Chapter Twenty Four – Rebekah

“Where are you taking me?” I ask with a nervous chuckle as Bryn guides me forward, trying to make sure that I don’t fall over anything on the way. “And why do I have to be blindfolded? I’m sure this isn’t essential, is it?”

“You can’t be patient at all, can you?” he chuckles, sounding amused. “You can’t just let me surprise you?”

“The last time you surprised me, I ended up like this.” I rub my belly, the excitement growing as I think about how any day now our child will be born. I’m less nervous now, I’m sure it’ll be fine, I’m pretty sure that instinct will kick in and everything will be okay. Now, I’m just looking forward to not being pregnant anymore. It’s been alright, but the last few weeks have been a struggle. My lungs sometimes feel tight, my stomach is always hungry but it’s damn near impossible to eat anything, my bladder is a freaking kicking ball for this baby… I’m ready for this part to be over, and now that the stress of the season is long behind us and we aren’t quite into the next section of obsessive training and games yet, I’m excited for the next part. I can’t wait to be a mom.

“Right,” Bryn finally says. “Here we are. Are you ready to see now? You aren’t dizzy?”

I shake my head and peel his fingers off me, gasping with shock as I see where we are. He’s taken me to a restaurant with a decking area hanging right over a lovely little lake. It’s quite dark so I can’t see them but I can hear the sound of ducks quacking and frogs croaking, which sends a shiver racing up and down my spine. I haven’t ever been here before but it feels like we’re in the countryside which is awesome. A nice change from the humdrum of city life… not that I don’t love it of course. I flick my eyes everywhere, trying to take it all in.

“What is this?” I gush, giving Bryn a curious look. “Where are we? What’s happening here?”

“I haven’t ever been able to take you out on a really nice proper date, have I?” he says with a breezy shrug. “So, now that I can I wanted to do it right. I want to give you the night of your life.”

“Well, it’s only one moment and this is already the best date of my life, and that isn’t just because I’m with you.” Although in my head I know that’s a massive part of it. “This is amazing, thank you.”

He pulls out a chair set at the only table out here, meaning we’ll be very much alone. I like that, it makes it that much more romantic. I love time for the pair of us, it’s absolutely amazing, so the fact that we can get that in public is awesome. He’s such a sweet heart for organizing this. It makes me love him even more.

I sit down and watch in awe as Bryn takes his seat opposite me. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how incredible our love story is, it just seems so normal to me now, but I don’t want to ever take him for granted.

“We better get out now because soon we won’t be able to.” As Bryn looks at my stomach I can see nothing but intense love in his gaze. And to think there was a time when I didn’t think he would step up and be a father. Now it seems like he was born for this and he can’t wait. Maybe even more than me. “Soon, we’ll have our baby.”

“Keeping us busy,” I tease. “With diaper changes, night feeds, cleaning up sick… that’s pretty much all babies do, isn’t it? Ooh, doesn’t it sound appealing? I’m so looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

A waiter comes out with a selection of drinks on his tray. It looks like wine, the drinks are in wine glasses, but of course they are non-alcoholic since I can’t drink anything. I don’t mind anyway, it’s nice.

“Have you selected what you would like to eat yet?” the waiter asks. “Have you had time to look at the menu?”

We haven’t, but I have a craving which I hope can be sated. “Do you do pizza here?” He looks a bit shocked by my request, this is probably too posh to do food like that, but he soon regains himself. I don’t know how much Bryn is paying for this date, but clearly, he’s instructed everyone to give me what I want. I wonder for a second if I’ve forgotten an anniversary or something, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t. It must just be because our baby is about to come. Bryn wants me to feel special before I become a full time mother, which is so sweet of him.

“Yes, I am sure we can arrange that for you,” the waiter says. “And you, Sir?”

“Oh, pizza sounds amazing. I’ll have the same.” Once the waiter goes back inside to sort out our food order, he laughs loudly. “I think we’re too common for a place like this. I should have thought about that.”

“Yeah, come on, you know for a fact that we’re common as muck. Think about that next time.”

As we share a joke, my heart lifts in my chest. A part of me felt a little nervous when he asked to take me out so close to my due date, and now I don’t know why. I’ve been so careful for ages. I don’t think the one time I go out will be the moment I give birth. That would be absolutely crazy, I need to let my hair down and enjoy myself.

While we wait for food to come, me and Bryn talk about anything and everything. We discuss the small things in life, what we’ve done that day, things we’ve seen on television, movies we want to watch… and we also effortlessly move on to the bigger things. We have a heated political debate and argue over the best way to deal with environmental issues. It’s a whole lot of fun, so by the time our food comes we’re laughing non-stop, and that’s how the mood continues as we chew down on the most delicious pizzas I’ve ever tasted. If this place doesn’t have pizza on the menu then they should put it on there. This is absolutely gorgeous food.

The mood doesn’t change at all until our ice cream desert comes not long afterwards. I’m excited to dig in, I’m still starving and the ice cream looks lovely, but Bryn doesn’t seem to share my happiness. His face has become devoid of color, almost like he might throw up, which has me really worried.

“Are you okay, Bryn?” I ask him while reaching across and touching his hand. “Do you want to go?”

“No.” He shakes his head vigorously and pushes himself into a standing position. “No, I don’t want to go.”

I lean back in my chair and I watch him half expecting him to head towards the bathroom but he doesn’t. He comes and stands in front of me and gives me a very intense look. I can almost feel his eyes boring into my soul.

I part my lips, I’m just about to speak to him again when he drops to one knee and he gives me another look. I suck in a breath, almost in a state of panic as I try to work out what’s happening here. I know, rationally I’m very aware of what’s happening here, but my thoughts haven’t quite caught up with my rationality yet.

“What are you…?” I ask quietly. “What’s going on…?”

“Rebekah Swartz,” he says, his voice already sounding thick with emotion. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I gasp back, unable to stop myself from interrupting. “So much.”

He grabs my hand and rubs it between his fingers. “I love you so much and I have done for a very long time. Probably even from the moment that I met you, if I’m honest with you, and for almost as long as that I have wanted you to be my wife. If we didn’t live such crazy lives, I would’ve asked you a whole lot sooner.” I let out a little laugh at this. We have been manic recently, mostly getting ready for our bundle of joy to come along. “You make me so happy, you brighten up every single day of my life, you are a ray of sunshine, and not only that, you are also the mother of my child which makes you the most incredible being on the planet.”

I gasp, loving the warm way that his words make me feel. My heart swells, my chest feels hot, my pulse races at the speed of light, there is something so magical about the moment that it makes my entire body react.

“I want to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you make me. I want to wake you up every morning with breakfast, I want to cheer you up when you’re sad, cheer with you when you’re happy, buy you chocolate whenever you need it… I want to be the absolute perfect husband for you.”

My eyes well up as I listen to his words, I can tell that he really does mean them. This is the best romantic proposal I could have asked for. It makes me feel utterly incredible.

“So, what do you say?” he asks with a bemused smile. His eyes are utterly shining with love. “Will you be my wife? Will you marry me and let me make you happy for the rest of our lives together?”

“Yes,” I gasp happily while pushing myself into a standing position too. I want to look him in the eyes as I give him my answer. “Of course I will. I would love nothing more than to be your wife.”

Bryn wraps his arms around me and he holds me tight. He brings his lips down to mine and he kisses me hard. While his lips have crashed into mine, I can feel him slipping a ring onto my finger which I don’t get a look at until we pull apart. Then I see a princess cut diamond in the sweetest gold band that I’ve ever seen. It’s lovely.

“Oh, my goodness.” I can’t keep the tears inside anymore. “Oh, Bryn, it’s wonderful, I love… oh!” All of a sudden, I feel another little twinge in my stomach, just like the ones I’ve been feeling on and off all day long. Only this one is stronger and it’s accompanied by something else. “Oh my God, Bryn.”

He glances down to see the puddle of water pooling at my feet. “Did you just wet yourself?”

“No!” I yell while playfully smacking him on the arm. “My waters have broken; the baby is coming.” I glance over to the table. “And I didn’t even get to eat my ice cream. I have to do the impossible and push a baby out and I didn’t even get to have my desert.” I pout in a mock childish way. “It isn’t fair.”

Bryn grabs the bowl and smirks at me. “I just promised to make you happy forever, didn’t I? And if bringing this ice cream for you to eat on the way to the hospital, then so be it. It’s fine.”

I grab his hands and give him a grateful smile. “Thank God you’re here with me.”

He kisses me once more. “I’m always going to be here with you, okay? So, let’s get to the hospital and start the next part of our journey. We’re about to become parents. it’s exciting, right?”

Exciting and terrifying, but at least we’re doing this together. Thank God for him!