Page 111 of Chasing the Sun
It was an idyllic scene—perfect for what he was about to do.
“This is gorgeous. Thank you for bringing me here,” she said softly, reverently.
They watched for a few more minutes, and then he said, “There’s another reason I brought you here.”
She glanced over her shoulder and searched his face. “There is?”
He let go of her and dropped to one knee right there on the wet sand.
Her hands immediately flew to her mouth, and her eyes went wider than he’d ever seen them. It made him chuckle even though this was supposed to be a serious moment.
He fished the red velvet box out of his shorts pocket, opened the lid, and held it up.
“Chloe…”
“Ohmigod! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!”
In her exuberance, she rushed him, and they fell backward on the sand, the box almost slipping from his hands.
He was covered with wet, sticky sand, but it was the second time he didn’t mind—the first being when he’d brought her here before.
“Ohmigod! I can’t believe it! I never expected this today! I mean, I thought it might happen someday, but I didn’t know when or where, and I certainly didn’t expect it to happen here, because, you know, you hate the beach!”
He was gazing up at her, smiling and clutching the box so it wouldn’t fall in the sand.
“Chloe?”
“Yes?”
“Can we get up now?”
“Oh!” She looked at them, their clothes and bodies coated with sand, and they both started laughing. Then they stood, brushed off some of the sand, and he started over.
“I love you, Chloe. You’re everything to me, and I’d be honored if you’d be my wife. Will you marry me?”
Tears were streaming down her face, and he would have wiped them away if his hands hadn’t been so dirty.
“Yes. I would love to be Mrs. Bradshaw.”
He wiped his right hand on the only dry patch he could find on his shorts and then pulled the ring from the box. The diamond solitaire sparkled in the last rays of sunlight as he slipped it onto her finger.
She held up her hand and gazed at the ring with unrepressed joy, and even covered in sand, he thought she’d never looked more beautiful.
“How about we go back to our room, clean up, and then go out for dinner?”
She nodded and happily took his hand as they walked back up the beach.
“Nobody will ever believe this,” she said after they’d put on their shoes and were back on the resort path.
“Believe what? That we’re getting married?”
“No, that you proposed to me on the beach!”
It would be something they’d laugh about for years to come.
The End
