Chapter Twelve: My Dream Come True - Part One

Not long after Honey and John’s wedding, fall arrived in Appaloosa Plains.  Chuck and I drove out every couple of days to Cinnamon Crest Falls to enjoy looking at the changing leaves. It was during one of these outings that Chuck had asked me to move in with him. We quickly settled into a routine and I usually started the day by making breakfast.

One Monday morning I woke up and started breakfast like normal. Chuck was usually off on Monday’s so our day was more relaxed than others.  As I was cooking waffles, I felt an arm around my waist.

“Good morning beautiful.”

“Good morning.” I turned around and gave him a kiss. This was one of my favorite things about living with Chuck. Our good morning kiss. It didn't hurt that he was a great kisser, but it was also because at that particular moment, I felt so fortunate to be with him and I never wanted to take that for granted.

“Are you making waffles this morning?”

“Yep.”

“Well try not to burn the house down.”

I poked him in the ribs with my elbow and smiled at him.  Ever since I had tried to burn my house down making waffles he always joked with me whenever I made them.

"I'll have you know that the fire department said the fire was caused by a faulty wire in the oven, not by my cooking." I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Ouch! You know, waffles are partially responsible for you and I being together.”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to make sense of what he was trying to tell me. How could waffles be responsible for us getting together?

“Well if you hadn’t had an oven fire trying to bake waffles, we may never have gotten together.”

I laughed. He had a crazy sense of humor but I had to give him credit.  He was right, if I had never tried to make waffles that morning, I would never have needed to stay at someone's house, and Chuck and I may never have had a second chance at being together. “I never thought of it that way.”

We both grabbed a plate and sat down at the table. We sat in silence for a little while. I enjoyed the silence of living in the country. You could sit at the table and not hear traffic and cars honking. All I could hear was Shadow galloping and birds chirping outside.

I started to wonder what plans Chuck had for the day. “So what are you going to do today while I’m at work?” This was one of the rare days that he had off from work but I still had to work.

“I have a couple of errands to run and need to tend to the barn. It’s looking a little neglected.”

“Sounds like fun. Will you be home when I get back from work?”

“I should be.”

The rest of the morning we spent outside tending to the garden and enjoying the outdoors. Working outdoors always made the time fly and before I knew it, it was time to go to work. As I headed out the door, Chuck pulled me in for a kiss.

“I’ll miss you while you’re at work.”

“You’ll be too busy to notice I’m gone.”

“I always notice when you’re not here.” He kissed me again

“I’ll see you when you get home.”

I headed to work which was now at the local theater. I had decided several months before that I wasn’t enjoying being in the recording industry anymore and wanted to pursue a career as a composer.  It was a pretty difficult decision but I was so much happier as the pianist for the symphony.  After rehearsal, I headed home excited to have dinner with Chuck.

As I walked in the house, I noticed that it was really quiet and there weren't many lights on.

“Chuck! Chuck!  Where are you?” I wondered where he was. I walked into the bedroom and changed clothes. Maybe he's running late from his errands.

After changing my clothes I walked into the kitchen to see if he left me a note. Sure enough, there was one sitting on the counter.

Meet me in the barn.

Love you!

Chuck

Then I remembered what he had said at breakfast. Oh! He must still be cleaning the barn!

I walked out the front door, headed toward the barn and notice the light was on. I was puzzled why I hadn't noticed it on before.  I knew the barn had needed a cleaning, but I didn't think it was in such bad shape that he would still be cleaning.

When I got to the barn door, I stopped dead in my tracks.

In front of me was Chuck standing by a table wearing his tux. There was a table decorated with a tablecloth, a candle on top of it, and a bed of roses underneath. What in the world is going on?

“Care to join me?” I stood there in shock for a moment. Was he really standing in front of me wearing a tux in the barn?!

As I walked over to him I kept trying to figure out what was going on. He pulled out one of the chairs for me and motioned for me to sit down. As I sat down he leaned over, “I’ll be right back.”

He walked out of the front of the barn towards the house. What on earth is he up to? Are we having a romantic dinner in the barn? I couldn't think of any other reason for what was happening. I started to panic. Did I miss an anniversary? Birthday?

It wasn’t long before he was returning with plates that had food.

“So we are having a romantic dinner in the barn!”

“Yes we are.”

“Why the tux though. I mean you know I like seeing you in a tux, but I feel kind of underdressed.”

“You always look amazing.”

“Stop it. You’re making me blush.”

He placed the plates on the table and sat down. We ate dinner and talked about our days. Chuck talked about the errands he ran while I was at work and how they were for our dinner.

After we finished I began to wonder where he had gotten the food from. “Was that our favorite food from the bistro?”

“It was. I asked them to cook it up for us. You could have cooked this, but you know my cooking skills. There’s no way I could have cooked it.”

I laughed. He was always so thoughtful and doing things to let me know how much he cared. “I can’t believe you did this! It was a wonderful surprise!”

“That’s not all of the surprise.” He got up from the table and walked over to me. He stood there for several seconds looking down at me before he knelt down on one knee and took my hand.

“Amanda, every day I wake up and realized how fortunate I am that you're in my life. You are the most compassionate, loving, thoughtful person I have ever known.” He pulled out a small box from behind his back. He opened it up and inside was a sparkling diamond ring. "Amanda Salisburg, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

I sat there in shock for a moment. I had thought he might propose soon but I wasn't expecting it that moment. I didn't even have to think about it, and tears filled my eyes when I answered him. “Of course I’ll marry you!”

He slipped the ring on my finger and we both stood up and kissed.

He pulled away from me and smiled.

“I guess we have a wedding to plan. Any idea when we should have it?”

“Hmm…well, if we wait too long it will be winter and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stand outside taking pictures in the freezing cold. So we can either wait till next Spring or we could have it in the next couple of weeks.”

“You really think we can pull that off?”

“I think if we stick to inviting family and friends and have it here in town, we can definitely pull it off.”

“Surely we have time to celebrate first.”

He picked me up and carried me towards the house.

Several days later I was sitting on the floor of the living room trying to finalize our wedding.  I had already booked the chapel, asked Honey and Josy to be my bridesmaids, selected flowers, and rush ordered invitations.

I still need to go out with Honey and Josy to find bridesmaid dresses and then there’s my dress.  What are we going to do about a honeymoon?! We haven’t even talked about that! Then I thought of something that hadn’t occurred to me. Who is going to give me away?

There were several times after Chuck proposed that I thought about my parents and how they weren’t going to be at my wedding.  I would get really quiet when I thought about them and after explaining my quietness to Chuck, he would reach over and grab my hand each time he noticed. I guess I’ll just have to walk down the aisle by myself.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Chuck had been out in the stable and had just returned.

“It just occurred to me that I don’t have anyone to walk me down the aisle. I guess I’ll have to walk by myself.”

“Oh gosh, I guess in all the busyness of planning neither of us thought about it.”

He sat down and put his arm around me. After a couple minutes he snapped his fingers. “I think I may have an idea. Do you trust me?”

I stood up and so did he.

“Of course I trust you. But why don’t you just tell me.”

“It will be a little surprise.”

“Okay, but there’s something else we need to talk about.”

“What’s that?”

“Where are we going on our honeymoon?”

“You plan the wedding and I’ll plan the honeymoon.”

“But how am I supposed to know what to pack?”

He smiled at me. “I can tell you it won’t be somewhere cold.”

Credits (poses):
Pose Pack 1 by Casey (First 2 pics, unfortunately no longer available to download)
Romantic Pose Set 03 byTumTum Simiolino
Twilight Saga no.2 by Forever Hailey
More Proposal Poses by Mypalsim
Roses for Beloved by Ms. Adrienne
Do not be sad, baby! by IMHO
(Not So) Simple Poses by Skylar