She didn’t have to. Her body did.
“Are you ready?” he asked, not sure who was more excited for her surprise, him or her.
“Yes!” Her hair fell in her face from her enthusiastic nods.
He stood directly in front of her, blocking her view while he untied the cloth. She squinted when he removed it and smiled up at him expectantly. When he saw that her eyes had adjusted to the light, he stepped to the side.
When he did, she scanned the room with enthusiasm, smiling wider than he’d ever seen her smile before. Then, her smile dropped and she looked at him with bewilderment.
“This is my…”
“Your parents’ house,” he blurted out, not able to wait for her to finish.
“What are we doing here?” She held her hands up.
He pointed. “Did you read the sign?”
She spun around in the direction he’d indicated. “Welcome home,” she said the words out loud a moment before she gasped loudly and her hands clasped over her mouth. Her wide eyes shot to his and she mumbled behind her fingers as her head shook back and forth. “You didn’t…no…this is…no….”
He lowered her hands, smiling at her adorable reaction, and handed her the key.
“What did you do?” she whispered, choked up with emotion.
“The week I moved back home, your parents put their house up for sale. I ran into your mom at the grocery store and asked her about you buying, since I remembered that’s what you’d always talked about. She said that you and your husband had decided not to, since you were growing your business. The next morning I put in a full price offer.”
She still looked stunned as she asked, “Why? Why would you do that?’
“It just felt wrong for anyone else to live here, not when you loved this house so much.”
Tears were falling down her cheeks, but she didn’t bother wiping them away. “So you’ve been living here?”
“No. I couldn’t. Not without you.”
She threw her arms around him and jumped into his arms. Farmer barked happily and ran in circles around them. He held her tightly and buried his face in the crook of her neck.
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” she repeated over and over.
When he felt her loosen her grip, he set her down and brushed the hair that was stuck to her face wet with tears that she’d shed. She sniffed and looked around like she was still in shock.
“I can’t believe that you did all this. No one has ever loved me like you…” the tears were back.
He wasn’t sure if this was the right time or not, but he didn’t want to waste another second with Eliza. They’d wasted so much time already.
Getting down on one knee, he pulled out the ring he’d gotten from Nana the morning he’d come back to get the house ready. Eliza’s hands were back over her mouth and her head was shaking again.
“You’re right…” A knot formed in his throat as he held the ring up. “No one could ever love you like I do. I love you more than I could ever say in words. So let me show you. I already told you what you deserve in a man, and if you’ll let me, I’ll work every day for the rest of our lives trying to be that man. Ellie, will you marry me?”
Her head was already nodding as she said, “Yes, yes, yes!”
He stood and once again she flew into his arms and once again Farmer barked and raced around them. “I’m glad I didn’t write the proposal on a paper, you would have never seen it,” he teased as he tightened his hold around her.
She laughed and snuggled closer to him and it finally sunk in that this was real. She was really in his arms. She was really his. All the time that they’d wasted, all the misunderstandings that they’d had, were worth it because they’d brought them here, to this moment.
Leaning back she looked up into his eyes, her own watery with emotion. “I love you, Nate”
“I love you, Ellie.” He always had, and he always would. His heart was finally home.
THE END