I still can’t believe all of this has happened in such a short amount of time. That’s life for you. Things happen in an instant and affect your life forever. Many times you don’t see them coming. Most of the time you aren’t prepared. But how you react and go forward is how you define yourself as a person. You control your future. The past just tries to give you a suggested road map.
And it’s OK to tell the road map to take a hike and pave your own way.
Garrett did. And so did I.
Looking back, I let what I did back then define my future. When I saw the chance to volunteer at the drug counseling center in college, I took it as a sign to help right the wrongs I made because of misguided loyalty. Before I knew it, giving back became my whole life. It became the way I made up for the years of only caring about a person who didn’t care about me. As Garrett has been telling me, I can still take care of others and take care of myself. To allow myself to be happy in all ways. To fall in love.
And I have. I’ve fallen head over heels in love.
“Someone must be thinking of their tall, hot, and incredibly sexy doctor. That’s the only thing that puts that look on your face,” Chad says, giving me a little wag of his eyebrows. “So, tell me, where is Dr. McSexy taking you this summer?”
“McSexy? Really? That’s the best you can do?”
“Yes,” Sarah says. “If you’re going to date a guy who could star in Grey’s Anatomy then he gets a nickname. Now tell us, where is McSexy taking you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Chad asks.
“It means, she doesn’t know because it’s a surprise,” Cassie says with a smirk.
“Oh, shut it. Some best friend you are. You know and you won’t tell me!”
“Hey, I was in charge of packing your suitcase. I needed to know this. Plus, it’s fun watching you freak out.”
“It really is fun,” Patrick says. “You’re going to love it.”
“Wait!” I say, shooting him a look. “You know?”
“You know Cassie can’t keep a secret. And yes, that means Sarah knows too. Sorry, Chad.”
I shake my head and smile, glad how everything has worked out. I know Patrick had a crush on me for a while, though he seems now to be quite happy.
With Sarah.
Yup. They found each other on a dating app. What started as a joke swipe right to lament about their woes of single life turned into a coffee date. Which turned into dinner. Which turned into them now sitting hand in hand.
“I honestly don’t care where we go,” I say after finishing off my margarita. “I just want to relax. Get away for a bit. If a beach was involved, I wouldn’t hate it.”
“Well, then, good. You’re really going to like what I have planned,” Garrett’s voice shocks me a bit as I turn to see him approaching our table. I swear every time I see him he makes my breath hitch. The sight of him in a crisp white shirt, khaki shorts, and boat shoes should not turn me on the way it does… but on Garrett? I’m freaking on fire and ready to jump him in the middle of this restaurant.
How is this man mine? I ask myself that question every day. I don’t know the answer, but I know that I’m going to enjoy every second I have with him, and hope that there are only more to come.
I turn around and tilt my head up, ready to accept the kiss I know he’s going to give me. Which he does, and I’m pretty sure I hear the rest of my table let out an “aww.”
“Are you ready to go?” he asks.
“Yup! Let me just get my check.”
He shakes his head. “Already taken care of. And so is everyone else’s. Congratulations on another school year, guys. Have a great summer.”
It takes ten minutes to complete the rounds of “thank-yous” and goodbye hugs, but before I know it, I’m sitting in Garrett’s car as we make our way to the Norfolk Airport.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going? You know I’ll see it when we print our boarding passes.”
“Can’t a man want to surprise his woman?”
“He can. And he has. You know how I am with surprises. What if I don’t like it? What if I’ve already been there? You know I don’t have a passport, right? What if Cassie screwed up packing my suitcase? What if there’s a tropical storm about to come and we get trapped there?”
“Woman, it’s like you think I don’t know you,” he says, lacing my fingers through his. “I know you’ll like it because I know you. You have not been there because you told me that you haven’t traveled outside the continental United States, but you won’t need a passport. Kelly double-checked Cassie’s packing and signed off on it. And I checked the weather. Sunny skies for the next week when we make it to the Virgin Islands.”
I’m stunned for a second, processing all that he’s told me.
“The Virgin Islands?”
He nods. “Seven days and six nights at an all-inclusive resort with a beach view. Sound OK to you?”
I shrug. “It’s fine.”
He sneaks a look at me. “Fine? It’s just fine?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I say, looking out the window, trying to hold in my smile. “But if I can’t find anything to eat on the menu, or fall in love with you even more, it’s all your fault.”
I finally look at Garrett, who is all smiles as he brings the hand he’s holding to his lips, placing a deep kiss on top of my hand.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Epilogue
Garrett
Seven months later
“Are you sure this is going to work?”
Cullen’s question takes me by surprise. “What do you mean, do I think it’s going to work? Of course, it’s going to work.”
My nephew shrugs. “I mean, do you think she’ll say yes? Are you just doing this in front of a lot of people so she won’t say no? She’s too nice to tell you no in front of a big room, ya know.”
“He has a point, Dr. Dixon,” Anthony chimes in. “She would never embarrass you like that. She doesn’t even like to reprimand her students in front of others. You’re in the clear. But she might call it off later.”
When I asked Cullen, Anthony, and a few other of her former students to help me when I proposed to Paige, I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. I figured she loves her kids and how memorable would it be if they set the stage before I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife?
Little did I know that I’d get a mini peanut gallery full of opinions that caused me to question everything about my life and my choices.
“Quit giving Dr. Dixon a hard time,” Penelope says, smacking Cullen on the arm before giving me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. We got this.”
At her words, the boys, especially Cullen, get back in their places, ready to enact our plan.
At least I’m not the only Dixon man who is whipped by his woman.
Penelope is right, though. I am nervous. Which is funny. I’ve done this twice before. Propose, that is. Neither time was I nervous about being told no. Maybe that should have been a sign. Or maybe I needed to go through those two to get to this point now, a kindergarten Christmas music program where I’m about to ask the best woman I have ever met to be my wife.