Austin’s POV
We were in the car now heading home from a wonderful dinner. Elise looked stunning and I swear I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. I had trouble even giving my order because she was so damn distracting. I turned down a small road and Elise gave me a questioning look.
“I don’t remember seeing this road on the way to the restaurant. Where are we going?” She asked observing the secluded road.
“I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to take a walk on the beach. It’s such nice weather tonight I didn’t think you would mind.” I said keeping my eyes on the road and smiling to myself.
“Um… I mean I guess as long as you don’t make me wear these heels any longer.” She laughed. Damn, that laugh, I loved that laugh. I flashed a quick smile at her and parked the car next to the line where the road hit the sand. I jumped out of the car and opened her door and helped her out. We both took off our shoes and I rolled up my pant legs slightly. I grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the beach closer to the water. We walked along the water line in the moon light.
“I love the beach.” I said looking out over the water. She smiled at me.
“I know. It explains your ocean sleeve tattoos. I do too. I remember I used to go to the beach in South Carolina every summer when I was a kid.” She sighed and looked up at the stars. Then she smiled a childish smile. She took several long strides towards the waves and stopped where the water would rush up around her ankles.
“You’re going to ruin your dress!” I said. But I didn’t care. She was having fun pretending she was a child again. I ran up behind her and picked her up by her waist and ran back, away from the water. I let her down and made a run for it. She laughed and playfully chased me. “You’ll never catch me!” I yelled as I kept going. She stopped running and made a puppy dog face at me. I rolled my eyes and stopped running too and then she smiled again.
“Sometimes I used to stand close to the water and then as it crashed into the shore I would run away from it and pretend it was chasing me.” She said in a quiet voice. “What happened to our childhoods? Why isn’t it acceptable to do that anymore?” She asked and I smiled.
“Who said it was acceptable?” I asked and she smiled back at me. We walked back to where the waves met the shore and when they crashed into the shore we didn’t move we let the water rise to our ankles and fall back down into the ocean. She looked at the stars and searched the skies. The moon glinted in her eyes and made her hair shine.
“I love night time. There’s something about it that just feels right. Like I used to have a saying. ‘The only thing that knows me best is 3am.’ It was the time when all my deepest thoughts came out. You couldn’t keep them inside if you tried it’s when you got to say the things you wanted to knowing no one could judge you.” She said still searching the stars. She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” I was watching her stare at the sky and then she looked at me. I reached over and grabbed her hand.
“You can tell me anything. Let me be your 3 am.” I said looking into her eyes. She smiled faintly but it was almost a sad smile. “I wanted to tell you something.” I said shakily, I could already feel my muscles clenching.
“What’s that?” She asked intertwining her fingers with mine. I bit my lip and tried to think of the words I could use for this. I turned and started walking her to the soft dry sand. Once we got there I stopped again.
“I wanted you to know that I love you. That this last month and a half has been the best time of my life. I have never been happier with anyone else in my entire life. You make me so happy I could write love songs.” She laughed at that. “I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me. Because I don’t think you quite understand yet.” I said and I dropped onto my knees. Her eyes grew wide and I smiled sheepishly as a pulled a small box out of my pocket. “I wanted to know if you would marry me.” I said holding up the ring inside the box. My hands were so shaky I was trying so hard to steady the box. I looked at her face and she had tears falling from her eyes.
“God damn it, Austin. Why do you do this to me.” She said with a joking laugh through her tears. “Now my makeup is going to look like crap!” I smiled up at her. “Of course I’ll marry you. I love you so fucking much, Austin.” She said and I got up off of the sand and she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.
“I love you too.” I whispered into her ear. I think we could’ve stayed forever in each other’s arms that night. Just standing under the glow of the moon. It seemed pretty great to me.
