The Ring Part 5

It was just the two of them, Gary and Jason, all day long. Jason had taken him to the Air and Space museum that morning and Gary was all over that place as if were Disneyland. They had ice cream for lunch and Gary took note that he was being spoiled, accusing Jason of trying to buy him off.

The kid started asking the burning questions then, and Jason did his best to answer them. "Because I'm in love with your mom… and I'm kind of getting attached to you and Skyler too." It was the only real explanation to any of it.

"Are you gonna marry her?"

Jason eyed his ice cream as he thought on that. "I'm thinking about it. But I can't do it without your permission."

"You haven't asked me for my permission," Gary pointed out.

Jason had it in his wallet today, just in case the subject came up. He asked Gary to hold his ice cream while he pulled it out. "Y'know how, in the Navy, you have to get permission from a bunch of people before you do something really important?"

Gary shrugged and looked at the little form Jason handed over.

"It's called a Request Chit, and I thought, just for fun, I'd fill one out and get signatures from all the people that needed to approve it before I asked your mom to marry me."

Gary looked at it as he handed back Jason's ice cream.

Jason pointed with his free hand. "See? There's Admiral Chegwidden's signature, that's my mom and my dad, that's your grampa, and that's Skyler's little scribble." He pointed to more. "That's my signature. You're grampa made me do it over so I could sign it as a Chief, and that spot on the top… that's where you get to sign it."

Gary looked the paper over and tried to eat his ice cream as he studied it. "Why is the Admiral's signature on it?"

Jason shrugged and grinned, "I just needed another signature to fill up the spaces. He was the best logical choice."

Gary studied the paper again, clearly not hurrying for a pen.

Jason studied the side of his face. "You're the big man on campus, Gary, the man of the house. I know I'm asking permission to take over that part of your job, but if you let me do it, you'll have time to be a kid more often."

"Did you practice that speech?" Gary said with a whine.

Jason smiled and nodded. "Yep."

Gary cracked a smile at his expression.

Jason took the chit from him, "you just let me know when you're ready to sign it, all right?"

Gary gave it back to him and nodded, thinking deeply about it all. "All right."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  ** 

Meredith tucked it deeper onto her finger and held it up to the air with a smile. The diamond sparkled in the restaurant's romantic lighting. She tried to pretend that she was still trying to decide, based on the beauty of the ring alone, but AJ was on the other side of the table, leaning over on his elbows and watching her from under his brows. He knew better.

She dropped her hands into her lap and batted her eyes at him. "It's lovely."

AJ gave her a deep nod of appreciation.

"You really went all out didn't you?"

AJ sat up and pulled his shirt down at his waist. "It was an adventure."

The waiter approached and offered desert. They turned him down, but Meredith handed over the ring box. "Can you throw this away please?"

The waiter nodded regally, set the small, velvet, deep red box on his tray, and carried it off.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  ** 

The day would go down in history as The Day The Admiral Proposed To Meredith, but the stories of Admiral Chegwidden going nuclear at Tiner was the part they would remember the most.

Tiner's face was still burning when he climbed into the car. They treated him like Gilligan. It was hard enough trying to scrounge respect from a room full of officers. To be ripped a new colon because some waiter screwed up on an issue that had nothing to do with law or national defense, made Tiner smolder on into the afternoon.

He didn't get away until after six and was so distracted when he drove home that he found himself nearly parking at the barracks before he realized he'd gone the wrong way. He grinned pathetically at himself as he shoved the truck in reverse and turned around to go home. The maneuver made him hit the bad end of the traffic and he was nearly two hours later than usual when he parked in front of the house.

Jodi and the kids had only been back a month and he'd been getting back by six like clockwork. His excuse was legitimate, but he had no alibi. He feared he would face the woman's wrath about it. He'd heard so many stories from friends and acquaintances, even the Admiral himself, about the ripping they got when they were late, even to the point of accusing the man of having an affair.

He realized then that he and Jodi had never been in a rip-roaring argument about anything, ever. This was good, but made him wonder if they would survive it when they did. Sooner or later, they needed to get through the hard part of being together. Tiner had just survived one of his worst days at work – the kind that make you consider an immediate transfer to Antarctica. If Jodi so much as looked at him funny, there were going to be fireworks. And here he was, two hours late.

He squared his shoulders when he opened the front door and forced himself to face it. At the other end of the room, Gary was clearing the table and Skyler was finishing his milk. Jodi poked her head out of the kitchen and flashed a smile, "I'll warm up a plate."

Jason put his cover on the little shelf above the coat rack. She actually went out and bought the thing so he'd have a high place to keep it that smudged little fingers couldn't reach.

He moved to the table, and said hello to Gary and Skyler as he sat down. Skyler had a milk mustache and Gary was grumbling about having to do the dishes.

Jodi brought a plate of food and a glass of milk over to the table. Dinner was enchiladas, or, in his case, re-heated enchiladas, but they were just as good.

"What happened to you?" she asked as she set the plate down in front of him. "I was getting worried."

"I had a brain fart and drove to the barracks," he muttered, picking up his fork.

She patted his shoulder and chuckled a little before turning away. "Do you want the good news, or the good news first?" She moved to the tiny desk that wasn't big enough to be a desk but still managed to keep the official paperwork of running a household.

"The good news," he said with a shrug.

She brought over two letter folded pieces of paper. "The good news is that Meredith was right. A 3.9 does get you anywhere." She handed him the letter of acceptance to Howard University, where Meredith taught. "But, unfortunately two positives repel each other, because the other good news is that I got a job offer from C&P telephone as a CO technician."

He took the other paper and swallowed his bite. His eyes flicked up warily. "Full time?"

She nodded and sat down sideways in Gary's chair. "Yep." She pressed her mouth. "I'm gonna attend Howard part time. That way I can do both; pay the bills and go to school."

Jason gave her back the papers and cut out another bite.

"Besides, C&P offers medical insurance. The boys and I haven't been covered since we left California."

"Go to school," he said, "if you only go part time it'll take you years before you graduate."

Her chin shifted. "I can't afford it, Jason. You're already helping too much."

He lifted his face with insult. "I live here!"

"Yeah but-" she stopped herself short when she realized Skyler was still sitting at the table. Gary came out for the last of the silverware and glasses. Jodi folded her lips closed and looked at Jason again.

He lowered his chin, nodded, and scowled over his meal as he finished it.

An hour later, the boys were in their beds and listening wide eyed in the darkness to the two of them tumble into their first real fight.

"I did what you wanted, dammit!" She yelled with the force of singing cadence in her lungs. "I moved out here without any commitment from you!" 

"This isn't about commitment!" he yelled back. "This is about your career. If you take that job, you know you're going to hate it and you know it's gonna take you forever to graduate! And don't try to tell me that going back into electronics isn't going to push you into moving back home!"

"Is that what you're afraid of? That if I get a job I'm going to leave?"

"I know it'll happen. You had a good thing going in California. If you go part time to school and take that job, you're gonna end up back in the same place." He winced and waved his hands. "Jesus Jodi, you hated electronics when they were teaching it to you in A school. Don't you remember that?"

"That's not in my control, Jason! What I want out of life is the absolute lowest priority. My job is to take care of my children - with or without you. And as long as I'm doing it without you; I'm gonna make decisions by myself and make them so that they benefit them. Not me, not you. Them."

"But it makes you miserable," he argued frantically.

She balled her fists and screamed. "You don't even know what I want out of life!"

He thought on that a long, quiet minute. "So what do you want out of life?"

"I want you. I want to teach. I want to have friends… and a normal life with normal problems and want you to lean on when things get crazy." She sniffed, "I always have."

"You have me," he whispered.

She sniffed again. She didn't look at him.

"That's not enough. Is it?"

She looked over. "I don't want to pressure you, Jas. I really don't. I can't imagine how scary it must be for you...  but until you're ready, I still have a family to take care of by myself."

"You forgot that I am required to get approval from Skyler and Gary before I ask you." He chewed on his lower lip. "Until I get it, it's not in my control."

She hitched a new grin. "Oh come on. You wouldn't be ready right now if you had it. I saw the look on your face yesterday when Skyler unrolled all the toilet paper in the bathroom and soaked it with Windex."

Jason suddenly chuckled about yesterday, but his smile calmed. "You don't know that, Jodi."

She leaned into him and pressed her cheek on his shoulder. "No, you're right, I don't. Until I do though, I have to go on the assumption that you're just visiting."

He looked over at her. She lifted her brows. It was the hard cold truth. He looked at the floor again, angling his head to the side in thought, he sat up a little, chewed on his lower lip again, and pulled his wallet out. "I want to show you something."

She sat up and away to let him do what ever he was going to do, and he ended up turning to her on the couch. He pulled out the request chit and handed it to her, folded.

"What's this?"

"Look at it."

Uncertain, she unfolded it and immediately recognized the form, but Skyler's scribbled name jumped out at her first. She read the request. Her mouth opened. Her eyes flicked up to him and then looked down at it again. The Admiral, her father, his parents, and Skyler had all signed it already. All he needed was Gary's, and the space was still empty, smack dab on the top… the final say.

"I wanted to show you over a candle lit dinner or something, but," he sighed and shook his head at his knee. He looked at the hallway and back at her defeated, "I can't get him to sign it, and you're right, I'm not going to ask you to marry me until Gary says it's okay… He's protecting you and I'm gonna let him protect you as long as he needs to."

She started backing away from her position, wanting it more than she realized, "he's only ten, Jason."

"Yeah, I know, but he's also the man of the house. He's gotta be willing to step down before I step up. I'm not going to do a hostile take over." He smiled at the term.

She looked at the chit, "this is dated April."

He nodded, "I've been working on it since you brought your stuff out."

She stood on her knees and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She buried her face in his neck and whispered through happy tears. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he cuddled back. "But please go to school. Gary's not ready for it, but I am - and he doesn't need to know how much I'm taking care of you."

She winced in his shoulder. He wasn't thinking about medical insurance.

He pulled his face back and looked her in the eye. "Please?"

Her brows were slanted again. She still couldn't do it; she still had the boys to take care of and she couldn't do that and go to school full time. There was no way. The logistics just didn't work.

"Mom?"

They both looked over. Gary was standing at the hallway in his boxers and looking at them like a sad and scared little kid.

She forced a smile, "hey bud, I thought you guys were asleep."

"Skyler's crying," he said quietly.

Jodi got up and moved to the hallway. "Thank you, sweetie. I'm sorry about this." She moved into their dark bedroom and cuddled Skyler in her arms, comforting him with soft coos.

Gary's face turned back to Jason across the living room. "We heard everything."

Jason closed his mouth and pressed it, apologizing with his expression yet not bothered by what he heard. It was best that Gary figured out Jason's commitment that way anyway.

Gary stepped over and tightened his face to look as mean as possible. "You have to promise you're never going to hit us."

Jason wasn't sure why that came up, but nodded. "No problem. I can promise that easy."

"And you have to promise you're not going to spend all mom's money when she gets a job."

Jason started to understand why these were coming up. There was a short marriage that produced mistrust, near bankruptcy, a report at the Child Protection Office, and Skyler not too terribly long ago. "I promise that too."

Gary sat down on the couch, "and promise that you're not going to hit mom either. She'd knock you silly if you do, but I don't want you to hit her anyway."

Jason actually smiled about that. "I promise I won't hit her either. I'm not like that, Gary."

Gary's eyes narrowed at the air as he tried to think of anything else to make him promise.

Jason pulled the chit over on the couch and handed it to Gary.

Gary took it, looked at it, and thought hard about it.

Jason fetched a pen from the end table and handed it over. "I've never been a dad before, and I've never been a husband before, but I promise I will pay attention and learn to do the job right."

Gary thoughtfully took the pen, and his eyes flicked fearfully to Jason when he did.

Jason shook his head. "I also promise that no one is more scared about this than I am. I'm gonna need your help to get through it."

"Why me?"

"I've never been a man of the house before."

Gary took the pen and moved to his knees in front of the coffee table. He put the chit down and put the pen to it.

Jason's eyes flicked to Jodi in the hallway. She had Skyler on her hip, but paused to watch Gary bite his tongue and work hard to sign his name in cursive. He sat back, looked at his name, and handed it back to Jason.

Jason smiled at him and said it sincerely. "Thank you."

Gary climbed to his feet and faced him. "What happens now?"

Jason folded the chit over once and his eyes moved back to Jodi.

Gary turned to his mother, now noticing her. Skyler sniffed and put his head on his mom's shoulder, but Jodi was staring at Jason, caught with the ball in her court for the first time since they'd found each other again.

"I'll show you." Jason said suddenly and climbed off the couch. He slid passed Jodi and into the bedroom. Jodi started to follow him but saw him pulling the gun lock box from under the bed.

Her eyes popped out of her head. "What are you doing?!"

"Get the kids out of here," he said as he pulled up her car keys from the nightstand. Hiding the ring in the lock box was the perfect place because she hadn't needed anything else in there for almost nine months now.

She stepped back in the hallway and moved to the couch.

"What's he doing?" Gary asked.

She shook her head. "I have no idea."

Jason came out a few seconds later with a strange smile on his lips. Skyler was in her lap, Gary sat next to her and Jason sat down on the coffee table in front of her.

Screw the candle lit dinner. This couldn't wait any longer. "I have the approval from the man of the house, the little man of the house, all the in-laws, and the Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy…. So, you can't say no."

He brought up the ring box already opened. The jewel inside had three small diamonds, one for her and one each for the kids. It sparkled against the velvet, but not in her eyes. She wasn't looking at the ring.

"Because you'd have a lot of people to explain yourself to."

Skyler reached for it. "A sparkly!"

Jason brought it closer so the little one could look at it, but gently kept the little hands from pulling it out. He showed Gary too, who looked at it with eyes that were still a little scared. Then Jason took it out of the box and pulled her hand over whether she liked it or not.

She sniffed a little and let him put it on, then wiped her eye and rubbed her lips. She reached for his face and pulled him in and he stood on his knees to kiss her lightly. Skyler kissed his cheek and Gary watched the whole thing from the side until his mother pulled him into her other arm. Gary groaned about it, but the four ended up hugging each other for a long minute. Jodi and Jason looked into each other's eyes, nose to nose, until she smiled.

His eyes were as blue and as bright as the sunshine on the pond in Orlando. Skyler reached over and stuck his nose in too, giggling at all the pressed cheeks. Gary started to smile, grabbed the ring box off the coffee table, and stuck his face in to complete the square. All four blushed and giggled in fear and excitement until Gary lifted box in the middle of all the chins. "Can I keep the box?"

Jodi looked down at the gray velvet box and approved the request.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  ** 

The fast, summer air was warm on their smiling cheeks. Mac wasn't really worried, but she closed her eyes behind the goggles and grabbed a hold of the panic bar anyway. In the aft seat of Sarah, Harm rolled the yellow bi-plane into a loop and left them hanging up side down.

Mac peaked open and eye and saw nothing but trees and hills. She scolded through the racing air. "HARM!" She grabbed the edge of her little cockpit and checked her straps one more time.

Harm chuckled evilly and rolled the plane back over, leaving Mac's equilibrium spinning a bit, and started to descend the plane until they were nearly skipping on treetops.

Mac still saw nothing but trees over the soft ripples of hills. She saw no towns, no roads, no meadows, and most importantly, no landing strip. A wheel scraped across a tall pine tree and left the top tip waving in the wind behind them. "Harm?"

She turned around to see the expression on his face. If he were having trouble with the plane, he wouldn't admit it right away, but she would be able to see it in his eyes. The plane's buzzing little engine was purring fine and Harm, though no longer smiling, was eyeballing for something over the side, cool as a cucumber.

"Are we landing?" She asked and looked out over the side of the plane. The trees covered the hills like a thick fur.

"Yep!" He called back and pulled up just enough to get over the next hill.

"Where?!" Mac yelled as her nerves frazzled a smidgen more. Just then, he started to descend again, scraping across the trees until they dove softly into a giant, meadow covered in wild yellow flowers.

She dropped her head hard on the seat behind her with a grunt.

Harm only chuckled as he gently landed the plane. The wheels crushed two long lines in the grass and daisies. He came to an easy stop in the middle of the meadow.

The plane settled and rattled as it quieted for sleep and Mac was already jumping down to the ground. She looked around for some clue at why they'd landed there, and met him as he finally climbed down too. "What are we doing here?"

Harm stripped his hat and goggles and took hers from her as well so he could put them away. "I want to show you something." He said with a smooth, low voice like he had sex on the brain. He sucked at his lower lip as he closed the plane down and retrieved a thin set of keys to stuff in his bomber jacket. His long-legged stride took him quickly away from the plane. He glanced back at her, "Come on."

Mac skipped into a trot until she caught up with him. "What are you going to show me?"

"It's a surprise," he smiled, just so he wouldn't have to answer her and start the battering of questions. The building was coming into view between the trees anyway.

As soon as they moved from the sunny meadow to the shadow of the thick trees, Mac could see a large log cabin, falling apart and empty. There was a dirt road off to the right that probably met a paved one a mile away, but there were no cars parked in front of the two-story house.

The birds sang loudly through the canopy overhead. Ancient oaks and tall aspens shaded the sunshine to fuzzy dots on the ground. The breeze blew through the branches only to magnify the absolute absence of city noise.

Mac stepped into the front yard. It was simply a pocket in the trees with soft deer grass and a fat, gnarling oak reaching out from in the center. It was the perfect climbing tree, and clearly, someone had already discovered that. There were traces of a tree house high in its branches and, from another thick, high branch, an old tire hung from a long, rotting rope. In the large empty space between them and the house sat a crooked, home-made picnic table.

Harm had stopped at the edge of the clearing to watch her reaction. Mac looked up into the trees and turned slowly around with her arms out and her mouth open to a smile like her dream childhood was filling her head. Harm smiled wistfully and stepped carefully to her.

"You can almost hear children laughing," she whispered into the breeze. Like an echo, the bright, innocent giggles of children danced through the air.

"Come see the inside," his voice came out in nearly a whisper by accident. He took her hand and led the way up the wooden porch. The center cut logs were worn away and dark with age, but the steps were still incredibly sturdy. Hiking boots clunked quietly to the front door and Harm released her hand so he could work the realtor's safe-lock open.

Mac looked out from the porch. She could see through the trees to the entire yellow and green meadow. The biplane was in plain view. And the ghosts of children skipped through the grass and flowers around it.

The door creaked as it opened. "It needs a lot of work," he admitted quietly. "But the frame is sturdy." He stepped into the front room and glanced back to her.

The place seemed to be entirely made of dark wood. The air smelled of dust. The plank floors were dusty and bare. The log cabin walls had once been covered by drywall but were now ripped and torn with whole sections missing in places. A kitchen filled up the front corner to the right. The glass-framed cabinets were mostly smashed, and the tile on the counter was loose and shuffled.

To the left was the living room, but there was nothing in it. There was a stone hearth shooting a fireplace right up the middle of the house, and two doors placed on the walls on either side of it. At the far left was a stair way to the second floor… The children shouted at each other as they jumped down the stairs, ran through the house and scurried around her legs to go play outside….

Mac blinked and woke up again. Harm studied her to make sure she was okay and grinned a little about her reaction. He stepped to the back of the house and waved her over to show her the rooms that made up the other side. "This could be a den," he said, showing her a room that could have easily been a bedroom too. He stepped passed the stone hearth to show her the other door.

"This is the bathroom," but you could only tell that by the naked pipes jutting out from the walls and floors. The bathroom was as big as the den with big windows lining up the corners.

Mac stared into the bathroom, but didn't see the pipes and naked floors. She saw a clean white Victorian bathtub, a stand-alone sink, a large fluffy throw rug, and a dozen green potted plants and trees. She heard a squeal and saw a twelve-year-old girl in the bathtub scrambling for a towel without emerging from the bubbles. "MOM!"

Mac gasped a little and stepped out.

"Are you all right?" Harm's face was mildly concerned.

Mac took a deep breath and looked him in the eye to nod. Something about this place was really digging into her mind, but all the emotions it left behind were good. Standing in this house felt like wrapping up in you favorite blanket: warm, peaceful, happy, and comfortable. "What's upstairs?"

Harm grinned and took her hand again to move up the stairs with her. The hall upstairs was nothing but a railing that looked over the living room and broken only by the stone chimney that disappeared through the ceiling. The first two bedrooms were small. One had pealing lavender paint on the drywall and a single window. The carpet was stripped away to the floor, but the wood was sturdy… and Mac saw a girl in a fluffy bed gossiping with a friend on the phone….

She weaved her fingers into his like he was the anchor that kept her in reality. Harm didn't seem to mind and opened the door to the other bedroom. This one was just as empty as the rest, and the pale blue paint was in the same ratty condition… but Mac saw a set of bunk beds and two young, raven-haired boys attacking each other with toy planes….

Mac's face moved to Harm, "Who lived here before?"

Harm kept a soft but firm grip on her hand as he opened the door at the end of the hall. This room was clearly larger and made the only part of the upstairs that created a real wall to loom over the kitchen. "The realtor said that the last owner died in a retirement home with no close relatives." He grinned as he struggled to get the crooked door to open. "I gathered some distant nephew on the west coast is waiting for the unexpected inheritance from this house." He managed to shove the door open. It scraped deeper in the floor where it had already been carving for years.

Mac paused before going into the room. "There were no children here?"

Harm angled his head at the curious question. He put one hand on his hip while the other rested with a locked elbow on the discolored brass doorknob. "Not that I know of… but I have half a mind to put children in it."

He expected some sort of reaction out of that, but she stepped into the master bedroom before she realized all that he'd said. Her voice was surprised. "Did you buy this place?"

"Not yet-" he was going to say more, padding his dreamy intentions with reality, and try to point out that he didn't have any expectations who the little wifey was going to be, but his words stopped when he saw Mac. True concern crossed his face now.

Mac stopped just on the other side of the door and went wide-eyed at what she saw. The truth was there was nothing in the room - not a chair, not a bed, not even a lamp. But Mac clearly saw something else. Like transparent ghosts, there was a bedroom full of furniture, and glowing with soft light at night. Two naked bodies were on bed completely engulfed with making love. Her own voice giggled into the back of her mind, "Harm, stop. That tickles."

Mac stepped backwards out of the room, bumped against the door jam, and slammed her back against the wall in the hallway. Her palms were in front of her, and her mouth was agape.

Harm stepped out of the room and ducked his face to look her in the eye. He was truly concerned now. "What's the matter, Mac?"

Mac winced a little, tried to grin, and flushed. "Do you ever…see things?" Her face rippled at the way that must've sounded, despite her previous visions. This was totally different.

Harm's chin rocked a little and his breath hung in his neck. He cleared his throat. "Only when I bump my head." He rested a hand on the railing and grinned at this. "What did you see?"

Mac smiled open teeth at him as she considered, then chucked the idea and pealed off the wall. "I have to get out of this house."

Harm blinked and followed her. "Mac?" She ran quickly down the stairs and Harm faster than Harm could move his long legs around the corner. Then she jumped into a run to get out of the house and Harm jumped into a run to follow her. "Mac!?"

When she got out to the front yard again, she slowed her feet and took a deep breath of fresh, sweet air. She turned around, already trying to calm his worries with her palms. "It was just a little too weird in there."

Harm lifted his brows at her, stepping up to her close enough to grab her if he had to, and gave her a look of caution.

"I'm okay." She nodded at him and backed away a little. Her back bumped blindly into the tire. "Really."

His hands were on his hips and his head was still angled, paused and worried.

Mac turned to the tire and lifted herself to sit in it. She wrapped her arms around the top part of the tire and swung her legs with a childish smile.

Harm grinned strangely at this, backed up to the picnic table and sat on top of it. "Talk to me, Mac." He placed his feet on the bench and set his elbows on his knees. "What happened in there?"

"Nothing," she said and started to swing, just to keep from looking him in the eye.

Harm looked at the house and looked back at her. "No," he grinned, "I know something's going on in that wild little mind of yours."

She challenged him from behind the rope, "How?"

He pointed out with a grin and sat up, "Because you haven't asked me why I'm thinking of buying the place."

Her fingers wrapped around the rope. She stared at him like she was painted into a corner as the tire slowly swung to hang still. There was a long minute of whispering wind and the echoes of laughing children. She could feel it in his stare that his mind was made up about something… but it wasn't the house.

"So…" she started carefully and splashed an embarrassed smile. "Why are you thinking of buying the place?"

A new smile blossomed across his face. He looked around as he said it. "I like the place because it's away from everything." He explained easily. "It's on ten acres, the meadow included." He waved a hand at Sarah's new playground. "And since the airfield is only ten minutes from work…" he shrugged.

She was caught him from his easy side-step. "Why are you thinking of buying any place?"

His head angled a little to look at her from under his brows and lick a careful grin. "What did you see in there?"

Her face paled a moment. It was supposed to be a trade of information.

Harm climbed off the picnic table and casually strolled to the tire. "Can I give that thing a try?"

She snicked a noise out of her nose and climbed off the tire. He bit his lower lip as he grabbed hold of the rope, pulled himself up and threaded his legs into the circle. "Come on," he waved a hand as he adjusted. "There's room for two."

Mac lifted a brow for a moment but acquiesced softly, "All right." She took a hold of the rope with both hands and clumsily threaded her legs through as well until she was straddling his lap, but looked at him from the other side of the upper half of the tire.

He waited until she was settled before he leaned back, holding on to the sides of the tire as he swung them slowly into motion. "So, what did you see?"

"I asked you first."

He smiled at that and swung them to rock a little more in the air. "You know why." The tire gently spun on the rope.

Her voice was warm and smooth, "Then you know what I saw."

His tongue played with his canine as he watched her eyes. "Y'know, I can fix up a place pretty well," he said too casually, "But this place," he looked back at it and smacked his tight teeth. "It's a lot of work. I'm gonna need a whole team."

She nodded with understanding and tried not to let the buzz show in her face. She held onto the rope with both hands and leaned forward, almost resting her chin on the tire itself. "And who do you think is going to breed this team for you?"

He pulled his chest to the tire and looked over it at her with a cocked head and a curious curl of his brow. "How old is little A.J. again?"

Her breath caught with a smile. Her heart thudded and her stomach flipped. She took a tighter grip on the rope in front of her nose and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down before he yanked her sanity right out of her soul.

Somewhere in the breeze, her own voice spoke softly to a cooing, pudgy-cheeked toddler, Hammer the Third, "You're daddy proposed to me right on that tire?"

Mac's eyes flung open. Her full mouth fell to breathe. She looked at his glittering blue eyes and his devious grin and they way his dark hair fluttered in the breeze. She opened her mouth to speak, but forgot what she was going to say.

Harm brought it up from his pocket while her eyes were closed. He had a firm grip on the tire with his left hand, but brought his right hand to set it in front of her face. It sparkled like a thousand stars and reflected tiny prisms on her face. It wasn't incredibly big, but it was clear and white, marquis cut in the center with a few more ornamenting the stone on the sides.

It was the most beautiful thing Mac had ever seen, but only because of the man that was bearing it.

Her eyes flicked back to him. It could have been a band-aid and she would have melted at the offer.

He closed his mouth and pulled himself closer. He wrapped his arms around the sides of the tire to hold himself up with the strength of his forearms and still have use of both hands. He gently unwrapped her left hand from the rope.

Mac exhaled a terrified smile as he slid it on her finger. "Are you serious?"

His black brows lifted. He pointed at the stone on her finger. "Does this look like I'm joking?"

She tittered, feeling sixteen all over again, and looked starry eyed at the man that just took Sarah Mackenzie permanently off the market without even asking her first.

As he realized he succeeded, he fully bit his lower lip, leaned far back from the tire, and got them swinging again.

Children's laughter still giggled in the air as the wind whistled softly through the trees. The birds sang and twiddled and chirped. The tire swung back and forth and spun in soft circles, and she was still straddling his warm lap.

She tucked the ring onto her finger so it wouldn't fall off and grabbed a hold of the tire. She leaned back and forward in concert with him and let her eyes shine as brightly and as deviously as his were.

"It that a 'yes'?" He asked as he leaned forward, but he leaned back again.

"Yes to what?" She taunted as she leaned forward. "You didn't ask me anything."

"What on earth do you think it's for?" Swing.

"I thought it was a birthday present." Swing.

He bubbled a chuckle and pointed out, "You're birthday isn't for another six months."

She raised a brow to taunt him, "Fourth of July gift, then?"

He chuckled a little and leaned forward, but stayed there. His face tucked around the rope at her. She sat up too, facing him down with a challenging eyebrow, and watched to enjoy his face shuffle in fear or flicker with uncertainty. For all those years he danced around her, staying close but still too far away, she wasn't going to make this easy for him.

Harmon Rabb, however, had already made up his mind about it. He was going to spend the rest of his life with her whether she liked it or not. It would just make life a whole lot easier if she thought she had a say in the decision.

He didn't flicker with uncertainty. His eyes didn't try to look away. He simply reached another inch to her mouth and let his breath brush across her lips, "Marry me, Sarah."

Her eyes fell closed before she realized it. She reached for his mouth until he kissed her. Harm took her mouth in soft, tender waves. He was so leaned toward her that hands could fall to her knees and pulled to make her straddle him tighter.

Mac inhaled a breath through her nose as the intensity cranked up a few notches. She whispered blindly, "yes," between kisses, and "yes," again when turned his head to kiss her from another angle, "yes…"

"Make love to me?" he whispered into her mouth as he took it again.

"Yes," she said when he came up for air. She tried to wrap her arms around his shoulders, but the tire was preventing them from getting any closer. His hands had moved to her hips by then and grabbed her with firm fingers to press her closer. He tried to kiss her neck… damn tire.

He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a moment. He didn't want to move away to get out of the tire, he just wanted to get closer.

Her hands reached for the rope above their heads and the ring glittered against her skin. He let her go so she could climb out and looked up as she lifted her body off of him.

There was a short groan and a loud *crack*. The old rope parted and the tire fell with them in it. Harm's ass was protected a little by the tired beneath him. Mac had gotten her legs mostly out, but not completely. They only fell four feet, but it was enough of bump to make both of them go wide-eyed in panic.

Mac tumbled away and rolled once until she sat up with her hands in the grass behind her. Harm sat there in the up right tire until he started to breath again.

Mac threw her head back and laughed about it. Harm dropped his forehead to the tire and chuckled. He pulled his long legs from the broken swing and crawled to her on his hands and knees, watching her giggle madly in the grass as he silently approached. Harm quickly overtook her and flattened himself on her, playfully pinning her to the ground as she continued to laugh.

She didn't stop until he kissed her neck. She sucked in a long, clean breath. He pressed his body against hers and curled her knee around his hip. He made gentle and desperate love to her right there in the grass, under the trees and twittering birds, and from the picnic table, the silent, empty, and satisfied dark blue velvet ring box.