Page 20 of Wishing for Christmas
Her stomach became queasy, and her legs gave way to an intense wobble. She quickly put both hands over her heart to calm the racing. What in the world was going on? He wasn’t actually—proposing—was he?
Down on his knee, holding out the ring, Brent looked up at her with total sincerity. “Clara, will you marry me?”
She stumbled backward. Her skin tingled like the sharp burn of an electric shock. No! This was way too soon. They’d only known each other for a couple of months. What could he possibly be thinking? Maybe this was some sort of act to throw people off to the crazy fact that they had skipped a year. Was she supposed to be in on it?
Clara couldn’t be sure if she was imagining this or if she had actually manifested it into reality. Was she simply a character in a story who didn’t realize her life wasn’t real?
She remembered how she and Lily would discuss different scenarios like this when they were younger and had played with their Barbies. What if they were no different than their dolls, living a storyline in a world they didn’t know was imaginary? She shook the thought from her head. This was no time for philosophy. The tremble in her legs and the pounding in her chest told her that this was as physically real as life could get.
Brent looked at her, still asking the question with his eyes.
She folded her arms across her stomach, hoping she wouldn’t be sick. She felt as if she was living in another dimension. She supposed shewasliving in another dimension. The top of her head was weightless. Her nervous eyes darted aimlessly at all the families around them. They all stared back at her with excited faces. A wave of panic coursed through her veins as she looked at Brent. He was still looking up at her, waiting for an answer.
Clara nodded, too stunned to do anything else.
He looked at her, urging her to say something else.
“Yes,” she finally added in barely a whisper. The word came out sounding more like a question than she had intended it to.
She forced a smile upon her fear-stricken face as Brent lifted her up in another embrace.
Everyone around them cheered. Why shouldn’t they? They had no idea this couple had no business being engaged—that they had just met, really. Nobody knew, except the two of them, that they hadn’t, in fact, spent an entire year in a long-distance relationship.
A question suddenly pummeled her so hard she almost collapsed. Brentdidknow that. Didn’t he?
He seemed to notice her stiffen and immediately set her down so they were eye to eye. He grabbed her chin gently. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
Clara stared back into his concerned face. The reality of this entire situation—her magical Christmas wish—hit her like a freight train. As she looked deep into his eyes, she instantly knew the truth; he had known her a lot longer than she had known him.
Her eyes grew big. As if in a trance, she shifted the rose to her right hand as she held out her left so he could slip the ring on her finger. She held it up in front of her and frowned. She wished her hands would stop shaking.
Brent’s face grew more concerned. She heard whispers around them—people wondering if she was feeling okay. She could only look back at them with wide eyes that had lost all ability to blink. She grasped the back of her head, trying to regain control of her body.
Clara suddenly realized that her simple wish was, in fact, a complicated mess. How could she not have thought this all the way through? Probably because she never actually expected it to come true. She had only been thinking of herself when she’d made that wish. Clearly, that had been a huge oversight on her part.
Still paralyzed with shock, she finally understood the massive complexity of the entire situation. She had traveled a year into the future. But Brent hadn’t. Only Clara had skipped that year. He, however, had lived through it all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BRENT
Exhausted from the long flight and the emotions of the day, Brent arrived back at his house and changed out of his uniform. He flopped onto his couch and let out a long breath of gratitude.
Engaged to be married and home for Christmas. He pressed his palms over his eyes and thought about how lucky he was. But it wasn’t actually luck, was it? He knew better than that. It was all thanks to a lot of hard work on both of their parts that he and Clara had gotten to this point.
Now, he could finally focus on celebrating the holidays with her. Their firstrealChristmas together. Although last year’s Christmas was significant in its own right. It was certainly one of the reasons they were engaged today.
Brent looked around his house and took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet. He hadn’t had much of that over the past year, always sharing his space with someone else. He got up and ambled his way to the kitchen. He laughed when he opened the refrigerator to find it stocked with food and beer. Dave. He was always thoughtful like that. He grabbed a beer and cracked it open. When he sat down on his couch again, it felt better than anything in the world. He only wished Clara was there beside him.
What did it mean that she hadn’t wanted to come over after they’d left the base? He’d asked her to join him for a Christmas movie, but she’d decided to go back to her house instead. She said she had an early morning at work the next day. She had to prepare for some big meeting coming up this week, insisting she’d be much better company tomorrow. He hadn’t wanted to press. Still,something about that had him worried.
Had he done the right thing by proposing so suddenly like that? When he’d stepped off that plane, the only thing he wanted to do was run to her. So why did he get the feeling Clara had acted sort of distant? No, distant was an understatement. She’d seemed a million miles away.
Perhaps she was simply thrown off by the whole thing. Maybe she was distracted by everyone around them. Or maybe . . . The thought Brent feared most loomed in the back of his mind. Maybe a year apart had taken its toll on their relationship.
There was no question he wanted to marry Clara. He knew her better than anyone in the world. Over the past year they’d grown closer in a way he wasn’t sure would have been possible otherwise. It was certainly a level of intimacy he’d never experienced in any relationship before. He knew, with certainty, that they were ready for the commitment of marriage. But did she feel the same way? That was the big question filling his mind.
Yesterday, out in the desert, Brent wouldn’t have doubted for a second that his feelings were reciprocated. Today, though, finally being together in person . . . well, it was not what he’d expected.
