"Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart" - Unknown
'Ma!' Isabella yelled running through the door to her own home. 'Step-father!'
'Lounge, sweetie,' her step-father voice called as she hurried through the house.
They were sitting together, watching the crackling fire burn with content smiles. Her step-father's arm was leaning across the back of the sofa and her mother was leaning into his side. Isabella smiled at them.
'He asked me to marry him!' she shrieked bouncing up and down with excitement, showing them a glittering ring.
Her mother looked completely shocked and jumped up to hug her before taking her hand.
'Darling, it's beautiful … and expensive,' she said and Isabella giggled on a complete high.
Isabella's ring was charming: the band was blooming flowers and braided vines of white gold ran through with aquamarines and London blue topazes accenting while a large, brilliant blue sapphire took centre stage. (on profile) It was subtle but she was completely in love with it though not as much as she was by the boy who had given it to her.
'Darling, I'm so proud thou,' Cassandra grinned, hugging her tightly once again, before looking at her husband hesitatingly before continuing what she wanted to say. 'Carlisle, thy father, would be too.'
Isabella grinned at her mother, 'think he'd like Alec?'
'I'm sure he would,' Cassandra laughed, brushing that curl that hung in front on her eyes back. 'Simply because he makes thou happy. Rob, dear, dost thou not hath something to say to thy step-daughter.'
Her step-father smiled at the two of them before rising from the sofa, arms held out for Isabella. She went willingly.
'Congratulations, sweetie,' he smiled, sweeping her around in a circle.
'Thou already know, didn't thou?' Isabella lent back and asked curiously.
'Of course,' Robert shrugged easily. 'He asked me.'
Cassandra hit her husband, ' why did thou not tell me?'
'He asked me not to,' Isabella's step-father shrugged again and she suppressed a smile at her mother's face, 'besides wouldn't thou prefer to hear this from Isabella.'
'Fine, Fine,' he mother relented and Isabella and Robert laughed in time.
'We're having dinner with them tomorrow night,' Isabella told them, admiring her ring once again. 'Is that okay? Hayley and Mr Carmichael are going to be there, Janey, and Alec, of course, so thou both hath to come.'
'That's fine,' Cassandra smiled although Isabella could tell it was slightly forced but Isabella wasn't exactly looking forward to this dinner either since she would have to spend more than two seconds in Gavin Carmichael's company. However as much she loved Hayley, she often wondered why kind Hayley was married to the bully that Gavin was. 'Now, tell me everything.'
Isabella grinned again and launched into her story of how Alec proposed, her step-father's arm rested over her shoulder as he listened although her mother was more interested. She told them of how they went to the river side where they had first said I love you, how it had been the perfect day, how as they were about to leave he had got down on one knee. Everything was vivid in her mind so she could recount everything.