Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“And does that scare you?” Mark asked.
“That Tillie will hear, freak out, and run away? Absolutely.”
Mark laughed. “But not about marrying her?”
Jaxson had his hands deep in soapy water as he ran the cleaning brush across the plate. His mother always refused to have a dishwasher as she considered them a waste of money. Her motto was, if you had to rinse the plate off to put it in the dishwasher, you may as well clean the damn thing.
“I want to marry her, Dad. I want to make her my wife,” he said, pulling his hands out of the suds and rinsing them.
“You want to marry her?”
“Yeah, more than anything.”
Mark smiled and then reached into his jacket pocket. “Your mom asked me to give this to you,” he said. “It was given to her by your grandmother, and now it is time to be passed on to you. It’s the engagement ring all Riggs women get to wear.”
Jaxson recalled the ring as it sat on his mother’s finger for the last thirty-seven years. They were engaged before he was even a thought.
“It’s beautiful.”
“And she knew when her son was ready to propose, it would need to be passed on, and now it can be. It has to be passed on to you.” Mark gripped his shoulder. “You did make us believe for a while there that you might never settle down, but I knew you had it in you.”
“Dad, I don’t know how to ask her,” he said. He ran a hand down his face, suddenly regretting years of being a player, of using girls and tossing them aside. He never promised anyone anything.
“You’ll figure it out. Now, come on, let’s get these dishes done, and when the time is right, you will know exactly when to give it to her.”
Jaxson wanted any engagement proposal he made to Tillie to mean something. She meant everything to him.
They joined their women on the back porch, and he was so happy to see his mother and his woman getting along.
After enjoying some lemonade and watching the sun go down with his folks, he and Tillie left and walked back toward her place. It was a short walk, but he took her hand, linking their fingers together, and he basked in the knowledge that his mother already adored her. She had already won his mother over, and that was the biggest challenge of all.
“Your family is amazing,” she said.
“They adore you,” he said.
Tillie let out a sigh and ran her hand across her forehead. “That is a huge relief.”
He chuckled. “It’s not hard, you’re pretty amazing, you know that?” He pulled her close beneath one of the lampposts. “I know a lot of women are saying some nasty shit behind my back, and I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I was a fuckhead before you, but I’m not anymore. Okay, I am with you, one hundred percent.”
Tillie tilted her head back and smiled. “Is this because I was a virgin?”
He groaned. “No, this has nothing to do with that.”
She grabbed his hand and they continued to walk. “I wish you could have met my parents. I mean, my dad would have probably threatened to shoot you with his shotgun, and my mom would have probably threatened you with rat poison.”
“What a charming family,” he said.
She burst out laughing. “Seriously, it was more of a threat that if you ever cheat on me, or break my heart, then that is ... what they would say.” Tillie looked at him and frowned. “Would you like to see them?”
He knew they were gone, had been at their funeral.
“Yes, I would like to.”
They cut off, heading toward the church and the graveyard. It was getting much darker, and the lights cast their glow onto the streets. The church gate was closed, and there was a barrier across the graveyard, but he and Tillie bent down, crawled under it, and were in the graveyard.
“I can’t believe you’re breaking the rules.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not every day you take your boyfriend to go and meet your dead parents,” Tillie said.
She took his hand, and although it was dark, as there were no more streetlights, she knew exactly where she was going, and he was more than happy to follow her, even though they were in a graveyard after dark.
He pulled out his cell phone and pressed for the flashlight, illuminating their path. They only had to walk for another few minutes, and then Tillie came to a stop. Jaxson saw the fresh flowers on the graves of both her parents. Side by side.
“I miss them so much,” Tillie said. “Whenever I had doubts, Mom was always there telling me I could do anything I put my mind to. Dad was the same. Both of them had my back and were in my corner forever.” She wrapped her arms around her waist.