Rafe and Evelyn were the only ones who knew that Danny was going to propose to Sandra, but with the sudden news that they were going to be parents again it had slipped their minds.
He would have been happy to take her out to eat later that night, after she'd told him about the baby but Evelyn wanted to stay home and she went out to the kitchen to start a light supper for them. Rafe settled down at the dining room table to take care of some paperwork and he listened to the radio.
It was he who got up to answer a knock at the front door and Danny and Sandra stood there. He had a firm grip on her hand and she had a rare smile on her face. "Hey you two, come on in."
"We can't stay but a minute, we're goin' out to eat." Danny told him as they stepped inside.
"Why not stay here?" Evelyn asked as she came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
"Thank you for the invitation Ev, but this is special." And she looked at Danny.
"This is our engagement dinner." He explained with a grin.
"Well hell Danny." Rafe smiled and grabbed his best friend into a bear hug and slapped him on the back.
Evelyn hugged Sandra before she asked if she could see the ring. Sandra shyly put her hand out for them to see and Evelyn smiled, "It looks much better on your hand than in a ring box."
"I told her that but she wouldn't believe me." Danny joked before he put his arm around Sandra and kissed her cheek.
Sandra in turn flushed ten shades of red. "Danny."
"My blushin' bride." He said and made her face turn another shade.
Rafe looked at Evelyn and smiled. It was a rare thing for him to see his friend so happy, but he'd been accepted by the woman he loved and they were going to start a life together. He wondered if he and Evelyn should tell them about the baby, but decided against it. This was a special night for them.
Sandra, however, took that decision out of his hands when she asked Evelyn if everything was all right. Barbara had seen her at the hospital and had told the other girls.
Evelyn looked at her husband and he shrugged his shoulders in a gesture of, You might as well. She looked back at the newly engaged couple. "This is your night, our news can wait."
The minute the words were out Evelyn could have kicked herself because that got Danny and Sandra really curious. "All right McCawley's, what ain't you tellin' us?"
Rafe put his arm around Evelyn's waist and smiled. "It seems like we're both in for some changes. We found out this mornin' that we're havin' another baby."
It was Danny and Sandra's turn to hug their friends and offer their congratulations. They knew how heartbroken they'd both been at the loss of their baby and the decision to wait. "That's great news Rafe." Danny smiled.
"Since we all have something to celebrate, why not come with us?" Sandra suggested.
"We most certainly will not." Evelyn said. "As happy as Rafe and I are about this new baby, it's not our first. You've never been engaged before and that is a very special time. You need to be alone."
"Rafe..." Danny appealed to him.
"I have to agree with my wife on this. If we had had a chance to have an engagement dinner, I wouldn't have invited you." He explained with a grin.
Evelyn looked up at him. "We barely had time to be engaged before you left me to go on the Tokyo raid."
"That's what I get for proposin' to you on the way to the airfield." And he laughed.
"And that's what I get for accepting." She smiled.
Danny shook his head. "Leave it to you to wait to the last minute Rafe."
"I had more important things to take care of at the time." Rafe said.
Evelyn gave him a stern look and tried not to blush.
"I never had the chance to do it the way I'd planned." Another look from Evelyn. "I swear honey, I had planned on takin' you out to dinner the next night and doin' it proper. Remember the ring I gave you?"
To be honest, she'd never thought about it. "You did have the ring didn't you?"
"If the Japs hadn't bombed us that mornin', I would have taken you out to dinner that night."
She smiled at him. "Well then Rafe McCawley, you owe me an engagement dinner."
"Then come with us." Sandra urged them.
Evelyn was adamant. "You two are going to have your engagement dinner with each other and no one else." And that was the end of it.
She's stubborn, Rafe grinned.
"Have you set a date yet?" Evelyn wanted to know.
"We were thinking about June, next year." Sandra told her.
"That reminds me Rafe, would you be my best man?" Danny asked him.
"I'd be honored."
"And I'd like you to be my matron of honor." Sandra told Evelyn.
Evelyn was doing some mental arithmetic. "If this baby is on time, I should have had him or her by the time you get married. If that's the case, I'll be your matron of honor."
"Thanks Ev." And Sandra hugged her.
Danny took Sandra's hand and turned toward the door. "We better get goin' or we're goin' to be late."
"Have a nice time." Evelyn told them.
Danny opened the door and he and Sandra stepped outside. He turned around for a moment and looked at his friend. "Thanks for everythin' Rafe."
"What did I do?"
"You've been my best friend since we were kids. Hell, you've been a brother to me and all this time when I was takin' things so slow with Sandra you backed me up. The other boys gave me such a bad time about it and I knew they were kiddin', but you understood and didn't ask for answers that I wasn't ready to give."
"You did the same for me remember? When Evelyn and I were first startin' to see each other, you didn't ask me a lot of questions. I was only returnin' the favor."
Danny put his hand out to Rafe. "Thank you."
Rafe slapped his hand away and hugged him instead. "That's what a brother's for Danny, never forget that."
"I won't." And they were gone.
Rafe closed the door and turned around to face Evelyn with a grin. "So what's for supper?"
Evelyn swatted him with the dishtowel. "There's only one way to find out." She said and walked into the kitchen.
His grin got bigger as he shook his head and started toward the kitchen.
He really loved that woman.