His Proposal

His Proposal - 113

Nate walks into my room and he sits on the bed as I stand in front of the vanity brushing my brown hair. He looks at me. "What are you doing when we get home?"

I turn towards my brother. "Nothing, why?"

He looks at the ground. "It's been a while since I've been to the graveyard and I was thinking about going to see Mom, Dad and Aleysa, but I don't want to go alone."

I walk over to him and pull him in for a hug. "I'll go with you." I look at the door. "What about Teresa?"

Nate rises. "She's going to see her parents." He walks towards the door. "She told me that she's going to have a civil conversation with them. She doesn't like what's going on between them, but she also doesn't want to break up with me. I haven't done anything for them to dislike me. Then again people use any excuse to dislike someone. It's just the way of the world." He shuts the door.

I tie my hair into a ponytail and then I walk out of my room.

Jai is leaning against the wall. "Mom sent me up here to tell you breakfast is ready. She wants you well fed before we travel back to Los Angeles."

A smile spreads across my face. "I'm glad we're going back home." I put my hand in his. "I don't want to spend that much time in San Francisco again. I'm fine with spending the weekends there to watch my brother play football."

He places his hand on my stomach. "Soon enough you won't be able to travel with being pregnant. The airlines are going to put a stop to travelling to San Francisco to watch Nate play."

That's going to suck, but I will ask someone to tape it for me and get them to post it, so I can watch my little brother play football.

I look at him. "That's going to suck when that time comes. Let's go downstairs. I'm starving and whatever Veronica has cooked smells great." I walk down the stairs still holding Jai's hand.

We enter the kitchen and on the table are plates full of food. There's waffles, pancakes, toast, bacon strips, orange juice, eggs, milk, apple juice, fruit salad, pitchers of water, tea and coffee.

I think she went a bit overboard.

A smile spreads across her face when she sees me. "Good morning, Chloe."

"Morning, Veronica." I point to the table. "Is all that food necessary? It's like you're about to feed an army."

She walks over to me and hugs. "I am feeding an army. Charlotte and her kids are coming over. They want to see you before you leave. We miss you a lot when you leave here." She pulls something out from her apron. "I found this photo while I was going through some albums. I thought you would like to have it." She gives it to me.

It's a photo of my parents, Jai and I. We're all smiling. There's a lake in the background. "Where was this taken?" I ask.

Veronica takes another look at it. "It was taken by the lake, that's behind this house." She looks at Jai. "Jai will show it to you after breakfast. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing a place that your parents enjoyed when they were here." She walks back to the kitchen and she begins to clean up.

Jai leads me over to the table and he places a plate in front of me. "Help yourself, firecracker."

I keep looking at the picture.

I really miss them.

A tear falls down my face and Jai wipes it away with his thumb. He turns my head so I am looking him in the eye. "Eat something, Chloe. Your parents would want you to take care of yourself and the baby. Now, eat before I take that picture from you and you will never see it." He drops his hand from my face.

I put two waffles on my plate. I pick up the chocolate topping and put some on the waffles. I scoop some ice cream onto it and start eating.

Jai puts some fruit on the plate. "You need to eat some fruit as well."

I pour myself a glass of orange juice and I drink it. "I've had some fruit."

He rolls his eyes. "That's not good enough. Everything on that plate needs to be gone before I take you to the place you want to go."

***

After breakfast, Jai takes my hand and we walk towards the lake. He stops close to a tree. "This is where the photo was taken." He points to an inscription on the tree. There are my initials and those underneath must be yours. This is the tree I planted with you. Mom and Dad told me that it's special because it holds the memory of a great family that helped plant it."

"I wish I could remember more about your family and the time I spent here, but for some reason, I don't remember it. Do you think it was fate that led me to your bar that day?"

He kisses me. "Fate played a big part in our meeting again. Us being apart was our journey to finding each other and finding love with the one person we are supposed to be with and I'm glad that you're that person for me."

I wrap my arms around him. "Me, too." I lean forward and claim his lips.

The kiss starts to get heated and all I can think about is making love to him by the lake.

Snap out of it Chloe.

A throat clears behind us. "I'm glad I didn't show up two minutes later. I'm sure this would be even more awkward." Charlotte says.

I feel my face start to heat up and I bury my head in the crook of Jai's neck.

Kill me now.

Charlotte laughs. "I wanted you to know I was here," she shuffles on her feet. "I... I'll be at the house." As she walks away I hear the crunching of leaves.

Jai kisses me one last time. "I can't wait to get you home. We're going straight to the bedroom where I'm going to show you how much I love you, Chloe Knight."

I step away from him. "I wish I could, but I have plans."

His face falls at that. "What are you doing that doesn't involve spending time with your fiancé?"

"I spend a lot of time with you, Jai." I take his hand. "It's just that Nate hasn't been to see Aleysa or our parents in a while and he wants to do that. Also, Teresa is going to see her parents. She wants to talk to them about the way they've treated her."

Jai lifts me up and he carries me back to the house. "I'm glad she's going to talk to her parents. Hopefully, they can have a civil conversation and not one that leads her to hate her parents."

We walk into the house and I see our bags next to the door.

Veronica and Ricky hug me. "Have a good new year. We will visit you when we can."

Ricky shakes Nate's hand. "Good luck with the rest of the season. Veronica and I will be at one of the games. We'll take you out for dinner beforehand."

Nate smiles. "I would very much like that, Ricky. See ya." He picks up his bag and walks to the door.

Teresa follows him out the door.

Jai and I say goodbye to the family before we walk out the door and head to the waiting limo. We climb in. The car pulls away and I wave to the Marshall's as the driver takes us to the airport."

***