Page 28 of Wishes at Water's Edge
“Come on inside,” he stammered, holding the door open again.
“Can I have a kiss first?” she asked coyly.
“Mmhmm.” He leaned down and kissed her, but even that suddenly felt awkward. He felt as if he might get electrocuted by her, she was so intensely wonderful.
Still laughing, Noelle glided into his kitchen. He suddenly wished that he’d moved the table into the living room, or another spot in his house that looked a little more elegant. His kitchen was clean, but the fridge was covered with bills that he’d paid or needed to pay, and there was a cookie jar shaped like a fat little owl sitting on the counter. It hardly seemed like the proper setting for a romantic dinner or a proposal.
He shut the back door, feeling his heart thump in his chest. Noelle was staring at the table as if she’d never seen anything so wonderful.
“Dean,” she breathed. “Did you do all this?”
“Hazel helped me,” he admitted. “She’s so good about this kind of thing.”
“But it was your idea?”
He nodded, drinking in the sight of her. “Yeah, it was my idea.”
“Wow.”
For a few moments, they simply stood there looking at each other. Dean felt his heart rate go down somewhat, but he still felt as if he was in some kind of dream and he didn’t actually have control over his body. When he spoke, it felt as if he was watching somebody else speak.
“Dinner’s on the table already. Would you like to sit down and eat it with me?”
“I’d love to.” Before sitting down, however, she stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He held her tightly, drinking in the fantastic smell of her hair. She smelled like lavender and honeysuckle and sandalwood.
Over the top of her head, he could see the table, and he noticed with a start that he hadn’t lit the candles yet.
“What’s the matter?” she asked with a small laugh, noticing the way he’d twitched.
“Oh, nothing. I’d just wanted to have the candles lit already when you got here.”
“Don’t worry about that—it’s still perfect. Besides, this way I can light them. You know how much I love lighting candles.”
He smiled at her. That was his girlfriend. Always so kind and thoughtful, ready to make everyone else feel at ease and as though everything was alright.
He handed her the lighter, and she eagerly walked around the table, lighting each of the candles. Dean watched her, touching the lump in his pocket where the ring box was.
This is bad,he thought nervously.I didn’t expect to get this nervous when it came time to actually propose. I’m not sure I’m capable of getting the words out right now.
He reminded himself that he didn’t actually need to propose at that moment. They could eat some of the dinner first. That would probably be better anyway.
He pulled out her chair for her and set her down in it. “You look gorgeous, by the way,” he said, relieved that he was able to string together that many words into a coherent sentence.
“Thank you.” She looked up at him, her eyes shining. “You look so handsome.”
He wanted to remind her that she’d already managed to say that in a full sentence, but he simply smiled, glad that she thought so. He realized that he’d forgotten to comb his hair down again and it probably looked messy—but he knew that Noelle liked it that way.
He sat down across from her and they began to help themselves to the delicious food.
“I’m sorry, I should have prepared a plate for you,” he said, realizing that asking her to spear her own filet of breaded codto get it out of the serving dish wasn’t as gallant of him as he wanted to be.
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” She laughed. “You’re acting as though I’m royalty or something. This whole thing is unbelievably sweet. You definitely didn’t need to do any more than this. Besides, I’m early. How could you have prepared a plate for me this early without it getting cold?”
She grinned at him, and he smiled back, feeling totally smitten.
She’s so sweet,he thought.So sweet and wonderful. But that’s only making me more nervous. How can I propose to someone as wonderful as she is?
They began to eat their meal together, and Noelle kept exclaiming over how delicious it was.
