Bella
I’m out of the shower, dressed, and ready to start packing when I hear a knock on my door.
I ignore it.
The last thing I want to do is talk to my dad. He’s the one who started this whole mess in the first place.
“Bella, I know you’re in there.”
I just keep doing what I’m doing knowing he can hear me. I really don’t care.
“There’s somebody downstairs that wants to talk to you.”
“Unless it’s Declan, go away,” I say.
I grab some stuff from my dresser and shove it into a duffel bag I used as a kid for soccer practice.
Then my dad knocks again.
“I said go away,” I say.
“You said unless it’s Declan, to go away. I didn’t go away so what does that tell you?”
I stop, with one hand stuffed inside my bag and the other holding the handle.
I walk over to the door. “You’re telling me Declan is downstairs?” I ask.
“If you don’t believe me see for yourself.”
“This better not be a trick,” I say.
“I’m going back downstairs. You’re welcome to join us…or not.”
I wait as I listen for the sound of my dad’s feet on the stairs, making sure he did indeed retreat down to the living room.
When I’m sure he’s downstairs I open the door slowly, trying not to make a sound and make my way to the railing that overlooks the living room.
He’s here! And my dad is there too.
And the most important thing…they’re not fighting.
I slowly make my way down the stairs, careful of what I’m walking into. But I’m optimistic too. I hope something has happened that’s started to mend the fence between them.
The moment Declan sees me our eyes meet and I know he’s got good news for me.
He stands and I move more quickly down the stairs and closer to him, still keeping an eye on my dad.
“Declan has something he wants to tell you,” my dad says. Declan looks over at him and I feel the void of his eyes coming off me. “Ask you, that is. He has something he wants to ask you.”
Declan’s eyes shoot right back over to me as he takes a step closer, and then…reaches into his pocket and removes a black box before taking a knee.
I feel my whole body start shaking and my hands want to come up to my face, but Declan doesn’t let go of me.
“Your name is Bella for a reason…because you’re the most beautiful girl in the world. My girl. And I want the entire world to know that. The connection we have is deep and real and what I want more than anything is for you to be by my side forever. And if you accept this ring, that’s exactly where you will be,” he says placing the ring at the tip of my finger. “Will you make this the best day of my life and say yes to my request to be my bride? Will you marry me?”
For some reason my eyes come off Declan for a split second and go over to my father just in time to see a smile crack his lips. It’s not that I need his blessing to say yes, but there’s something about having it, even an unspoken one, that makes this moment perfect. My eyes go right back to Declan and I swear I can see into his soul.
And deep down inside what makes him him is his love for me. And I carry that same love inside me too. And there’s nothing that would make me prouder than to have a token of our love on my finger every day so the whole world knows I’m his.
“Yes,” I say. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my god, yes!”
Declan slides the ring on and it’s a perfect fit.
Without thinking I throw myself at him, but like everything he seems to be ready for it, catching me in his arms and twisting me so I’m at his level.
As he holds me in his arms horizontally we kiss and everything is perfect.
Our kiss lasts for over a minute, but it seems like only a second, as it always does with him because he makes time fly.
“Ready to go home?” he asks.
I nod.
“I told you I’d come and get you and bring you to me really soon.”
“I was already packing,” I said. “That’s what I was doing when you arrived.”
“You don’t need to pack,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“All you need to bring is you. That’s all I ever wanted. Just you, my bella Bella.”
He pulls me in close again and we kiss again.
“Get a room, you two,” my dad jokes.
“Don’t mind if we do,” Declan says as he stands up carrying me out of the threshold of my home and to his car.
I know in a few minutes he’ll do the same into his house as he carries me inside for the first time as his fiancée.
And then we’ll have a room all right. Lots of them. And soon we’ll get started on filling them up with lots of beautiful babies full of laughter and love.
Forever and always, for all the months of the year, with my Doctor Declan December.