With a soft gasp, Sydney looked at the ring and then him. “You bought this…”
“You are the only girl I ever wanted to marry. And I know it’s not anything special to look at—it’s barely a half carat—and I promise to buy you something much better…”
“Don’t you dare!” she cried as her eyes welled with tears. “It’s the most perfect ring ever.”
“It’s really not. Just remember I was nineteen and working at my father’s garage, so…”
“Kyle?”
“Hmm?”
“Put the ring on me.” Her hand was shaking as she held it out to him, and he held his breath as he slid it on.
It was a little snug.
When he tried to take it off of her, she smacked his hand away. “Don’t you dare! It’s on and it’s staying on.”
“Syd, come on. It’s tight. Tomorrow we’ll go and pick out something else.”
“Nope.”
“But…”
“Nope.” Her smile was pure joy as she looked down at her hand. “I love it and I love you.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then how about you lose the shirt and let me show you how much I love you?”
No sooner were the words out than he had a face full of white cotton.
“Oh, it’s gonna be like that, huh?”
Laughing, she lay back against the pillows. “Yup. Now let’s see what you’ve got.”
And he was more than happy to show her.
“Oh, my God! Finally!”
“Finally?”
“Um, yeah. Finally.”
Sydney glanced at her niece and then Kyle before returning her attention to Haley. “How can you say finally? We just got back together yesterday!”
“I’m just saying the two of you should have been engaged a long time ago,” Haley reasoned.
“Need I remind you how it was you who said…”
“Uh, uh, uh,” Kyle interrupted. “Let’s not go down that path.” Then he grinned at Haley. “Personally, I believe we have Haley to thank for this.”
“Now this I’ve got to hear,” Sydney muttered.
“She made us take a step back and see how this was definitely what we both wanted and that we wanted it to be forever. We could have gone on dating and wondering and second-guessing ourselves, but now we know this is it.”
“Which was my plan all along,” Haley said with a huge smile.
It was hard to hold her tongue, but she did.
“Well, it worked perfectly, and here we are,” Sydney said. They had the house to themselves because her parents had gone out to visit some friends and she and Kyle felt it would be best to talk to Haley one-on-one rather than with an audience. “And we want to make sure you’re really okay with this.”
Nodding, Haley looked at them both. “I am. I know we were just joking around here but…I’m really happy for you guys. I know you said I don’t have to keep apologizing, but I’m going to. What I did and said wasn’t about either of you. I was scared and lashing out.”
“It’s okay to be scared, Haley. Just know you can come and talk to us about it. You’re not alone and you don’t have to deal with your emotions all by yourself.”
She nodded. “When the boat tipped over the other day and I was holding on, I wasn’t sure how long I could do it.” She looked a little nervous as she straightened in her seat. “I was crying and I called out to Mom and Dad and…well…after that, I swear it was like somebody was holding me up. I can’t explain it other than I felt like I got lifted out of the water a little. One minute I was sure I was going to drown and the next…I had the strength to hold on and wait.”
“Oh, Haley…”
“I know it was my parents and that they wanted me to be here with you. And when I saw Kyle swimming toward me, I knew everything was going to be alright.”
Sydney was too emotional to speak. All she could do was nod.
“Like my folks sent him to me to show me I could and should trust him, so…yeah. I feel like it was one of those things where you pray for some kind of sign or answer and you get one.” She smiled at Kyle. “So again, thank you.”
“I told you yesterday, Hales, we’re family, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my family.”
“So we’re good here?” Sydney asked. “You sure you’re comfortable with the possibility of Kyle moving in with us?”
“Of course! And really, if you think about it, it’s kind of like Kyle was already living here. With all the work he did on the house, he was here all the time. The only difference is now he’ll be here overnight.”
It was hard to argue that logic.
“I guess…”
“Did you set a date? Can I be a bridesmaid? Are you going to have a baby? Can we move my bedroom downstairs so I have more privacy?”
“Whoa…one thing at a time,” Sydney said with a soft sigh. “We want to get married sooner rather than later. Hunter and Violet are getting married this weekend, so we were thinking possibly as soon as next weekend. But we haven’t finalized that yet.”
“Yeah, the more we thought about it last night, the more we realized we might want to take a little time and plan something a little bigger,” Kyle explained.
Nodding, Sydney added, “I’d really love for Mia to be here, and we don’t want to take any attention away from Hunter and Violet’s big day. So we’re probably not going to say anything to Kyle’s family until after the wedding.”
“So I have to like…keep it a secret? Can I really be trusted to do that?” Haley asked.
“Yes, you can be trusted,” Sydney said, ruffling her niece’s hair. “We’ll even let you be the one to tell Grandma and Grandpa when they get back.”
“Just about the wedding, right? There’s nothing else I’m supposed to share with them?”
“Well…we also talked about me moving in and we wanted your input on it.”
“Dude, I just told you it’s no big deal,” Haley said, talking to him like he was five.
“O-kay…”
“And the baby thing?”
“We’re not having a baby right now,” Sydney went on. “But that is something that we’re hoping will happen in the future.”
“Cool. By that time, I’ll be really good at babysitting. Plus, hopefully, I’ll get to practice on Hunter and Violet’s baby, so by the time you have one, I’ll be really helpful.”
Sydney couldn’t believe the change in her niece.
“And the room?” Haley asked hopefully.
“We’ll think about it. We just got done with all the construction and that room doesn’t have any windows…”
“I was just trying to be considerate of the two of you,” she replied.
“One thing at a time, Hales,” Kyle told her. “For now, let’s get through the wedding this weekend, planning our wedding, and me moving in.”
“That’s kind of a lot.” Pausing, Haley’s expression turned serious. “I do have something I’d like to add, if that’s okay.”