Love On the Brain (Corey Crawford)

57| The Garden

Corey

For today's off day Jessie and I go down to Springfield to celebrate what would have been her dads 57th birthday. Her whole family would be in town and we would go put flowers down at his grave and have a big family dinner later on tonight. It was a nice way for me to spend the off day counting my blessings.

"Hey Corey, welcome back" Jessie's mom says as she welcomes me in.

"It's good to be back" I insist.

"You want a cookie" she offers and I smile real big.

"That's a main reason why I'm even here" I tease and she laughs.

Jessica goes off with her brothers wife and the kids and they play with Freddie since we didn't have anyone to dog sit for today and he had to come with us. I find her brother Carter already in the kitchen and eating the cookies.

"You gonna leave some for me" I tease and he laughs at me.

"You might want to walk a little bit quicker then" he says.

I get over to him and he hands me a cookie which I happily take. I swear there's nothing like this cookie.

"I'm happy you can join us" Carter claims.

"I really wanted to be here for you guys for your dads birthday. And I also had a question for you guys while I was here" I admit.

"What's up" her mom wonders.

"Since Jessica's Dad isn't here, I wanted to ask you guys for permission to marry Jessie" I say and her mom gasps.

"Now way" she says and I laugh.

"I'm serious. We already talked about getting married but all it's been is is talk. I haven't made any plans or even gotten a ring yet. I wanted to talk to you guys first and see how you guys felt" I explain.

"I'm in" her mom says.

"I have some questions" her brother claims as he crosses his arms over his chest and I chuckle. I figured he would.

"Shoot" I encourage.

"I want some niece and nephews, how do you feel about that" he questions.

"I love kids. I'm good with having kids as long as it's with Jessie" I admit.

"Good answer" he nods. "What about availability? Are you going to be taking her to run away to Canada for the summers" he wonders.

"Not at all. We can stay in Canada for a while or go on vacation but she's still working so I don't want to take her away from here for too long. Living in Chicago means a lot of her, especially on days like today when she's thinking of her dad. I know it's hard for her to leave there, I would never make her do that" I promise him.

"Alright, final question. How do you plan on proposing" he asks and I smile. I'm glad the hard questions were over.

"I don't even know" I sigh.

"I have a idea" he admits.

"I'm all ears" I promise. Any kind of advice would help.

"When we were kids she used to run away for like a whole day and we would never know where she was. She always came back at dinner time all dirty and she never told us where she went. One day I decided to be the best big brother and follow her.

Turns out she had been going to one of our neighbors house to help a old man take care of his garden after his wife died. She was watering the flowers and cleaning up the garden and planting new things. She had to have only been 12 and trying to help this man keep his garden up since his wife left him.

One day I told her I knew where she went over the summer. I asked her why she was helping our neighbor and she said because people are like flowers. We need things like food and water and sunlight in order to do good. She was not only nurturing the garden but the man who lived there too by keeping him company and taking care of his backyard. She would sit and listen to stories about him and his late wife and how they met. He would let her help him plant and care for the flowers and she loved it.

She did that for five summers before he too passed away. And for a while she even went back after he died. But the garden was so important to her, to be able to watch the things grow and to have a part of it growing, it's where it all started with her. She treats her clients like flowers and makes sure they're all healthy and beautiful" he explains.

"So I should give her a flower" I ask.

"Take her to a garden. Remind her that this life is like a flower and that sometimes we can't grow in the rough situations but with some care we can grow. It'll help her remember who she is and why she is the way she is. No matter what she'll always run to where she is needed and help in a way only she can" he explains.

"Woah, that's really deep. I love it" I admit.

"I don't know a lot of things, but I know my sister" he insists.

"Well now I just need to find a ring" I insist.

"Here" her mom says as she takes off her wedding ring she still wore. She tries to hand it to me but I shake my head.

"Oh no, I can't take that from you" I insist.

"I want you to. When Jess was a little girl she used to ask to wear it all the time. She would take it off my hand and wear it around until I took it back. And my husband gave this ring to me because he felt like it was right for me and I feel like it belongs on her hand. So I want you to have it" she says a she grabs my hand and puts the ring in it.

"But this means so much to you" I insist.

"And so does my baby girl. I know she'll recognize that ring as soon as you pull it out and she'll be so excited. She knows how much value that is in that ring that goes past the price value. It has years of loving built into it and I think it's only right that you give it to her" she explains.

"Well this went a lot better than I hoped. Thank you guys so much" I insist.

"Any time" her mom promises.

"If you hurt her I will kill you" Carter says and I laugh.

"Point taken" I assure him.

We all end up driving over to the cemetery to pay our respects to Jessie's dad and say a few words. We set our flowers down and I pull Jessica into my side as she sniffles. She looks up to me and she actually smiles. I don't know why but she does.

"Thank you for being here" she says softly.

"Of course babe. Anything for you" I promise.