Page 140 of Snowed In
“I need a shower.”
“And you can have one as soon as you tell me what’s wrong.”
“What’s going on?” Mam asks, appearing in the kitchen doorway. Dad joins her a moment later while Hannah peeks her head out of the living room.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Andrew says, ignoring everyone but Molly. “Whatever you think I was going to— If you’re not ready, just forget about it, okay?”
She looks like she doesn’t know whether she wants to laugh or cry. “It’s not that.”
“Then what? You can tell me. You can tell me anything. But at least tell me something because you’re starting to worry me, and—”
“Andrew,please.”
“We talk, don’t we? That’s what we do. We talk to each other, and we tell each other when something’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong. Not like that.”
“Then why are you—”
“Because I was going to propose!”
She exclaims the words so loud she almost yells them, and it’s so quiet after it’s like all the air has been sucked from the house.
No one moves. No one speaks.
And when five seconds pass, Megan tugs on my hand with ado somethinglook, and I clear my throat. “Maybe we should give them some privacy,” I say to my family.
I might as well have been speaking to the void.
“What do you mean?” Andrew asks eventually. Molly looks straight-up miserable.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“You were going to propose?”
“I picked out a ring,” she explains, her skin flushing. “A stupid perfect ring, but I didn’t know your size, and I…Do you remember last year when my parents brought over those Christmas crackers, and you got some plastic rings in yours, and they were a perfect fit? Well, I thought that could be a starting point, but it’s hard to find Christmas crackers in the States, so I had to wait until we came back here, and then I had to find the same brand and—”
“Moll—”
“And then when we found them, I had to make an order with the jeweler to make it, and that’s why Zoe came down. She came to collect me to get the ring, and we had to get it that day because they were closing for Christmas, and I was planning to propose on Christmas morning, but you were so disappointed about the cabin—”
“Molly.”
“So I panicked because when am I going to do it? I had this big plan, and then I was like, maybe I’ll wait until the night before we leave, but you were acting so weird, and I thought you were mad that I didn’t want to go, and then we drove up to the cabin, and I saw the rose petals, and it all clicked and I—” She takes a shaky breath. “And I realized what you were planning,” she says, her voice breaking. “And that I’d messed it all up by planning the exact same thing. And I felt awful because I ruined your proposal.”
“And I ruined yours.” He doesn’t sound very guilty about it. “You got my ring size from a Christmas cracker?”
“You said it fit you like a glove.”
His mouth moves like he’s trying not to smile. “I remember.”
She rolls her eyes, hiccupping slightly. “You’re laughing at me.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I am.” He raises his arms in a stretch. “So, are we doing this or what?”
“What do you—”
Megan gasps beside me as Andrew lowers to one knee.
