Page 137 of Devil in Disguise
* * *
They went to lunch,eventually, at a Chinese restaurant in Fort Collins, the whole big group of them. After Dyma had found them after the ceremony, when she’d run to Owen, her heart brimming over, and he’d wrapped his arms around her and twirled her and kissed her and told her he was proud. After she’d talked to everybody she’d grown to know over these past years, had accepted congratulations and given them, had hugged her mom about a hundred times, and had held Nick, because she sure did love her snuggle bunny brother.
When they were in the banquet room of that restaurant, though, working their way through an endless parade of courses, Owen rapped his water glass for quiet and stood up.
“I just want to say,” he said, “that I’m so proud of Dyma, and not just because she used what I said in her speech. Man, if I’d known you were going to do that, I’d have said something better that day.”
“Nope,” she said. “There wasn’t anything better. That was the day I started figuring out my life. With your help all the way.”
“Anyway,” he said. “A toast. To, yeah, the smartest person in most any room. To the girl I met in Yellowstone, when I thought, what do I think I’m doing here? She’s in high school, bro! Problem was, I just kept on loving her.” He raised his beer glass. “So, yeah, baby. Here’s to my shining star.”
She’d been nervous before. Of course she had. There’d been at least a thousand people at that commencement. Now, there were only about twenty, and six of them were kids. And her heart was thudding in her chest so hard as she stood up, she thought it must be visible.
“I meant what I said,” she told all of them. “I have so many people to thank. I wore Grandma’s bracelet today, because of what you told me when you gave it to me, Mom, on the night I graduated from high school. That I could look down at the diamond in it,herdiamond, and know that her love is always there in my heart, shining just that bright, believing in me even when I had so much trouble believing in myself. She taught me how to be tough, and Grandpa Oscar taught me how to laugh. Andyoutaught me how to be steady and keep moving on. How to keep the core of myself whole, no matter what anybody said, and how to give. And then there’s Harlan, who didn’t have to do anything at all for his girlfriend’s mouthy daughter, and did so much anyway.”
She hadn’t written this speech down. She hadn’t memorized it, either. She was purely winging it. “I’d go around and thank everybody, but the restaurant would probably kick us out for staying too long. So I’ll just say that you’ve all helped me so much, and you’re helping me today, too, because you’re here, like you’ve always been here for me. I meant what I said. I can’t do this alone. But there’s one person I have to say something special to.”
She walked across to him. He was still standing there, big and strong and unmovable. Her bison shifter. She said, “Meeting you was the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me. I was like you, though. Once I got done being so, you know, young and dumb, I thought, what am I doing here? Nobody ends up with the hot guy they meet when they’re still in high school, and this is too hard. But you just kept on being wonderful, and wise, and smart, and so strong. You took my breath away. You still do. Every time I see you, my heart just … lifts. So I want to say …”
He’d frozen, in that way Owen did when he was emotional. One hand on the back of a chair, his eyes on her face, and his features immobile.
She got down on one knee.
His face froze even more.
Oh, boy. Was this just really stupid? Her voice was shaking when she said, “When you asked me to marry you two years ago, I told you I wasn’t ready. When you asked me a year ago, I said the same thing. The truth is, I didn’t know if you’d really be up for all the adjustments we’ll have to do, with you playing and me working, and still not able to be together all the time. But what I said today … that was for you, too. Love isn’t about being perfect. Love is trying, and when you don’t do it well enough, it’s about trying harder. I’m ready to try harder with you, and I’m asking you instead of waiting for you to ask me because … because I want you to know, whatever happens in our life, however hard it gets, that I wanted you enough to ask. That I cared enough to risk this, tosaythis, in front of everybody. And, yes, before you ask, I want kids. I wantyourkids, because nobody else could be as good a dad as you. I probably don’t want them for another six or seven years, though, because I’ve got so much to do, and you do, too. Do you think you can wait that long?”
And then she pulled the box out of the pocket of her dress. And waited.
* * *
He was still tryingto come up with an answer. Everybody was staring, and he was trying to think.
He pulled her to her feet. He couldn’t stand to see her down there. “Dyma. Wait.”
“Oh.” Her face twisted, and tears filled her eyes. “You don’t … it’s not …” Her mouth was trembling, and so was her voice.
“No. Of course not!” He had to hold her, then. “Of course I want to marry you. Are you kidding?”
“Then is it the kid thing?” she asked. “Sorry. I guess I should’ve …”
“No.No.It’s … that’s good, what you said. I want to be there for them, too. Him. Her. Whatever. And I can be, if it’s six or seven years from now, because football isn’t forever. That’s one thing a rancher can be—there for his kids. I just want to …” He really could’ve used some privacy for this. “I was going to ask you again today. Why do you think I’m taking you to Tahiti? It was going to be a celebration. I hoped.”
“Oh.” Her face cleared like the sun coming out, she had her arms around his neck, and he was kissing her, then just holding her close.
“OK,” she said after a minute, and a little bit of wiping away tears, too. “So can I finish my speech?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But you can’t kneel down for it. Tell me.”
She took a breath and did it. Heart on display, courage right up front. She opened the box.
It was platinum, white gold, something like that, thick and chunky and brushed to a matte finish. With a diamond in it. On the … inside. In a recessed little hole.
She said, “This is you. You’re strong and undecorated on the outside, but on the inside, you shine so bright. You have goodness. That’s what’s inside you. Goodness. This is a …” Another breath. “A wedding ring. I figured, you’ve been asking me for two years, and everybody’s here, so I sort of … asked the minister to meet us.”
“At the ranch?” He was starting to smile. He couldn’t have helped it if he’d tried, and he didn’t want to try.
“Wyoming has no waiting period, and no blood tests. I looked it up. We can be at the courthouse in less than two hours to get the license, and then we can just go home and … do it. And be married. I’ve waited this long, and now, I can’t stand to wait any longer.”
“You don’t want a … a thing? With the dress, and all?”
“No. I’d just be nervous. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for my real life to start. But what I realized? It’s started. It started all the way back there at Yellowstone, the first time I ever came to Wyoming, and now, it’s here. We’ve got it, you and me. I want to marry you today with everybody we love best there to see it happen. I figured, most people were planning to stay over tonight anyway, and for the ones who aren’t? I rented some motel rooms in Cheyenne. I thought, go big or go home, right? And then we go on our trip to Tahiti and come back knowing we’re together. All the way. Forever. Whatever kinds of adjustments we have to make, and whether it looks like somebody else’s marriage or not. It doesn’t have to be anybody else’s marriage. It has to beourmarriage. It has to work for us, and this does. We’ve done it so far, and we can do it some more.”
“Then,” he said, “let’s do it.”
“Seriously?”
He laughed. His heart was a balloon, filling up and floating away. He got to marry her now. Today. He pulled out the box in his own pocket, the one with the wedding ring in it. Another rose-gold band studded with diamonds, for her to wear closest to her heart. He opened the box and said, “I was going to ask you again today, and say something pretty close to what you just did. My dad told me, a couple years back, after you left me, ‘The devil doesn’t come with pointy ears and a tail. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.’ Well, joke’s on the devil, then. I’ve got everything I’ve ever wished for. It’s all right here. So, baby?”
He smiled. He couldn’t have done anything else. “So what I’ve got to say to that ol’ devil? Sign me up, brother. Go right ahead and sign me up.”