22.

*Joe*

I don't want to move. That's all I could think; that I just didn't want to move from that spot. I just wanted to hold Katelyn in my arms forever and ever. She stirred then and let a sigh escape her lips as her body shifted. Her head rested against my shoulder, her hands folded on my chest. And I could see the ring there. My ring. A symbol that she was going to marry me, not Rider. A symbol that said that she accepted my love and that she loved me in return. And soon, I hoped, that band would be joined by another – a wedding ring.

She stirred again and this time, she opened her eyes. Smiled brightly at me. "Good morning."

"Morning," I replied with a grin of my own. "How did you sleep?"

"You would know," she murmured softly as she sat up, yawning as she stretched, the sheets only partially covering her body.

"I supposed I would."

She must have heard the sadness in my voice, because she fell back into my arms with a kiss. "What's wrong?"

I sighed.

"You're regretting asking me to marry you, aren't you?" she teased.

I smiled. "Yeah; that's it."

She laughed and kissed me again. "So what's really up?"

"I don't want to leave," I admitted, my arms tightening around her. "I just want to get married right now and run away. Be with you forever."

"I want that, too," she replied honestly, tracing patters on my chest. "But you know we can't do that. We have to plan this; we have to make sure that we can't be found if we don't want to be. We have to check and double check."

"I know," I murmured as I kissed her temple. "I know." I repeated.

We laid in silence for a while, the only sound the noise of the workers in the vineyard somewhere below. We were up in the barn, in the room that I had managed to set up in such a short time. And it was perfect, too. Everything about last night had been perfect. It was like all of it had come out of a fairy tale: Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or something like that. It all just felt so surreal. I was actually engaged to Katelyn.

"What are you thinking about?" she whispered, her warm breath fanning my skin.

"You," I replied. "And me. Our life together."

"It's going to be amazing."

"I know it will be," I replied.

"Can I ask for a favor?"

"You can ask for anything," I replied, kissing her skin.

She smiled sweetly at me. "I really really don't want a big wedding."

"That's fine with me," I replied. "But I don't want our wedding to be something that you could get anywhere in Vegas. I want the preacher to be legit. No one even has to be there, but I want it to be more real than those twenty minute ceremonies."

She nodded. "I agree with that. But I also would like to have it in France somewhere. I mean, getting married in the city of love…"

"I have a safe house in Paris," I said. "We could stay there for our first night as a married couple."

She smiled. "Sounds really nice. Would you make French toast for me the next morning?"

I kissed her softly. "I would make you anything you wanted."

She sighed in contentment and then said, "So, when, do you think?"

I sighed. "We'll need to give it a few weeks. You'll have to come up with some kind of excuse to get you away from Rider and your parents."

"Already have one," she said and she explained her short little plan to me.

"Pretty good," I said with a nod. "I'll be able to get away really easily. Now, I just have to find the time, place, and person. But that shouldn't be too hard. A few phone calls. Actually, I know this guy that could do the wedding… Yeah, it should be him."

She chuckled softly and leaned forward to kiss my bare chest. "I feel guilty for not contributing here."

"You're a contribution," I disagreed, taking her hand in mine and kissing her fingertips, which smelled like my soap and my cologne.

"I actually like not having to deal with wedding stuff," she said. "I've been having to deal with that with Rider and it sucks. And my mom's so into it… It's like she's living vicariously through me. She never got to have a wedding with Dad because she was already pregnant so they just eloped and… She wants the wedding for her, not me."

"You want this, right?" I asked. "I mean, we can just have a certificate signed and everything. I just thought that vows would be nice…"

"No," she said quickly. "I love that idea. That's perfect. I just didn't want anything to do with mine and Rider's wedding because I didn't want the wedding to happen at all. I knew that I didn't love him."

I kissed her. "I'm glad. Is that mean of me?"

She laughed. "No; not mean at all."

I sighed then and said, "So, let's set a date."

We talked for a while and finally agreed on a date. It would give me a couple of weeks to get things ready; to make everything perfect. After we set the date, we just laid there for a little while longer, talking about our hopes and dreams for the future. It was just as perfect as the night before had been, and I wondered if my life would ever be anything but perfect when Katelyn was in it.

Probably not, I decided. Katelyn was what made my life worth living. As long as she was around and she was happy, I would be happy. She was my all; my everything.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked me again.

"Us," I answered happily. "I'm just thinking about us."

And she responded with a kiss.