them at a restaurant that was fairly popular for the crowd gathering in Beaver’s Bend.
“What has you so nervous?” Drew asked. “You need me to do anything to take your mind off it?”