“Well?” Emma asked impatiently.
“I wasn’t thinking about marriage at all. I’m definitely not ready. As a matter of fact, I’m still not sure if I ever want to get married. I like what we have now. I think we should just keep everything like it is,” Jasper said.
“I’m all right with that, but what do you mean by ever? You do plan to get married some day, don’t you?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I don’t think so. I mean, maybe in my thirties. Is that a problem?”
“What do you think? I’m not looking for a proposal anytime soon, but I don’t want to be living with my boyfriend forever. When we get out of college, I need there to be another step.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just not there right now.”
“Well, you need to . . . you know what? Never mind. This is your birthday, and this conversation is stupid. You don’t really mean that, and I’m not going to start a fight with you over marriage when we’re this young. I love you, and I know that love will find a way to be more some day.”
“You know what? I love you, too, and you’re right. This argument is ridiculous. We’re way too young to even be talking about marriage. I was wondering if we should get a dog,” Jasper joked.
“Uh, my parents already have a dog, and she’s pretty much mine. I think we’re good in that department.”
“Okay, it was just a thought. Now, let me get back to the thing I want to concentrate on most during my birthday.”
“And what is that?”
“You,” Jasper said and kissed her.
It had been a great birthday so far. Jasper was with the people he cared about, he had made a decision about his future with Emma, and best of all, she had no idea what he was planning. His birthday was just getting started, too. When they were done on the boat, he was going to get to go back home and concentrate on the girl he loved. The future was coming quickly, but for the first time, it wasn’t scary at all. Jasper was looking forward to it.
Chapter 21
Marriage
Jasper had his plan, but over the next few months, it didn’t have the affect he hoped it would. He wanted it to make Emma surprised when he asked her to marry him, but it was doing something altogether different. She didn’t think getting married immediately would be a good idea, but Emma wanted that future with someone. If Jasper wasn’t interested in putting a ring on her finger eventually, then what was the point? By the first day in June, Emma doubted everything about their relationship. Jasper had noticed it, but he figured it would be fine. His family was coming to Hawaii in a couple of days, and he would ask her then. He just had to keep how he really felt a secret for a little while longer.
While he was planning things, Emma was doing the complete opposite of thinking about marriage. She was meeting with two people at a restaurant to discuss something she never thought she would want. When Emma walked into the restaurant, she spied Evan and Sadie in a corner booth and joined them.
“So why were you so insistent that I meet you here? Is something wrong?” Evan asked.
“I’m wondering the same thing,” Sadie said.
“It’s about Jasper. On his birthday, he told me something that I haven’t been able to get past. Jasper told me he never wanted to get married. I need to know there’s a future with the guy I’m with. I’m thinking about breaking up with him. I can’t believe I just said that, but it’s true. Jasper’s the only boy I’ve ever loved, but if he doesn’t want a future with me, then I don’t see the sense in wasting time. We can go back to being friends.”
“I didn’t expect that at all. Why are you so concerned with marriage, Emma? You’re still really young. Jasper might change his mind, and we all love him. Breaking up with him is going to be a mistake. You love him, and I know he loves you, too. He’ll change his mind about this sooner or later,” Evan said.
“It’s not that I want to get married now. I just want that future. I don’t think he ever will. I can’t be with someone who doesn’t see a future for us. I know he’s the perfect guy for me, but if he doesn’t know I’m worth marrying some day, then it doesn’t matter how much I like him or even how well he gets along with my family. It’s just not going to work.”
“If you know that, then why are you talking to us? It sounds like you’ve made up your mind,” Evan said and sighed.
“Because I was hoping someone would tell me I’m crazy.”
“Okay. You’re crazy. This is a bad idea. I’ll stand by your decision because I’m your brother, but I don’t think this will make you happy.”
“What about you, Sadie? You haven’t said two words about this,” Emma said.
There was a reason Sadie wasn’t speaking up. She knew that Jasper planned to marry her. She figured he was just throwing her off by pretending not to want to spend his life with her. Sadie didn’t want to give it away that he was planning to propose, but she didn’t want to let Emma breakup with him either. This was an impossible situation for her.
“Don’t do it,” Sadie finally said.
“That’s it? That’s the only advice you have?”
“Yeah, and it’s sound advice. You love this guy, and I know from being one of his best friends that he’s great. Jasper is everything a girl should want. Don’t give up on him just because your relationship isn’t simple.”
“I’m not giving up because it’s hard. I’m breaking up with him because he’s made it clear that the ultimate goal in a relationship is impossible when it comes to us.”
“Emma, really think about this. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“No, but it’s what I have to do. I want a future with someone who isn’t scared to marry me. I thought it would be him, and I would kill for it to be, but it just isn’t in the cards. He made that obvious.”
“My advice is still the same. Don’t do it.”
“And what about you, Ev?” Emma asked.
“I’m with Sadie. Don’t break it off. You haven’t even been with him for a year. Give it some time.”
“I have. It’s been months, and he hasn’t changed his stance on it. He hasn’t even implied that he might. I’ve got to do this. I had you two meet me because I needed to know someone would support me.”
“This is definitely crazy, but I’ll support you, no matter what you decide. If you go back to being friends with Jasper, I’m sure that will work, too.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t support this. I’m still going to be your friend, but I’ll never say this was the right decision. Do yourself a favor, and think a little more before you do this,” Sadie said.
“Okay,” Emma said as the waiter walked up.
They talked throughout dinner, and when it was time to go, Emma still hadn’t changed her mind. As hard as it was, she knew what had to be done. As she was walking out, Sadie caught up to her.
“Hey, wait a minute. You don’t know what you’re doing by breaking up with Jasper,” Sadie said.
“Why are you so hung up on this? It’s me who’s hurt. I don’t want to do this, but I have to. We’re moving in different directions.”
“You don’t know everything.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just trust me. I want what’s best for you and Jasper, and this isn’t it.”
“I’m sorry, Sadie. I’ve got to move on if there’s no future. I hope you’ll support this decision and still be friends with both of us. I can’t lose him and you, too.”
“I’ll always be your friend. For the record, I really hope this works out differently than you think.”
“Me, too,” Emma said and hugged her.
The hug was longer than normal. Sadie could tell Emma was hurting. All she wanted to do was tell her Jasper’s intentions, but she didn’t. It wasn’t her place to. Jasper would straighten things out, or he wouldn’t. She had to hope for the former, though, because she knew Jasper and Emma would never truly be happy away from each other.
On the way home, Emma thought that same
thing. She could never be happy without Jasper. There was a time when she could have been, but now she knew the life they could build together. Why didn’t he want that life with her? She couldn’t figure it out, and even if Emma was the one breaking up with him, she was heartbroken. After she got home, it took her ten minutes just to go inside. She didn’t know how to breakup with her best friend. He had given up so much for her. Was it even right to? Then again, would it be right to pretend that she was okay with them having no future? With a renewed confidence, Emma walked inside and found Jasper sitting on the couch.
“We need to talk, and this isn’t going to be easy for me,” Emma said as she sat beside him.
“Okay. What’s wrong?”
“We need to breakup.”
There it was. Emma had said it, even if it did leave a bad taste in her mouth. What she was feeling was nothing compared to Jasper’s feelings, however. He was completely blindsided. He had picked out the perfect ring, and he was going to ask her to marry him in a few days. How could things go so wrong?
“Say something. I can’t stand the silence,” Emma said.
“Why? If I did something, just tell me, and I’ll fix it.”
“It’s just best for us to be friends. Okay?”
“No. That’s not okay. I need to know why. I can’t walk away from us without knowing what I did wrong.”
“Maybe it’s not you. It’s me.”
“Please, like I haven’t heard that line from a girl before. No one breaks up with someone because they have issues. What are my issues?”
“You don’t want to ever get married. I could handle if you said you didn’t want to until we were out of college or even if you said not before thirty, but never is unacceptable. I want all the things my parents have, and I’ve tried to accept that I can’t have them with you, but I can’t do it. As much as I love you, I need the man I’m with to give me that life. I don’t want to force you to be something you’re not either. If you’re not that guy, then you’re still an awesome friend. I want you in my life, but surprisingly, you’re not the person I’m going to grow old with. I’m sorry,” Emma said while trying to hold back tears.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. Can you wait here for a second?”
“You’re leaving now? I thought this would be a bigger deal to you.”
“It’s a huge deal. That’s why I’m giving you a reason to be with me. Just wait,” Jasper said and walked into his room.
He grabbed the ring out of his dresser drawer and walked back into the living room. Then he got down on one knee and presented it to her.
“Emma Grey, will you marry me?”
“Where did you get that? I thought . . .”
“It doesn’t matter. Will you be my wife?”
“Not if you’re asking me just so I’ll stay with you. I need you to want the future I have in mind.”
“I’ve been telling you I don’t want to get married to throw you off this trail. I bought the ring a month ago. I didn’t want to ask until my parents were in town, but I’m not losing you. Be my wife, so we can have all the things we want together.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” Emma said and met him with a kiss.
As she pulled back and he put the ring on her finger, Jasper noticed that she was crying. Tears of joy were a good thing, but he never liked to see her cry. Jasper wiped them away and wrapped his arms around her.
“This is really complicated, you know. We’re pretty young,” Emma said.
“Having second thoughts?”
“No way. How long have you known you wanted to be with me forever?”
“Since I was about eight, but if you’re talking about this year, since my birthday. I started thinking of your parents as my in-laws, and that freaked me out, so I talked to Sadie about it. She told me how great you and your family were, and I thought about what she said. She wasn’t wrong. I was in the perfect situation, and all I had to do was seal the deal. I didn’t want to spend much longer without doing just that, so I made a plan to ask you in the summer when both of our families would be here. I didn’t want you getting wind of what I was doing, though, so I lied about what I wanted for the future.”
“You’re a really good liar. I actually broke up with you for about two minutes.”
“Yeah, I noticed. I can’t believe you were going to breakup with me.”
“I’ve got to have all of you or none. I love you, Jasper. If I wasn’t going to get to spend my life with you, then I had to end things. It was too painful to keep pretending I was going to.”
“You never have to worry about that again because I’m with you forever. Now, what are we doing here? We need to celebrate.”
“How do we do that?”
“I don’t exactly know. I’ve never been engaged before. I think the first thing we should do is let the people we love in on this. There are no better people to celebrate with.”
“Good idea. You call your parents, and I’ll call mine.”
“No. I want to tell them in person. We can keep this a secret from my mom and dad for a few days, can’t we?”
“Sure, but do you really want to tell my parents in person? They might not react as well as you think.”
“Trust me. It’ll be fine. I want to tell your dad. In hindsight, I probably should’ve asked him first. I would have, but someone freaked out and broke up with me before my plan was finished,” Jasper teased.
“All right, I get it. You can talk to my dad, and I’ll talk to Mom. I can’t believe this is really happening. It feels like one crazy dream.”
“I hope that’s a good thing. Crazy isn’t normally the word you hear when someone’s sure.”
“It’s the good kind of crazy. Like I said before, we’re young. That doesn’t mean we don’t know what we want, though. Now all we have to do is convince the people we love that we’re ready.”
“You know even if I can’t convince my parents of that, I’m still going to marry you, right?”
“Yeah. The same goes for me, but I would rather do this with their blessing.”
“Agreed. I’m going to put on something a little nicer, but then we’ll head out,” Jasper said and gave her a quick kiss.
While he was getting ready, Emma called Sadie to tell her the good news. Sadie was hoping things would unfold that way, and she was just glad keeping Jasper’s plan from Emma didn’t lead to them splitting up. They planned something for later that night to celebrate, and just as Emma was getting off the phone, Jasper walked out of his room. He was in the nicest clothes Emma had ever seen.
“Okay. We’re going to tell my parents we’re getting married, not to knock on doors and tell people about God. What’s with the clothes?” Emma joked.
“I don’t know. I just want to look put together when I tell your dad. He’s pretty cool, but he can be scary when it comes to you. I need to put my best foot forward.”
“Good luck with that. I’m pretty sure he’s going to flip out. Maybe you should let me talk to him.”
“This is the type of thing a guy is supposed to do. I should tell him. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, come on,” Emma said and took his hand.
When they walked out the door, Jasper and Emma felt like they were on cloud nine. The closer they got to her parents’ house, though, the more they started to feel nervous. That was probably natural, but they couldn’t help thinking they were walking into a really bad situation.
While Jasper joined Nathan and Evan in the living room, Emma talked to her mom in the kitchen. For a minute, they simply made small talk. Emma wouldn’t meet her eyes, though, and Sam noticed they had come over for no apparent reason. That was fine, but she wasn’t dumb. Something was up.
“All right, spill it. What’s going on with you?” Sam asked.
“You can tell I’m wanting to say something?”
“You’ve never been able to hide anything from me for long. What is it?”
“Jasper asked me to marry him, and I said ye
s,” Emma said and pulled the ring out of her pocket.
“What? You’re not serious,” Sam said and took a step back.
“I am. Don’t you think that’s great?”
“I thought you two would end up together, and you should, but it’s too soon. You know that. You’re in college, and this will just be an excuse for one of you, or even worse, both of you to quit. Marriage is hard work, and . . .”
“Mom, we’ll be fine. We’re already living together, and thanks to you and Dad, we have a place to stay. We have jobs that’ll pay the bills, too, so nothing will really change. The only difference is we’re making a promise to stay together for life.”
“And you don’t think it’s too soon for you to do that? How can you possibly know you want to be with him for the rest of your life? You’re only nineteen.”
“You had gone through far more in your life by the time you were nineteen than I’ll ever go through, and you met every challenge head on. You know I’m ready for this. It’s just Jasper. We’ve known each other our whole lives, and this works.”
“You’re right. I did go through a lot from a young age, but that wasn’t a good thing. Don’t you think I would’ve preferred to live a relaxed life at your age without responsibility, heartbreak, or commitment? You have that opportunity, and you’re throwing yourself into the biggest commitment you can make.”
“Mom, it’s Jasper. I love him. This is a commitment I can follow through on. It’s not like I just met him. We’ve known each other forever, so I’m not going to regret this. When you started dating Dad, didn’t you know he was the one?”
“I was twenty-five when I met Nathan. That’s different.”
“Why does age matter so much? Isn’t it more about what’s in a person’s heart than how old they are?”
Sam remembered when she was young. It was hard to get anyone to take her seriously, but in truth, she was as ready to take on the world back then as she was now. Her daughter had a point, but it still seemed so sudden. Was this really what was right for Emma?
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