Chapter Nineteen
“This is, hands down, the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen,” Becca whispered to Bets Monroe, the town’s top realtor, who was sitting in the row just behind her.
Bets leaned toward Becca. “Shh, doll, I’m trying to hear this.” She was sitting at the edge of her seat, cell phone clutched in one hand and a stack of fliers listing houses for sale in the other. She had brought her clients with her tonight, a young-ish looking couple, newly married if Becca had to guess. Leave it to Bets to try and fit some work in while sitting in a movie theater at a premiere. Or, what they’d all thought was a premiere anyway.
Cade stopped in front of Jessie, who was already in tears. He looked happy and confident and not at all nervous like Becca would have thought he’d be. Wynn nudged her sister to stand up and she did. Luci sat to the left of Wynn and their mom was on Jessie’s right. All of the Foster women had happy tears streaming down their cheeks. It was so sweet how much Jessie’s family loved her.
Becca reached up and touched her own wet cheeks. Shoot, she was crying too. But how could she not? She’d never been front and center witnessing someone’s proposal for marriage. Except for her own, of course and that had been less than stunning. Todd had gotten an entry-level position at a small film studio. We’re talking run for coffee and lunch type of work but it was what he needed to do to get his foot in the door. He was moving to Hollywood and he’d made it sound so exciting to Becca. He talked about the sunshine and palm trees, the ocean and rubbing elbows with celebrities everywhere you turned. Becca didn’t want to stay back in cold and dreary Wisconsin while Todd was having fun in warm and sunny Los Angeles. Todd scraped together what money he had and bought a tiny diamond ring for Becca. He proposed to her in her backyard while they had been sitting around a fire pit, making s’mores one night. Becca remembered being completely shocked. They were only twenty-one and seemed far too young to be married. She more so expected Todd to break up with her since it seemed a long-distance relationship had been the only other choice. But, Becca also remembered being happy. She loved Todd then and their getting married was a chance to start a new exciting life in California. She’d finally get out of Snowy Ridge. Getting out of Snowy Ridge used to be all her and her friends talked about. It seemed so important when they were young. Now that she was back, it didn’t seem anywhere near as bad as she thought. She was actually really starting to like it.
Becca reigned in her thoughts and refocused on the show in front of her. Cade was down on one knee in front of Jessie, holding one of her hands in each of his own.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered.
“Shh!” Bets snapped.
“Jessie, I never thought I could ever be this happy,” Cade said. “And if you’ll let me, I want to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you’ve made me.”
Becca searched the rows of people until she spotted Cooper.
He must have sensed her because he turned her direction and they locked eyes. His were also tear-filled.
Becca smiled at him and he smiled back.
“Jessie Foster,” Cade said as he held a small box with a ring in it out toward her, “will you marry me?”
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” a sobbing Jessie yelled and the entire theater erupted in cheering and clapping.
Cade stood up and slipped the ring on Jessie’s finger before they wrapped their arms around each other and passionately kissed.
Jessie’s sisters and mom were on their feet now as well, hugging Jessie and Cade. Cade’s brothers made their way to the couple and congratulated them as well. Throughout the theater there was a happy buzz of people talking and some hugging, everyone happy for the newly engaged couple.
“That was amazing,” Becca said to Bets.
“Wasn’t it though?” Bets asked. “I felt like I was watching one of those Hallmark movies. Cade really knocked himself out with that proposal.” Bets turned her attention to her clients, who also looked moved even though there was no way they knew Jessie or Cade. “You see how lovely this small town is? You never know when stuff like this is going to happen.”
“That was really beautiful,” the woman admitted.
“Can I have your attention everyone?” Cade yelled out to theater full of neighbors and friends. He had an arm around Jessie’s shoulder and Jessie was still staring down at her ring like she couldn’t believe it was real.
The room quieted down and waited for Cade to continue. “Jessie and I love this town and we love all of you. We just wanted to thank you all for being a part of one of the biggest moments of our lives.”
An eruption of clapping broke out again.
“I’d like to invite everyone over to the Starlight Pub for a surprise engagement party to commence as soon as we make our way out of here,” Cade added.
Jessie looked up at him in surprise. “Really?”
Becca wondered how Cade could slip a surprise party at Starlight past Jessie but then she saw Cade and Jessie’s mom share a conspiratorial look and it all made sense.
Cade had really thought of everything, Becca thought to herself. She was glad that there was more to this festive evening. It would have been an adrenaline drop to just go back home following this and pull something up on Netflix to watch while she ate a sandwich. She wanted to be around people still and a celebration at Starlight was perfect.
Becca casually looked around the theater again to see what Cooper was doing but she didn’t spot him. Maybe he had already gone over to Starlight.
Becca made her way over to Jessie and gave her a hug. “Congratulations,” she said into her ear. “I’m so, so happy for you.”
Jessie squeezed her back and then pulled away. “I still can’t believe this even happened. I feel like I’m in a dream.”
“You’ve got a great guy there,” Becca said.
Jessie gazed up at Cade and smiled. “I know,” she said.
Cade leaned down and kissed Jessie again.
Becca felt awkward standing there watching the two lovebirds kiss and walked over to Luci.
“Can you believe that?” Luci said, grabbing Becca’s hands. “Wasn’t that amazing?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Becca said. “And every other man living in Snowy Ridge who wants to propose to his girlfriend is doomed,” she added. “That proposal will be hard to top.”
“For real,” Luci agreed. “You going to go over to Starlight for the party?”
“Definitely.”
“Good, I’ll walk with you.” Luci slipped her arm through Becca’s and the two women made their way out of the Bijou and out onto Main Street.