After an hour or so had passed, they had finished their dinner and their champagne. Caroline bundled up everything into the picnic basket – including their shoes – and they set off for another walk along the beach. Rhetta grabbed Caroline’s arm and pulled it around her shoulder, snuggling into her side. They walked along the wet sand, the sea rushing in around their feet. Caroline had hiked up her jeans and Rhetta was overwhelmed again by just how cute her girlfriend could be, whilst at the same time being the hottest woman she had ever seen.
When Rhetta wiggled out of Caroline’s embrace to run away from a wave, Caroline took the opportunity to guide them away from the waters edge. Whilst Rhetta was still distracted, she put down the picnic basket and fetched the ring box from the pouch in her shirt.
Rhetta was giggling, her nose all scrunched up and her heart pounding with exhilaration. It stopped when she turned back to Caroline and saw her down on one knee. Her breath caught and her hand flew up to her mouth.
“Oh my god,” she breathed. Her silent heart was suddenly pounding so loudly that the rush of the waves was no more than a whisper in her ears.
Caroline took a deep breath and began.
“I’ve told you that you’ve made me happier than I’ve ever dreamed that I could be. The day we met, my life changed. I fell in love the moment I saw you. I didn’t believe that it was possible, but I did. Then I saw your nose crinkle in a smile and I knew that I would spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy. I couldn’t believe that when I kissed you, only three days after we met, you kissed me back. I was even more stunned when, just a few months later, you told me that you loved me. Every time I woke up beside you, I had to pinch myself. And when it all came tumbling down for you before the Olympics, I was amazed when it was me that you wanted to comfort you. Being with you was always like being in a dream and I was scared that when I became your everyday, you would want to wake up. I was terrified when we moved to D.C. but even when times were tough with the spirit, we we’re strong. When I’m with you, I feel like I can do anything. Every day I fall more in love with you.”
She took another deep breath and carried on.
“You’re the most amazing woman that I have ever met, R. Your smile makes my whole day. I love you so much and I can’t wait to see what our life together has in store. I promise that, if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I promise that I will take care of you, protect you, support you, love you and give you everything that I am. You deserve a fairytale, R, and I’m going to try the damn hardest I can to give it to you.”
She let out a shaky breath. She was trembling.
“Fuck, I’m rambling. I had a speech and now I’m lost and I can’t remember what I was supposed to say…”
Rhetta’s heart swelled more at that than at any of the speech before. This was her Caroline. The woman who gave her whole heart and loved so fiercely that sometimes it scared people who didn’t know how lucky they were to have her. But Caroline had been hurt in the past and she wasn’t always comfortable in her ability to express how she felt. Especially when her nerves got the best of her. Little did she know how perfect her words always were.
“Caro?”
Caroline’s eyes filled up with tears. She had planned it all out. She had wanted it to be perfect. She had fucked it all up.
“Yeah?”
Rhetta got down in the sand in front of her.
“Just ask me, baby,” she said softly, brushing a stray tear from Caroline’s cheek.
Caroline nodded, wiped the tears from her eyes and held out the opened ring box for Rhetta to see. “Rhetta Anna Morsten, love of my life, will you marry me?”
As soon as the words left Caroline’s mouth, Rhetta gave her answer. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh God, Caroline. Yes!”
Caroline’s mouth had fallen open in surprise and Rhetta brought her hand up to close it.
“You will?” Caroline asked, her voice trembling.
Rhetta laughed through her tears. “Oh baby, I’d have said yes the day we met.”
Caroline was too stunned to do anything but kiss her. She kissed her like it was their last, knowing that it was the first of the rest of their lives. Her chest was so full of joy that she thought that she might burst.
“Caro,” Rhetta giggled and brushed her fingers over Caroline’s flushed cheek. “You have to put the ring on my finger now, baby.”
Caroline’s hands were shaking when she took the ring out of the box. Rhetta held out her hand and smiled at her reassuringly. Both of their eyes were fixed on the ring as Caroline slowly slid it onto Rhetta’s finger. It was beautiful, but she wouldn’t have cared if it was made of plastic. All she cared was that it was Caroline putting it onto her finger.
“Wow,” Rhetta breathed. The second the ring slid into place a shiver ran through her. She looked up into Caroline’s eyes. “We’re engaged.”
The grin that burst out on Caroline’s face was goofy and sincere. “We are. I can’t believe it.”
Rhetta giggled. “I have something for you that might make you believe it a little more.”
She reached into her skirt pocket and Caroline’s smile fell into a frown of confusion when Rhetta pulled out the ring box. “You see, you kind of beat me to it.”
“You were…”
“Going to propose to you,” Rhetta nodded.
“Why?”
Instead of being charmed by Caroline’s question, Rhetta felt her heart clench. “Because, believe it or not, you’re the love of my life too. It might sound soppy, but you’re my soulmate, Caro. I couldn’t stand being just your girlfriend anymore. I want to be your wife, Caro. And why shouldn’t I have been the one to propose?”
"I don't know," Caroline blushed.
"Me neither. You saying yes to my proposal would have meant just as much to me as seeing you down on one knee did,” Rhetta assured her. “It’s being engaged to you that matters.”
Caroline’s hopeful smile made Rhetta’s heart skip a beat.
“Caroline Sarabelle Williams, will you make my dreams come true? Will you marry me?”
Caroline’s nods were so vigorous that Rhetta had to laugh. “Caro, you have to give me an answer. I don’t really think that a nod will do it, no matter how hard.”
“Yes,” Caroline exhaled, her eyes widening when Rhetta took the ring out of the box and set it in place on her finger.
“Now everyone will know that you’re mine,” Rhetta teased. “My fiancée.”
Caroline grinned. “And you’re mine.”
“Sure am, stud. Now, the question is, how quick can you get me back to our hotel room? I really want to model my ring for you.” She leaned in and whispered in Caroline’s ear, “Just my ring.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rhetta woke the next morning cocooned in happiness. Caroline’s body was warm and soft against her back, holding her gently with one arm wrapped securely around her belly and the other trapped beneath her neck, running up to where their hands were resting, entwined, on the pillow.
The smile that Rhetta had woken with bloomed into a nose-crinkling grin as she opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of their rings, twinkling in the morning light. Half a hundred times she had woken up from the most wonderful of dreams to find that they had been just that – a dream. But this time, it hadn’t been a dream. Caroline had proposed. They getting married
She had to bite her lip to stop herself from squealing. Instead, she pulled their joined hands towards her, and pressed her lips reverently to the place where Caroline’s ring met the warm skin of her finger.
A soft chuckle beside her ear told her that Caroline was already awake. Sometimes Rhetta wondered whether she slept at all.
“How does it feel to wake up with that ring on your finger?” Caroline whispered. “You regretting saying yes yet?”
She was teasing, but Rhetta heard a slight hint of doubt in her voice. Even that tiny glimmer of doubt made Rhetta’s heart hurt. She was going to spend the rest
of her life making sure that Caroline could never doubt her love and devotion.
Rhetta turned and kissed her, soft and sure. “Like no one else has ever been this happy.”
Her words made Caroline’s belly flutter. “You’re not the one who’s been lying here grinning like an idiot for the last hour.”
Rhetta relaxed. At least Caroline hadn’t lain there worrying about Rhetta taking it back.
“Only because you woke up first,” Rhetta teased, pressing another kiss to her fiancée’s lips. “I was busy dreaming about our wedding day.”
Caroline’s hand trailed up Rhetta’s belly, making her tremble. “Oh really, Princess? Want to tell me how it went?”
Rhetta bit her lip and shook her head, smiling. She had been awake for less than five minutes and Caroline already had her heart pounding.
“Dream me was a bit of a let down, huh?” Caroline joked, smiling teasingly as she followed the path of her hand with her nails, running them lightly over Rhetta’s skin, stopping at her tattoo and following the letters by memory. She remembered the day that Rhetta had gotten it. A cold day in Frankfurt, right before Caroline had to leave. When Caroline had offered to pay for her to a get the knew tattoo that she had been talking about getting, she had never imagined that Rhetta would want something dedicated to her. Even now she spent extra time kissing the inked skin when she kissed her way down Rhetta’s body.
“Have you thought about what you want it to be like?” Rhetta asked breathily. She had dreamt about marrying Caroline an embarrassing number of times over the years. She wondered if she was the only one who had dreamt about that day.
Caroline smiled coyly. “I might have.”
“Oh really? Do I get to know about it?” The thought of Caroline thinking about their wedding day made her speeding heart quicken even more.
“You’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t want to give away my ideas just yet, you know, if you let me have my say,” Caroline asked, her teasing tone trying and failing to mask the question behind her words.
“Of course you will. It’s our wedding, silly. Yours and mine,” Rhetta grinned. “How could it be our wedding if you didn’t have as much say in it as I do? Besides, after your proposal, I think it’s pretty clear which of us has the more romantic soul.” She ran her fingertips over Caroline’s hip. “Mmmmm. You made me all weak at the knees, stud.
“It was really okay?” Caroline asked, the corners of her mouth turning up with a hopeful smile.
“Okay. It was perfect, baby. It was perfect the moment that I saw you down on one knee. I’ve wanted to marry you for so long that I must have pictured it a hundred different ways, but none of them hold a candle to what you gave me last night,” Rhetta promised as she stroked her hand up and down Caroline’s arm.
There was a tear on Caroline’s cheek and she kissed it away. “What I want to know, is what you thought of my proposal. If we can even call it that.”
Caroline smiled, her eyes wide and bright. “It was awesome.”
“Awesome, huh?” Rhetta laughed, wriggling and pulling on Caroline’s arm until her fiancée got the idea and climbed on top of her. She parted her thighs and let Caroline’s hips fall between them. “Why don’t you show me just how awesome you thought it was?”
Caroline held herself up on her hands, letting her hair fall down around them and her lower body press down into Rhetta’s. “And what do I get for getting down on one knee?”
Rhetta’s smile could only be described as devilish as she leaned up and whispered in Caroline’s ear.
Caroline’s eyes went wide.
* * *
It was early afternoon when they finally left the hotel. Caroline had wanted to stay in their bubble for a little while longer, but Rhetta had reminded her that they had a standing lunch date with Sam and Sumaya at some kind of doggy café. Caroline hadn’t put up much resistance after that revelation. Seeing her favourite soon-to-be brother in law and the prospect of a slew of dogs to play with had Caroline eager to leave.
“He’s totally going to flip,” Rhetta enthused as they made their way towards the café. “I can’t wait to see his face.”
“Especially when he figures out he’s the first person in the whole world that we’ve told. He’s going to be unbearable.” Caroline laughed. “We just have to make sure to tell my Grandma right after we’re done with Sam. Otherwise she’ll skin me alive. We don’t want a repeat of what happened when she found out that I was moving to Germany.”
Out of all of Caroline’s family, Rhetta had been most nervous about meeting Caroline’s grandma. She had been dating Caroline for six months and had already said ‘I love you’ when the fateful day finally came. Rhetta had been keen to impress the woman who had such a huge part in Caroline’s upbringing, which meant for the week before she had driven Caroline mad with questions.
On the day itself, she had worn her best summer dress – one that fell demurely below the knee – with a pair of flats and little cardigan to cover her shoulders. Caroline had laughed at her and told her that her grandma didn’t care about those sorts of things, but Rhetta had wanted to make sure to make a good impression on the southern woman. Even back then, she had started to let herself dare to dream about a forever with Caroline. Making a good impression on her grandma was a step that she couldn’t take lightly if she had wanted that dream to become a reality.
“I wish we could tell her in person,” Rhetta sighed. “I miss her.”
“I know, babe, me too, but she understands,” Caroline assured her.
After the first time her Grandma had met Rhetta, she had pulled Caroline aside and told her that Rhetta was special and that she should never let her go. Ever since that first meeting, Rhetta and her Grandma had been as thick as thieves. The last time that she and Rhetta had made it down to Florida together, Rhetta had spent the whole day in the kitchen with her Grandma and Caroline hadn’t been allowed in. When they had finally emerged, Caroline was treated to a feast of all of her favourite childhood foods. Her Grandma had taught Rhetta to make each and every one.
“She only grumbles about not seeing you enough because she already thinks of you as her granddaughter. We can Skype her when we get back to the hotel. Peri will be there too, so we can kill two birds with one stone with that call. Did you ask your parents if they’ll be around tonight? My mom should be home from work around eight. We should probably assign time slots…”
Rhetta smiled and leant up to kiss her cheek as they walked towards the café. “Baby, you’re panicking. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
They had been engaged less than 24 hours and Rhetta was starting to think that out of the two of them, Caroline might turn out to the most high-maintenance bride.
“Hey look, there’s Sam.”
Sure enough, when Rhetta raised her eyes to the café down the street, she saw the unmistakable bulk of Sumaya and her always stylish brother sat at a table beside her.
“Fuck, I’m nervous,” Caroline breathed out, her hand twitching in Rhetta’s grasp.
She knew it was stupid. Especially given the talk she had had with Sam just a few days earlier, and the one on the beach few weeks before that. Not that it stopped her from feeling like she had the first time that Rhetta had brought her home and she had had to face the Morsten clan.
Before Rhetta had a chance to reassure her, Sumaya’s huge head shot up and she looked straight at them. Sam’s attention was pulled away from his phone and before Caroline knew it, he was on his feet and Rhetta was hurtling down the sidewalk to greet him.
Caroline couldn’t help but smile. Rhetta’s heart was so full of love that when she saw someone she cared about, she couldn’t help the excitement that burst out of her. Anyone who found themselves lucky enough to be on that list had learned to deal with Rhetta’s leap-and-crush approach to greetings. Caroline thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Well, apart from seeing Rhetta play with her little cousin.
When Caroline reached the st
ill hugging siblings, she crouched down to pet an impatiently waiting Sumaya. “Hey gorgeous. It sucks being ditched by the Morstens, huh?”
Rhetta crouched down beside her and ruffled Sumaya’s ears. “Poor baby.”
“Are you talking to me or the dog?” Caroline quipped as Sumaya looked comically between them. She got to her feet and gave Sam a tight hug. “How’s it going, bro?”
“Better for seeing my two favourite girls,” he smiled, hugging her back just as tightly.
Sumaya barked and the three of them chuckled. “Sorry, Sumaya. I meant to say my three favourite girls.”
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