Burnt Chicken, Surprises, and Plans: Part 2

I woke up to the gentle stroke of his fingers against my bare stomach. His other hand was playing with my fingers, interlocking them together with his. We were so close that I could feel his heartbeat at my back; my breath was in time with his; and his head was resting against mine on the same pillow.

He exhaled through his nose, chuckling softly.

"What's so funny?" I croaked, looking at him over my shoulder.

"Timing."

I flopped onto my side to roll over and face him. "What do you mean?" I yawned, my constant exhaustion threatening to pull me back under. He tucked our blankets tighter around me before he sat up, climbing out of bed, taking all of his body heat with him.

"Where are you going?"

He didn't answer as he walked across the room to the chair near the window. He picked up the jacket he had put on my shoulder's earlier, searching the pockets. I didn't see what was in his hand even when he crawled back into bed with me.

"What is that?"

"You want to get married?"

I didn't even hesitate. "I do. I want to marry you, be married to you. Whatever it is, I want it with you. "

"Why now?"

It was a fair question, one he most definitely deserved to know the answer to. I knew what he was really asking: Why now, when you said no before?

"It's not the reason you think it is."

"What do you think I think it is?"

I paused, trying to work that out in my head. "Is there a map that goes with that?"

He smiled, amused, but I could tell he really wanted to know why I suddenly wanted to marry him now and not when he asked me a little over a year ago. "When I asked you to marry me, you said you weren't ready. You said you needed more time, and I never asked you why or what that meant. I trusted that you'd tell me when you were ready. "

"Is this how you turn me down?" I joked nervously. It occurred to me that he never actually said he would marry me.

He laughed. "Like I could ever turn you down." My heart swelled. "I've been waiting to marry you since the moment we met." We were always a sure thing in his mind. I was glad we were on the same page. "I'm just asking, why now? What changed? "

"My parents."

Dimitri's eyes softened. He knew how touchy the subject was for me. I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't have to. I could count on one hand the number of times I've talked about my parents since they died, even with Dimitri. It wasn't that I didn't trust him or want him to know all parts of me. It was just too painful for me to even think about, let alone talk about.

"That road trip we took last summer."

It was Dimitri's and I's first real vacation. He surprised me in the middle of the night, telling me he had finally put in all of his vacation days, and we drove all the way to New York with a few pit stops in between. One of those stops was in Missoula, Montana, where I was from and where my parents were buried. They died when I was a kid but old enough to remember and miss them. I grew up with my grandmother, who loved and raised me until she herself passed away when I was eighteen. I had plenty of friends who adopted me into their families, welcoming me as one of their own, but there aren't many words in existence to describe the emptiness of not having any familial blood ties.

I grew up well, happy and healthy... but also angry. I didn't realize how angry I was at being left alone, as though my parents intentionally left me behind in that car accident, until our little detour to Missoula. I had never planned to go back there and the stop wasn't on our "spontaneous" itinerary, but Dimitri suggested it as we passed the highway sign.

"When will we ever pass this way again?"

I had agreed, and we drove through the town I vaguely remembered, pointing out what I could, noting some of the changes. I was doing alright, feeling okay, until we pulled into the cemetery, the last place I was really with my parents, where I left them behind. I don't know how long I sat at their plots, staring down at their names, dates of birth and death, and the last part of the epitaph claiming them as husband and wife and my parents. Dimitri was beside me the entire time. He didn't say anything, but just having him there was enough. He'd always been the strong, silent type, and I realized then that he was someone I both wanted and needed in my life. He took tools from the back of his truck and quietly cleaned up around the was one of the first moments I knew I would eventually marry him.

I told him everything I could remember about them, how lonely I felt being an only child and essentially an orphan with my grandmother gone. I told him about the accident and the nightmares I had and how, for the longest time, I wished I had died too. In all of our years of dating, it was the most I'd ever opened up to him, and it felt good, like a relief, as though he was always supposed to be the one I told. He listened without interrupting, letting me talk until I didn't have any more words, and held me when I couldn't stop shaking. He told me that our friends and his family loved me; that I was the most important person in his world; that he loved me; and to hold on to the knowledge that I was loved.

"You were there for me. I told you about every part of me, every dark thought I've ever had, and you still told me you loved me."

"I always tell you that."

I exhaled a laugh. "Exactly. I just started to see it more, the little things you do for me. I mean, I noticed it before, but I never really appreciated it as much as I did then. So it's not that something changed. It's more like I finally noticed what was right in front of me all along. The oldest cliche in the world, " I snorted.

"And that's why you're ready to marry me now."

"I wanted to be sure I was okay just being me before it became me and you. And now, baby, "I smiled, that mix of nervousness and excitement pooling in my belly. "If I wasn't alright, if I hadn't had the time to sort everything out in my head about my parents and who I am and where I am in my life, I don't think I'd have ever been ready, but you gave me the time to do that, which is part of what made me ready. Did any of that make sense? "

He chuckles. "Perfect sense."

"Finding out I was pregnant just made me realize even more how much I want a family and I want it with you. I swear I was already thinking about how to bring up the topic again before I found out about the baby. I know how it seems funny that I suddenly want to marry you now that I'm pregnant, but that's not it. It's just... funny timing. "

Dimitri smiles, holding my hands in his. "Timing."

I was about to ask what he meant, but he slid whatever he pulled from his coat out of the pocket of his jeans. It was a small, auburn, velvet ring box, the same box he had pulled out when he proposed to me before. And in it was the ring, my ring. I had asked him to do it for me, but now I was itching to put it on. He popped it out of the box and held it poised at the end of my ring finger. He waited a beat, waited for me to eagerly nod my consent like a bobble head, before he slid it on. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was. Rose gold with burgundy roses and vines patterned along the band, with a simple diamond sitting on top. It was perfect and it was mine.

"I was going to ask you to marry me again."

I pushed his chest. "Shut up! No you weren't! "

"I was. I put in my vacation days, and we were going to Baia with Mama, Yeva, and my sisters next week for the family reunion. It was supposed to be a surprise, but right now feels like the perfect time. "

"Since I proposed first this time?" I teased.

He laughed out loud. "Yes, you beat me to the punch."

I leaned against him, holding my ring up in the dim street light filtering through our window. "So basically, we're both asking each other to marry one another."

"Basically," he agreed, one arm wrapped around my waist as he leaned back against the pillows, his arm thrown tiredly over his eyes.

"So we just agreed to get married?"

"Yep," he said, mimicking me from earlier.

I snuggled close and he tightened his hold around me. His hand clamped over my belly. I felt the press of his lips to my temple as his breathing evened out, exhaustion from the day behind us and thoughts of the days ahead pulling us both under.