Two sets of footsteps could be heard against the stone path that cut through the garden, blending with the crickets' chirping and the birds' last song of the night. In the twilight, everything was calm and still save for a small stream and the figures of two lovers walking on the path.
Abbey jumped lightly onto the wall of the bridge and walked along it, arms outstretched like a tightrope walker, never giving any signs that she was losing her balance. "I'm surprised, Doyle. We don't usually come to places like this." She turned a dainty cartwheel at the center of the bridge and looked over at her boyfriend, walking beside her. "Are you up to something?"
"Who, me?" Doyle asked, faking innocence. In truth, he was scared out of his mind at that he was about to do. "...Maybe."
Reaching the end of the bridge, Abbey sat down on the wall. "What is it?" she asked excitedly.
"Well... You know me, Abbey. I'm not usually that romantic, but I'm going to try to be, for you. This once." He held up one hand as Abbey opened her mouth. "Hear me out. Look, I know you're probably a lot smarter than me, and that's kind of hard to admit, but I know one thing that I can tell you that you haven't said to me." He knelt down in front of her. "Abbey, I love you. More than anyone else in the entire world, even in my family. I don't know what I would do if you left me, so..." A tiny velvet-covered box came out of his pocket, the lid opening; a diamond ring winking out at Abbey in the dying light. "Marry me?"
Abbey's hand flew to cover her mouth. "Oh, Doyle! I... I don't know what to... Did you write that yourself?"
"Mostly," he said uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck. "Zak helped some- But I'm serious!" he amended hurriedly, worried for a fraction of a second that she would think he wasn't. "I'm completely serious. Please."
"I never doubted you," Abbey said. She slid off the wall and pulled Doyle to his feet. There were tears in her eyes as she said "Of course I'll marry you."
With hands almost shaking with relief, Doyle took off her left glove and pulled the ring from its box, slipping it onto her third finger. Abbey hardly paused to look at it before she had her arms around his neck. The sun finally set as they kissed.
"You're welcome," Zak said from a microphone in his uncle's ear.