Page 93 of The Facilitator, Part 2

“Mackenzie Miller,” I said. I swallowed hard; all of a sudden my mouth was bone dry. Icoughed.

“Mackenzie…” He held up his hand to stopme.

“Hold up right there,” he said. He ran up the stairs and it was a minute before I heard the toilet flush and hereturned.

“You needed the loo?” Iasked.

“Sorry, yes. Now, what were you about tosay?”

“Nothing, it’s okay,” I said, completely losing mynerve.

“How about one small glass of wineoutside?”

“Sure.” I shrugged my shoulders,deflated.

He poured two glasses of the white wine we’d had earlier. I prayed my stomach would accept it, and we walked outside. He took my hand and we continued to walk to the beach. We stood and watched the waves and the moon light up theshore.

“Ask me, Lauren,” he whispered. I turned to him. It took me a minute to gather mynerve.

“Mackenzie, will you marryme?”

He didn’t speak but he took my glass from my hand. He lowered himself to place them on the sand and continued until he was on one knee. I covered my mouth with myhands.

He pulled from his pocket a velvetcase.

“This was my mother’s,” he said, as he opened the lid. “Yes, I’ll marry you, tomorrow if wecould.”

In the moonlight, he took the ring from the case and I held out my hand. Yet again, I shed tears as he placed that ring on my finger. It was a little too big, but I didn’t care. It was beautiful. The white band held a square cut diamond framed by smallerones.

Mackenzie stood and wrapped me in his arms. “I mean it. If we can get married in the next few days, that would be fuckingawesome.”

“My mum…yes, see if we can doit.”

I was about to suggest my mum would be terribly upset, but then I remembered Mack’s words to me. He didn’t have the luxury of time, and we could always have a service when we gothome.

“Let’s do it,” I shouted, excited. “Oh my fucking god.” I laughed as he picked me up and swung mearound.

“Mrs. Miller, I’ve been fucking waiting for weeks for you to do that,” hesaid.

“You could have asked me,” Isaid.

“No, how many times have I told you. You hold all thepower.”

“I need to call Gabriella, we need to plan something. Can we marry on the beach,here?”

Mackenzie laughed. “I have no idea. I guess we can find outtomorrow.”

I ran to the house and grabbed my phone. Idialled.

“Gabri…” my voicecracked.

“What’s happened, I’m coming to you now,” shesaid.

“Wait, it’s okay. Oh God, I’m getting married, next week if we can arrangeit.”

I held the phone away; burst eardrums from her screech most certainly would have postponed any nuptials. I could hear Vivienne in the background demanding to know what was happening. Gabriella, between tears, told her mynews.

“You tell her I will be with her first thing in the morning for a planning meeting,” Iheard.