She had not been at Patrick's house very long that morning when the doorbell rang. She walked over to the front door and opened it to reveal a man holding a dozen red roses in an envelope with a note attached to the vase.
"I have a delivery for Shelagh Mannion" he said
"That is me thank you" she replied as she took the roses from the man
"Have a good day" she said
"Thank you" he replied
She took them back into the house and sat them on the dining room table. She removed the envelope from the vase and opened it to see the letter that was inside. She unfolded the paper and read in his messy handwriting:
My Dearest Shelagh,
Happy Valentine's Day my love. It is a dream come true that today will be our first one to celebrate together. I want to take you out to dinner tonight, I have us a reservation at The Sapphire Grove at 6. Mrs. Penney will be by to look after Timothy at 4 and I will pick you up from the boarding house at 5:30. I look forward to seeing you tonight, you're my everything.
Love, Patrick
She beamed as she read his words on the paper. This time last year, she never would have imagined that she would be celebrating Valentine's Day with her fiancé, or even have a fiancé to begin with. Great joy filled within her as she anticipated the night ahead. A part of her also worried about leaving Timothy for the night considering that he was still recovering from Polio. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mrs. Penney, it was just she would feel so guilty if something happened again while she and Patrick were gone. She snapped out of deep thought when Timothy asked
"Are those from dad?"
"Yes they are" she replied with a smile
"They look nice" he said
"Yes they do, your dad did a great job picking them out" she said
"What do you want for breakfast this morning?" she asked
"Scrambled eggs and bacon sound good" he replied
"Then scrambled eggs and bacon it is" she told him
She looked in the mirror as she put her hair in place that evening. She went with a half up half down hairstyle for their date tonight. She heard a knock on the door, so she grabbed her purse and opened the door to see Patrick stand there. He looked at her with a huge grin on his face and said
"You look stunning"
"Thank you, you look quite handsome yourself" she replied
He kissed her on the cheek and then she closed the front door. They walked over to the car and he opened the door for her on the passengers side. He got in on the driver's side and they drove off. As they were heading to the restaurant, Shelagh started to worry about Timothy. If Patrick thought that he would be okay, then she shouldn't be worrying. She tried to hide her worries from him, but when he looked over at her, he asked
"Is everything okay?"
"I'm just worried about leaving Timothy, he is still trying to get better and I am afraid that something might happen to him" she answered
"Mrs. Penney is going to take good care of him. I worried about leaving him tonight too before deciding to make the reservation, but he has been getting so much better and I wanted this day to be special because you are so special to me" he said
"I just care about him so much, and I know that you do too" she told him
"Yes, I am so glad that you do" he said as he grabbed her hand.
"I love you so much" she said
"I love you too" he replied
When they finished dinner, they wondered over to a pier that was nearby the restaurant. Their food was really good and they talked about wedding plans and the patients that Patrick had seen earlier that day. The moon was about halfway out that night and glistened on the water beautifully. The pier surprisingly wasn't that crowded at the moment and they went over and sat down on a bench.
"It's so peaceful out here" she said
"Yes it is" he replied
After admiring the ocean in front of them for a moment, they looked into each other's eyes and Shelagh leaned in to kiss him. Patrick deepened their kiss, not even caring that they were in public. The passion intensified the longer that their kiss went on. Patrick broke the kiss and Shelagh looked at him to see what he was going to say, and he leaned into her ear and whispered "I wish that we were already married"
"Me too" Shelagh whispered back with a smirk on her face because of what her fiancé was implying.
They continued to kiss with and with the sound of the ocean in the background, Shelagh felt ecstatic in his embrace. She could stay in this moment forever if it was possible. A moment later, Shelagh broke their kiss, thinking about how late it was getting.
"We should head back" she said
"Yes, Timothy will wonder why we were out so long if we don't start heading that way now" he replied
They pulled up to the boarding house and Patrick came around to open the car door for her. Then they walked up to the front door together.
"I would have to say that out first Valentine's Day was success" she told him
"I would definitely agree to that" he replied
"Tonight makes me excited for all of the Valentine's Days to come and for all of the other days in between" she said
"I'm excited for our future too" he told her
"Goodbye, love you" she said
"Love you too" he replied and they embraced in a quick kiss.
She watched him drive off, more excited to be married to him than ever before.