by A. K. Evans
I closed my eyes for a second before I looked at her. I hated that she had doubts about this and the fact that she wasn’t the only person I’d ever been engaged to. I answered her honestly.
“Not at all. Dana was comfortable. She was all I knew for so many years; it just seemed like the next logical step. This, baby — you and me, is everything I’ve needed. It’s never dull or routine. It’s not me feeling like I’m working to provide a living for someone who will never be satisfied. It’s about being with someone who shares a true joy for my passion and who cares about other people. It’s about being with someone who makes my life better simply by sharing hers with me.”
“Wes,” she said, her voice just a hair over a whisper. I smiled back at her knowing what she wanted to say, but couldn’t find the words for.
“Did you know all day yesterday that you were going to propose?”
“Don’t you think I would have prepared a little bit more and made it perfect if I had known I was going to propose?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know, Wes. It felt pretty perfect to me.”
“Fuck, gorgeous. See? That was it. I knew a few weeks ago that I wanted to marry you. I started searching for rings before we left for Aspen. Picked this one up a few days after we got back. I was just waiting for the right time to give it to you. Then, yesterday, in my office, you said one thing that made me realize that it was the right time. Didn’t know I’d actually ask you yesterday, but then the opportunity presented itself and I didn’t want to hold back anymore.”
She drew her brows together. “What did I say?” she asked.
“After you saw the Water line idea, you stood in front of me and said that I could give you nothing else but that for the rest of your life and that I would have given you the world. Felt that deep in my gut, baby. Knew right then that I’d spend forever trying to give you the universe.”
“Oh, Wes. I think I’m going to cry,” she said.
“Don’t cry. Kills me to see it.”
She took a deep breath in to stave off the tears and said, “They would have been happy tears, Wes. I’ll try to keep them in check.”
“Obliged.”
“What are the plans for today?” she asked.
“Anything, Charley. Whatever you want.”
She bit her lip. My eyes dropped to her mouth. I was certain that fucking mouth would kill me one day.
She looked up at me through her hooded eyes and said, “I’d really like to tell my friends the good news.”
I couldn’t wait for the world to know that this woman was mine, so I was on board.
“Ok, so let’s get up and get ready. I’ll text Zane to make sure Emme is home and we can go to your place so you can tell her in person.”
“Don’t text Zane. If she’s there and he’s with her I don’t want her to know anything before we get there. Let’s just take a chance on them being there.”
I nodded and squeezed her hip. “Whatever you want. Think you can handle one more round before we go?”
“Because I’m feeling extra loved by you right now, I’m willing to give you two more rounds.”
What did I say? Lucky fucking bastard.
It was just after nine that morning when we left our house. Charley insisted on picking up breakfast, in the form of donuts, before going to see Emme. We arrived at the condo right around nine thirty that morning.
“They’re here,” Charley said as we pulled in to park. “See? There’s Zane’s truck and Emme’s car.”
I glanced at her and saw she was beaming from ear to ear. The things I’d do to see that look on her face every day. She was bouncing in her seat with excitement.
I parked the car, went around the truck to help her out, and walked with her up to the front door. I took the box of donuts from her hands because I was certain with her level of eagerness they would end up on the floor. We reached the front door, she put the key in, opened the door, and we went in.
As we entered the kitchen we found Zane and Emme already there with cups of coffee. She was sitting on one of the barstools at the island while he was standing on the opposite side of the island leaning on his elbows. I wasn’t sure if we interrupted something important, but as soon as we walked in both of them had looks of surprise on their faces.
Charley walked right up to Zane, hugged him and said, “Good morning, Zane.”
He returned the sentiment as Charley made her way around the island to Emme. She pulled Emme into a hug and said, “Morning, Em.”
“Morning, sweets. Hey, Wes,” Emme said.
“Emme,” I said nodding in her direction.
Charley came back to me and said, “So Wes and I wanted to come by this morning and bring breakfast.”
She took the box of donuts out of my hands and set them on the counter.
“Um, thanks?” Zane said as he looked to me knowing something was off.
“Zane, relax. Of course, I plan to get details of your date with my best friend from her later. I wouldn’t intentionally barge in on that. Though, I must say the fact that you are here is especially good news. Wes and I wanted -- actually, it was just me who wanted, to bring the donuts. I felt they were needed. You see, I figure the only proper way to celebrate things this early in the morning with your friends is with donuts.”
“Sweets,” Emme said. “It was one date. Don’t you think a celebration is a bit overboard?”
“Two answers to that. First, no it’s not because you haven’t had a first date in what — nine years? Second, that’s not what these donuts are being used to celebrate. Though, if you want to add your first date to the list we can.”
“I feel like we missed something. What’s going on?” Zane asked, a confused look washing over his face.
“Well,” Charley said and then paused as she looked to me. “Do you want to tell them?”
“It’s all yours, gorgeous. You can do it.”
She smiled up at me and then looked back at Zane and Emme. “Last night, Wes asked me to marry him.”
Charley held out her left hand to show off her ring and said, “We’re engaged!”
“OH MY GOD!” Emme shrieked as she jumped off the barstool and ran over to pull Charley into a hug. “This is amazing! I’m so happy for you, Charley. Congratulations!”
While the girls stood there hugging each other Zane walked over to me, put his arm around me, slapped me on the back, and said, “Congrats, man. You picked a good one.”
“Thanks, Zane. Without a doubt, she’s the best for me,” I said.
Seconds later, Emme was wrapping her arms around me. “Congratulations, Wes. Thank you for choosing my best friend. She deserves all the happiness in the world and is so lucky to have you.”
I hugged her back and said, “Thanks, Em. I consider myself to be the lucky one, though.”
I glanced over to Charley and winked at her. Zane then went and congratulated her.
“Ok,” Emme said. “Now the donuts make sense. Who wants one?”
She opened the box and we all grabbed one. We then spent the morning with the girls mostly rehashing the entire unplanned proposal. Several times throughout the entire story, I’d glance over at Zane and see him looking at Emme’s reactions to it. Yep, he was just as fucked as I had been when I’d first gotten involved with Charley.
After she had recounted all the details, Charley asked the group, “Can we go out tonight to celebrate?”
“YES!” Emme shouted.
“Fuck. You’ve been so quiet since I’ve met you,” Zane said to Emme. “Didn’t think you had it in you to be this loud. Good to know, sweetheart,” he said as he winked at her.
She blushed and looked away.
To help take the attention off her, I said, “Elle is performing at Lou’s tonight if you want to go. In fact, my parents are even going to this performance. I can call Stone and Luke, tell them to meet us there. Charley, you can call Greg, Tony, and Hannah. We’ll tell everyone the news there.”
�
�Yes, that sounds awesome, but first I have to call Nikki and Monroe.”
“I’ll grab my laptop and we can Skype with them,” Emme said.
She ran out of the kitchen to get the laptop and came back not even thirty seconds later with it. The girls sat on the stools on the opposite side of the island while Zane and I listened from out of view of the computer screen.
“Hey bitch. How was your date?” Nikki asked. “Fuck. Charley is there and I don’t see a hot guy so this can’t be good news. I really thought Zane was a good one. What happened?”
We heard a ringing sound again.
“Hey Em! Hi Charley,” Monroe said. “Oh shit. The date didn’t go well. I’m so sorry, babe.”
Zane nudged me and quietly asked, “What the fuck?”
I couldn’t help it. I just shrugged my shoulders and laughed. Sometimes women were fucking crazy. Couldn’t say I didn’t love that about Charley, though.
Emme glanced at him over the top of the computer screen and smiled. Charley spoke up.
“Zane is still here, ladies. In fact, he’s just heard everything you both said. Wes is also here.”
“What? So why the fuck are you both sitting there calling us instead of hanging out with Hottie Number One and Two?”
Emme said, “Charley has some news she wanted to share.”
With excitement in her voice Monroe said, “Oh my goodness.”
Holding her left hand up in view of the camera she said, “I’m engaged!”
Screaming ensued. See? Crazy fucking women.
The girls congratulated Charley who then pulled me over next to her so that I was now on the screen.
“Hello ladies,” I said.
With tears in her eyes, Monroe said, “Congratulations, Wes. You’ve made our girl so happy.”
“Thanks. She does the same for me,” I reassured her.
I directed my attention to Nikki. “You better take care of our girl or you’ll answer to the rest of us.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” I said with a smile on my face.
“Congratulations.”
I nodded at her.
Zane walked over to stand next to Emme so that he was now on the screen. Monroe and Nikki directed their attention to him. “Just so you ladies are aware — Emme and I had an amazing fucking date and it went really fucking well.”
Emme looked away as Nikki shouted, “You gave her the goods, didn’t you?”
Emme spoke up and said, “Ok, we’re done now. Charley wanted to share her news with you before telling anyone else. We’re going now.”
“I want details later!” Nikki yelled.
“Call me later, babe,” Monroe said to Emme. “Congratulations again, Charley and Wes. I’m so happy for you both.”
Everyone said good-bye and Emme closed the laptop. The girls decided they needed to go shopping for a special celebratory dress. I fucking hated shopping. Zane did too. At that moment, though, we were both completely fucked because we’d have agreed to anything either of them wanted. They promised to make it as painless as possible and swore we’d be no more than two hours. I don’t know why the fuck anyone needs two hours to pick out one dress, but I wasn’t going to ruin the day for Charley.
The girls kept true to their promise and were done with a half hour to spare. We dropped them off at the condo to get ready and told them we’d be back later to pick them up. Zane offered to be the designated driver since Charley and I were celebrating.
A couple hours later I was on my way back to the condo. I decided to drive there so I’d have my truck there in the morning. I knocked on the front door and was nearly knocked on my ass when Charley opened the door. Despite having gone with her when she bought the dress I hadn’t actually seen it.
She was wearing a dress that hugged her body in all the right places. It was a pale pink colored short dress that showed off her long legs. As if that wasn’t torture enough, the top half of the dress would have me fighting to keep my dick from getting hard all night. It had thin straps holding up pieces of fabric that covered her tits. The dress was so low cut in the front I could immediately tell that she wasn’t wearing a bra. The dress had a satin ribbon around the waist and sequin designs all over.
“Hey, honey. You look amazing. I just want to put a pair of earrings in and I’ll be ready to go. Emme is ready and Zane just got here. Come on in.”
She turned around to walk away. I saw the back of her dress and reached my hand out to grab her arm. Other than the two thin straps that held the dress on her shoulders her entire back was exposed.
“Gorgeous. You look so fucking beautiful. Not sure I want to go out anymore.”
She tilted her head and said, “Thank you, Wes. I’m happy you like it, but we are going out tonight. I want everyone to know that you are mine forever.”
I smiled at her and said, “Already trying to lay down the law, are you?”
“You know it.”
I laughed and said, “Give me your mouth first, then you can get your jewelry.”
I kissed my woman good before she took off to finish getting ready. A couple minutes later the four of us piled into Zane’s Ford Raptor. We arrived at Lou’s not long after and made our way up to the saloon.
Elle and my parents were already there as were Stone and Luke. I didn’t see Greg, Tony, or Hannah yet. By the time we walked over to where everyone was, I turned back to the door to see Charley’s friends walking in.
I leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Greg, Tony, and Hannah just arrived. We can tell everyone together.”
She nodded her head and grinned huge at me.
After everyone exchanged hellos and caught up briefly, Charley gave me a look that said she was ready.
“Hey guys, I want to make an announcement,” I said over the group.
Everyone turned their attention to me as Charley curled into my side.
“We’re so glad all of you are here tonight because we have some news. Last night, I asked Charley to marry me.”
Charley held out her left hand to show off her ring.
Elle, Greg, and Hannah screamed. My parents were beaming, especially my mother who had tears in her eyes. Stone and Luke looked shocked, but immediately shouted out well wishes to both of us. Tony took a cue from them and came up to individually congratulate both of us.
Elle settled long enough to come over, wrap Charley in a hug and say, “I’ll finally have a sister! Congratulations, Charley.”
After Elle pulled away she looked to me and tears filled her eyes. She stayed silent for a beat as a single tear fell down her cheek. “I’m so happy for you,” she said as she walked to me and hugged me. I hugged her tightly as she whispered in my ear, “She’s the one for you, Wes. I’ve known it since the first day I saw you with her. I see how happy she makes you and that makes me super happy. Congratulations, big brother. I love you.”
“Thanks, Elle. Love you, too.”
My parents congratulated the both of us next, followed by Greg and Hannah. Just as we got through all the shock for everyone Lou was up on stage getting ready to announce Elle. She tapped him on the shoulder, whispered in his ear, and then he looked out at us.
Fucking Elle.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to announce our hometown favorite here in a minute, but I just received some fantastic news. My boy, Wes Blackman, is officially off the market. He proposed to one of my favorite pretty girls, Charley Meadows, last night and they are now engaged. Please join me in congratulating them.”
Everyone cheered and shouted their well wishes.
“Wes, Charley — love you two together. I’m honored you chose to celebrate this wonderful occasion here at Big Lou’s. Drinks for your entire party are on the house tonight. Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness.”
I nodded up to Lou who then announced Elle. She immediately dove into her set. Everyone enjoyed her performance and she even threw in a couple extra covers specifically dedicated to Charley and me. Shortly after she finished
up, my parents called it a night, but not before praising me on my decision to make it official with Charley. I was beyond thrilled that they loved her for me so much.
After my parents left, the girls got up to dance while I hung at the table with the guys, minus Tony and Greg. The two of them had taken off somewhere.
“Wedding bells, man? Still can’t believe it,” Stone said.
“Wasn’t going to waste any more time. That girl is it for me,” I responded honestly.
“I’m still shocked. It was definitely quick. Either way, I’m happy for you. Think you made a good choice with that one,” Luke said.
I looked to Charley on the dance floor. Her body was moving to the music and she had just tossed her head back to laugh at something one of the girls said. Sitting there watching her I realized that without a doubt, she was the best fucking decision I’ve made in my life.
“Thanks, Luke. Appreciate it. What about you two? Planning on settling down any time soon?” I asked.
“Fuck no, dude. I’m completely content being single,” Stone said.
“Yeah, besides, we’ve got this one here to worry about next,” Luke said as his head nodded in Zane’s direction.
Zane was watching Emme and didn’t even acknowledge what Luke had said. I wasn’t convinced he even heard us.
“Yo, Zane,” Stone yelled.
Zane turned his head back to us.
“What’s up?” he asked.
We all laughed before Stone asked, “You next?”
“For what?”
“Getting married.”
“Not planning on going at lightning speed like this one here,” Zane said pointing to me. “If I was going to settle down with anyone, I’d do it for that girl. She’s going to take a little persuading, though.”
“Looks like it’s just you and me from this point forward,” Stone said to Luke. “These two are down for the count.”
“Maybe you should try finding a single someone to be with instead of a new person every time you are out,” I suggested.
“You two got lucky with Charley and Emme. There aren’t any women like that out here. Besides, a new person every time keeps it fun,” Luke said.
