I wake up in the morning in the guest room at Ethan's house. My eyes are barely open before he knocks lightly and then pops his head into the room. "Good morning to the future Mrs. Broadwell."
"I love the sound of that," I say, sitting up and stretching and he comes to sit on the edge of the bed. My thoughts soon return to the dramatic scene that caused me to run away from home last night. "What are we going to do about my parents?"
He takes a deep breath and sighs, "It probably won't help to say 'What matters is that we'll be together' or something trite like that, hey?"
"I've never been happier, but yeah, I can't be completely happy about this, knowing my parents are upset about it."
Ethan hugs me, strokes my hair and then runs his hands up and down my back. His comforting gestures do the trick for the moment. I do feel safe and secure with Ethan and I'm sure things will work eventually. I just hate feeling at odds with my parents over something this major.
It's Saturday morning, so we don't feel rushed to get the day started. However, Ethan suggests that we get dressed and get some coffee so we can have some quiet before everyone else wakes up.
After I dress, I find him in the kitchen, coffee pot already brewing. "Should we make a big breakfast for everyone?" He asks. "Then we can tell them our news." Everyone else had been sleeping when we had gotten home last night and when we went to bed, Mr. Broadwell told us he'd let us share the engagement with Ethan's siblings.
"Sure, why not?" I smile, walking over and kissing his lips one more time. "You're a great cook. Oh, and that's part of the deal, right? You're going to cook for us when we get married because I don't like to cook all that much."
"Yeah, whatever," he smirks, pulling out a dozen eggs. "Scrambled eggs or pancakes?" He asks.
"Definitely pancakes. We need comfort food on a cold winter morning like this."
We set to work on making the batter, filling our coffee mugs in between mixing and cooking. It's kind of fun just working side by side with him.
"It will be nice when we get to do this all the time," I tell him. "I like waking up with you."
He stops and kisses me, but we're soon interrupted by Annie and Amy who come barreling into the kitchen. "Sarah! Daddy told us you slept over!" I turn to hug them and then they open the fridge to start rummaging.
"Hey, hey now," Ethan says, stopping them. "We're cooking breakfast so we can all eat together. Why don't you girls set the table?"
"I don't want to set the table," Amy whines.
"Amy," Ethan says in a warning tone.
She huffs, but she reluctantly complies. I smile to myself a little, witnessing his fatherly behavior towards his sisters. I know they love him, and they respect him all the more because he is so involved with them. And then I get a tingle in my stomach when I realize what a good father he's going to be. The father of my children. Wow.
When breakfast is all ready, everyone is up except Jessica. Once we've all taken our seats, Amy asks bluntly, "Why did you sleep over last night?"
Ethan scolds her mildly, saying, "That's not very polite, Amy. But the answer to your question is that Sarah and I were out very late last night, so Sarah slept here. In the guest room." I like how he emphasizes that so they don't get the wrong idea. "And we have something very special to tell you."
Amy, Annie and Tanya all gasp in excitement. Zachary just smirks as he gulps down some orange juice. He knows.
"I asked Sarah to marry me," he announces. "And she said yes."
The girls all squeal and a full grin breaks out on Zachary's face. He is the first to stand up and come around the table, offering his congratulations. My heart is warmed by his hug and his words, "Welcome to the family, sis."
Amy, Annie and Tanya all crowd around me after that, hugging me and taking turns gawking at the engagement ring.
Everyone hushes as I hear another voice amidst the commotion. "What's going on?" Jessica asks, venturing into the dining room.
Ethan grabs my hand and proudly tells her, "Sarah and I are getting married."
"Great," she says in a flat tone and heads back down the hall.
"Jessica!" Mr. Broadwell yells after her, but Ethan stops him.
"It's okay, Dad. Let's not make a scene. Maybe you can talk to her later, after Sarah and I go back to talk to her parents."
"What's she mad about?" Annie asks.
"Nothing," Ethan answers her. "She's just tired, I guess."
And honestly, once I decide not to let her reaction bother me, I am able to let it go and bask in the happiness of being newly engaged to the most fantastic man I've ever met.
Once we've eaten our fill of pancakes and bacon, Ethan and I get ready to leave. But then we notice that the snow is coming down quite heavily, and it looks like it has been for a long time. Ethan checks the weather on his phone and finds out that we're currently under a Winter Storm Warning. We've already gotten a few inches, and it will keep coming down for several hours, probably not letting up til late evening, and then the plows will have to come through before we can really get out.
"I guess you're stuck here," Ethan tells me, his eyes full of mischief.
I call my Dad's cell phone, not wanting to talk to my mom yet. I tell him that we're snowed in, and he says it's pretty bad down there, too. He's perfectly fine with me staying put and not risking getting stuck in the snow. I don't make any mention of the proposal or Mom's state of mind at this point. I don't really want to know. I think it will be good for her to have another day to work through it.
As soon as I hang up, Annie looks at the calendar and says, "Ethan! It's St. Lucia's Day!"
"Well, so it is," he says. He turns to me and asks, "Do you feel like doing a little more cooking?"
"Sure! We've got nothing else to do," I say, smirking.
He helps the twins pull together ingredients for a special kind of bread they usually make for St. Lucia's Day, which I'd never heard of before. While they get started and I basically just sit and watch, they tell me that celebrating the feast day of St. Lucia is a Swedish tradition.
"Can you celebrate that if you're not Catholic?" I ask.
"My mom was Swedish," Ethan answers.
"Ahh, that explains all the beautiful blondes in the family," I remark.
Ethan continues, "She liked teaching us some of the Swedish traditions. For her, it didn't have much to do with religion. But one of the girls used to dress up every year as St. Lucia. Her feast day used to coincide with the winter solstice, so she became a beacon of light to everyone on the darkest day of the year. Whoever played St. Lucia dressed up in a white robe with a red sash, and a wreath of candles on her head."
"Ethan! Can I be St. Lucy, please!?" Annie begged.
"No, honey, we don't do that anymore. Remember when Tanya's hair caught on fire?"
I stifle a giggle, but then they all start laughing, too.
Amy runs to the living room and comes back with a laptop. "You have to see pictures!"
She sits down and clicks around til she opens a picture of a picture of a very disgruntled-looking Tanya whose hair is singed down one side with some melted red wax tangled in.
We all burst out laughing, even Tanya, who has obviously gotten past her humiliation at this point.
Then Amy starts to click around on other family pictures and I start asking to see certain occasions. I need to catch up now that I'm going to be a part of this family.
She starts with baby pictures of her and Annie, and my gut tightens, knowing that their beautiful mother will only be in the first few. She was indeed a gorgeous woman, and I can see a bit of her in all of her kids.
Amy and Annie were spectacularly adorable, always dressed in the cutest onesies and matching outfits. When their hair was long enough, it was always done in matching pigtails. Until they looked to be about a year and a half. There was only a handful of photographs for the next year or so of their life.
There's one picture of the whole family, dressed in black. Annie is on Jessica's hip, and Amy is in Ethan's arms. He was so young. He was practically a kid himself.
"That's when our Mommy died," Amy says solemnly.
"I know," I tell her, raising my hand to stroke her hair.
She forwards to pictures of when she and Annie were three and four, and I saw a completely different Ethan. I could tell that was during his darkest time because he had no life in his eyes. His hair was shaggy and unkempt, his face was drawn and he was overweight.
I wish I could just step into those pictures and hold him in those tough times. I'm so thankful that he made the choice to get back into his life. If he hadn't, maybe my life would look different now. Maybe I wouldn't even be here if he hadn't been running that errand for his father on the day of my accident.
But I am here, and so is he, and I will always be thankful for that.
We spend the afternoon making the special pastries for St. Lucia's Day, and then watching movies and playing board games. It's the perfect distraction to keep my mind off the fact that my mother may still be very upset with Ethan and me.
The following morning, we don't even attempt to go out to church because of the snow. But once the plows come through and clear some of it away, we head back to my house.
When we arrive, the front door is still locked. As I'm fishing my keys out of my purse, the door swings open, revealing my dad, still in his pajama pants and t-shirt. He gives us a huge grin and pulls us both into an embrace. "There's the happy couple," he chuckles.
I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing my dad is a little happier about this development than my mom.
"Is Mom here?" I ask nervously, following my dad into the living room.
"Uh, no," he answers. I can hear a little discomfort in his voice. "She, um, went shopping."
My dad obviously doesn't know what that means. It's hard to believe that, after so many years of marriage, he doesn't realize that shopping is my mom's therapy. Literally. She can be uptight, furious, depressed or whatever mood you can think of, but a well-timed shopping trip always cheers her up. I love shopping with my mom, but I'm not offended that she went without me this time, and understandably so.
But the fact that she trekked out in the snow means that she really needed to get out. I just hope that this trip really lifts her spirits and helps her to accept the engagement.
"Do you either of you want some coffee?" My father offers.
"Please," Ethan replies.
"Yes, please," I tell my doting father.
"Your family happy about the engagement?" Dad asks.
"Oh, yeah," Ethan begins. "They love Sarah. And so do I, of course."
My dad's smile fades as he tells me, "Your mom will come around. She was just surprised, that's all."
"How about you, Dad? You seem like you're okay with this." I ask, feeling nervous again.
"Couldn't be happier."
I can feel Ethan's body relax as I quietly tell him, "Thanks, Daddy."
I take a hot shower and change into my own clothes while Dad and Ethan chat. When I return, I find them in front of my dad's laptop, watching something funny on YouTube.
"Really, dad? High-powered international businessman, and you're giggling at videos with my fiancé?" I love the sound of that word when it falls from my lips.
They look at me and laugh even harder, slamming the laptop closed.
"I don't even want to know what you were watching!" I roll my eyes and place a kiss on each of their cheeks. "Do you know what time Mom will be back?" I ask.
Dad doesn't even have a chance to answer when we hear the garage door opening. I bite my lip anxiously as I wait for mom to come in through the kitchen.
I hear the familiar rustling of shopping bags, so I stand up to greet her. Ethan and my dad stay in the living room.
"Hi, Mamá," I address her shyly.
She drops all of her bags right in the kitchen and envelopes me in a hug. "I'm so sorry, mija. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just surprised more than anything. And I over-reacted. Heavens, I was younger than you when I married Daddy!"
"It's okay, Mom. I know it's kind of sudden. If it helps, I was very surprised, too," I tell her, laughing awkwardly.
"I guess, too, I just felt like you're still so vulnerable after all that's happened to you, but you're not so much anymore, are you?"
"Not anymore," I tell her, and then I hug her fiercely.
She pulls out of the hug and then pulls me back to kiss my forehead. "I'm happy for you, mija. I really am. Is Ethan here?"
I nod and lead her to the living room. Ethan stands up to greet her and I realize, once again, what a gem he is. He could have been angry or insulted at the way my parents acted, but he came back with me, confident that we were doing the right thing. He wasn't afraid at all, and as far as I can tell, he didn't hold a grudge after their less-than-welcoming response.
I am so in love with Ethan Broadwell.
My mom yanks Ethan in for an enormous hug. "Ethan," she says quietly, pulling back and smiling at him.
"Mrs. Stoker," he smiles back at her, waiting for her to say more.
"You can call me Mom," she tells him, grinning widely.
* * * * *
Happy Times :)