“Ransom, my homie. Come join us at the table.” Bae said, sitting down to eat a cupcake.
“Never say homie again. Just no.” Harmony griped, not even looking up from her book on horses.
Meanwhile I was reading a book for work and wondering what Bae was up to. He could have been about to try to bribe Ransom to go hunt for treasure with him for all I knew.
“Sure..let me grab something from the fridge first.” Ransom said, walking over to the fridge and opening the door.
“Cool, bro.” Bae said, before taking a bite of his cupcake.
“And that’s my cue to leave.” Harmony said, closing her book and standing up.
Ransom sat down at the table with a plate full of crepes.
“When are you gonna man up and marry my sister?” Bae asked Ransom.
Dad says Bae & I remind him of Aunt Greta sometimes. I guess she was really straight forward when she spoke.
Ransom started coughing and looked at Bae with wide eyes.
And I almost dropped my book and I glanced over at Bae. “Baelfire…” I warned, giving him a look that said “I will burn all your pirate porn” or as he calls them “Ship magazines”. I wasn’t sure where he got the idea to ask Ransom, I didn’t tell him about my idea. I only told Dad and I didn’t think Dad would tell Bae after what Dad had said when I told him I want to marry Ransom. Who knows with Bae.
“Pssh, no you won’t.” Bae told me, before looking back at Ransom, who was recovered from his coughing fit.
Ransom slowly raised his fork, eying Bae. “We haven’t talked about marriage…don’t you have some homework to do?” Ransom asked Bae.
It was true, we hadn’t talked about marriage. I hadn’t asked Ransom to marry me…yet anyway. I was thinking things over after my conversation with Dad a few weeks ago.
They next morning I was in the garden, watering the plants. Most of them were dry as a bone.
“Bessie…what’s wrong?” Aunt Gabby asked me. She had come out to help me water the garden.
I bit my lip, still watering a grape plant. I wanted to talk to someone about it. Every since the night before, the subject of the “M” word had been floating around in my brain. Keeping me awake and stressing me out. But I doubted I could keep it a secret long with my family. None of them are stupid.
“Can we go some place else and talk?” I asked. I didn’t want Ransom over hearing us talking.
“Sure, we can check out the new bakery. I’ve been wanting to go there anyway.” Aunt Gabby told me, grabbing a watering can to help with the garden.
“Cool..oh and ask Mom to come with us too.” I told her. Usually I get two different perspectives from Mom and Aunt Gabby. I needed them both at that time.
Aunt Gabby, Mom and I went to the new bakery in town. “Little Fox’s Bakery”. Mom stayed inside to look over all the baked goods, while Aunt Gabby and I went outside with our sugar cookies to sit down.
“Last night Bae asked Ransom when he’s going to ask me to marry him.” I told her.
“Mmhmm and?” Aunt Gabby asked, biting into her cookie. She knew there was more to it.
“I’ve been thinking about asking Ransom to marry me for weeks. I actually talked to Dad about it and he suggested Ransom might not be ready to get married and said that we haven’t been together that long. So I’ve been giving it some thought.” I explained, before taking a bite of my cookie.
“Your Dad might have a point or he could be totally off base. It’s not bad to give it some thought though…marriage is a big step. That’s why I didn’t rush out to find somebody to marry. I waited and Cloud Dancing came into my life, just like I knew someone would deep down inside. I don’t doubt you love Ransom with all your heart..pretty obvious. And it’s obvious Ransom loves you too..I don’t know, maybe you should wait until you feel him out on how he feels about getting married again? In the mean time though, you can still enjoy that hot bod of his.” Aunt Gabby told me, smiling.
I almost choked on my sugar cookie. “Aunt Gabby!” I exclaimed, blushing and coughing a bit. I was following her until she started talking about my boyfriend’s body.
“What? It’s hard not to notice. But don’t worry, I would never do anything. Even if he wasn’t with you, I love Cloud Dancing too much for something like that.” Aunt Gabby said, patting my hand and finishing off her sugar cookie.
“Thanks, Aunt Gabby.” I told her, my tone sincere. I appreciated the advice.
Outside of the last part of our conversation, Aunt Gabby did make sense to me. I’d think over what she said.
Then I went inside to find Mom. I told her the same exact thing I told Aunt Gabby. I may or may not have rehearsed what I was going to tell them in the car on the way over..okay I did.
“I do think that taking time to think it over is the right thing to do. But let me ask you something, Bess. Do you know, without a shadow of a doubt, in your heart, that Ransom is the person you want to share the rest of your life with?” Mom asked me.
“I do, Mom. I have no doubts at all. I can’t picture myself with someone else..I even tried that once and we know how that went..” I commented, thinking of Sebastian. I still carried a bit of guilt around for hurting him.
“Then I think you should go for it. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that life is short. Not everyone gets a second chance. Not just at life, but at love. Plus, if this keeps weighing on you, I’m sure Ransom would eventually figure out something is bothering you. He is a cop after all.” Mom explained to me.
I nodded my head, smiling at her.
“Thanks Mom.” I told her, sincerely. I appreciated her advice too. I planned to think over what she, Dad and Aunt Gabby all said.
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After taking a few days to think things over, I had decided what I was going to do. To be honest, my heart had already set its course. My brain and body just needed time to catch up with it.
Ransom had a day off, so I arranged to take the day off too. We made plans to hang out that day and all I had to do is try to make things special and surprise him at the end of the day. And make sure he packed swimming trunks, which confused him.
We watched a lady sing in a parking lot with a tips jar. She didn’t totally suck and we were her only audience. I guess that was alone time. After a bit we decided to move on, but threw some cash in her jar before leaving.
We went to the Art Gallery and half it was closed for renovations. Oh well, we hung out together on one of their couches and caught up on each others job stories. Like the time a creepy fan came into the rehearsal hall and tried to take off with my boss’ pants. Or the time a perp broke free of his handcuffs and tried to run away. Ransom speared the guy to the floor and helped put better handcuffs on him. That type of thing.
We went to the Spring Festival and walked around, looping our arms together loosely. It wasn’t really that busy. So far, things had not been what I’d call Romantic.
But that changed when we danced together. I love dancing with Ransom, he never steps on my feet and I feel so special in his arms. Like that’s where I belong until my last moment on earth.
After dancing, we tried roller skating. It went fine for about 10 whole minutes. Then we both fell. I swear that wood was extra waxy or something.
After that, we walked around the “back woods” if you want to call it that, of town. We headed down by the river and stopped at a rusted up pick up, sitting half-submerged in the water. We traded theories on how it got there. Ransom figured a drunk crashed it there and it simply was never removed. I came up with a wild theory about mobsters, how one drove it into the water to get rid of the dead body of his rival. Staging it to look like an accident.
We walked back to our car that was parked at the Festival grounds, grabbed our picnic basket and walked to Hangman’s Tree. We had ourselves a little picnic there, enjoying the quiet since no one else was there. That we know of anyway…
After the picnic, we walked back to our car and I drove us to Three-Bear-River Public Pool. It was still too chilly to swim, so I took Ransom into the sauna. Of course we changed first.
Once we had the steam going and I was sure no one was going to interrupt us, if anyone did I was going to hurl the horse statue in the room at them, I took Ransom by the hands. I was nervous. I had been chill the entire day until that moment. I could feel my heart start to beat wildly.
“You know that I love you. I can’t stop either. I tried. I’m just meant to love you. It’s a part of who I am now…” I trailed off. I had it all rehearsed how I wanted to say everything and ask him, but I was starting to blank out.
Ransom smiled at me. “I tried to stop loving you too…do you remember how I told you that you scare me?” Ransom asked me.
I nodded my head. At the time I laughed, because I found it funny that a human could scare a ghost. I didn’t understand why he was saying that and before he could explain, beyond telling me I didn’t scare him physically, I had gotten a text from Bae. Warning me to get home.
“You scared me because I could feel myself starting to care about you…a lot. I hadn’t felt anything like that since I was alive and that’s why you scared me.” Ransom explained.
I nodded my head. That made perfect sense. I smiled a bit, thinking about our past. How long it took us to get to that moment in the sauna and what we had been through.
“I tried to stop what I was feeling by staying away. But that was a total dud.” Ransom admitted, chuckling a bit.
“I’m happy you told me that.” I said, smiling at him. I took a deep breath and released it. “I know this isn’t traditional and stuff, but we aren’t traditional either, so I guess this kind of fits us. But…Ransom, I love you and I know for certain that I want to spend the rest of my life with you…will you marry me?’ I asked him, before gulping slightly. I was hoping he’d say yes, but I wasn’t certain he would.
I watched Ransom’s eyebrows furrow and I didn’t have a good feeling about things all of a sudden.
“I love you too…but I can’t give you an answer right now. I need to think about this.” Ransom told me. He was trying to be gentle about it.
“Sure…take all the time you need.” I told him, smiling a little too brightly. Even though he hadn’t said no, I still felt upset. I felt rejected and sad.
“Thanks.” Ransom told me, walking over to sit down.
Ransom enjoyed the rest of our sauna time and I sat there, staring at him every so often. I had gone from feeling sad to feeling a bit angry. I don’t know if he noticed or not, but he squirmed a few times.
That night between us was weird and tense. Luckily I had the legit excuse of having to work on a piece for work. I was able to stay up half the night composing, before passing out on the sofa near the crack of dawn.
When I got up around 1 o’clock, Ransom was at work. I threw on some clothes and went to find my Dad. I was feeling a bit like a little girl needing her Daddy to kiss away her boo boos and make it all better.
“Things didn’t go as planned, did they?” Dad asked me after I found him outside by the tractor.
I shook my head, frowning and sighing. I was trying not to cry. I felt like crying for the first time since I had asked Ransom to marry me.
“Did he flat-out say no? I can kick his butt if you want me to. Well at my age it’d be more of me trying to..” Dad offered.
I laughed a bit at Dad’s offer. That seemed to fend off the tears for that moment. “He didn’t flat-out say no. He said he needed time to think about it.” I explained.
“Maybe he just does need that. He has been married before. And that married didn’t exactly end in divorce. But you’re feeling rejected by it. I can tell.” Dad said, looking at me with kind eyes that also looked a bit sad.
“Yeah. Maybe I should have waited. But like Mom reminded me. Life is short and we don’t all get seconds chances at love. I just want to be with him…get married. Have babies. The whole sha-bang. ” I told Dad.
“I know. But he’s coming from a different experience than you are. But I think in time he’ll see the good thing he has with you and say yes. If not, I’ll have your brother tie him to a tree so I can throw eggs at him.” Dad said, giving me a goofy smile.
I smiled slightly at him, hoping he was right about Ransom saying yes in time.
“In the mean time though…how about you let your Dad give you a hay ride?” Dad suggested, smiling.
“Okay.” I agreed with a small smile. Couldn’t hurt.
I actually enjoyed the ride. It gave me time to focus on something else and I know Dad really enjoyed it too, which made me happy.
After the ride, Dad went into the house for lunch and Uncle Cloud Dancing came outside. He helped me figure out how to harvest with the tractor. It wasn’t my normal type of thing, but it did distract me and I was thankful for that.
That night before bed, Ransom pulled me into Aunt Gabby and Uncle Cloud Dancing’s room, which was empty. As soon as he shut the door, I felt my palms start to sweat and my heart beat start to pick up. There could be only reason why he was pulling me in there and it wasn’t to bang like bunnies.
“I’m sorry.” Ransom told me, pausing to think.
While he was thinking, I felt my heart sink. He was going to say no. I just knew it. I tried not to cry. Just because he was going to say no didn’t mean it was the end. I still wanted to be with him, even if we never got married. I just couldn’t lose him all together.
“It’s okay Ransom. We don’t have to get married. I mean it’s just a piece of paper, right?” I asked, I felt like crying, but didn’t. I wasn’t going to make him feel like crap over it. At least he was being honest with me.
“Bess…I’m not saying no. I’m saying sorry because I know..I hurt you by saying I need time to think about it. But I did need the time. My first marriage didn’t go as planned..and I don’t mean the dying part. I thought..even though we got married because Jennie was pregnant with Buster, that it’d last until we were old. If we had lived, I think we would have eventually gotten a divorce.” Ransom paused to scratch his head for a second. “I never want that to happen to us.”
“I believe it won’t. We’ve gone through too much just to give up on us like that.” I told him. I believe what I said. “Okay, so you aren’t saying no…” I trailed off, confused.
“I’m saying yes.” Ransom clarified.
I gasped. “You..want to marry me?” I asked him.
Ransom nodded.
“You sure? I have a crazy family. My Dad might drop from the ceiling while we’re trying to make love on our honeymoon. If we go somewhere tropical, my brother might stash himself in our bags so he can try to hunt down pirates..My Aunt might throw shoes at you…” I told him, trying to get myself to believe that he had said yes.
“Are you trying to talk me out of it now?” Ransom asked, laughing.
“No..I’m just..I don’t know what I’m doing. I think I’m in shock or something.” I told him, getting ready to pinch myself.
Ransom stopped me from pinching myself and pulled me into his arms, smiling.
“We’re getting married, Bess. Cool?” Ransom asked me, still smiling.
“Cool.” I replied, smiling back at him. It finally sank in. Ransom had said yes!
We shared a kiss…until my Aunt walked in and started singing Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On”. I knew it was time to leave.
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The next morning, I sat down to play chess with Dad and to talk to him.
“Ransom said yes.” I told him, before placing my hand on my chin and thinking over my next move. Chess is not my game at all.
“I’m happy for you.” Dad said, sincerely as he moved his chess piece across the board. “Looks like we have a wedding to plan.”
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Three -Bear-River Pool was created by Lisa/Zoey95 for my Pool lotto. I LOVE the pool and it fits Appy Plains perfectly. Thank you so much again for building it!
Awaken 