When she reached the stairs, she found large vases with more bouquets, and candles on every other step to guide her way down. Her collection of notes kept getting larger.
At the door, a man in a tux waited for her with a glass of champagne in his hand. She thanked him as she accepted the glass, then beamed when she saw the sparkling white limo in the driveway.
Another well-dressed man waited there. He opened the door for her, holding her glass while she got in. Expecting to see Rafe inside, she was disappointed to find herself alone. The man handed her the champagne, then gently shut the door.
When the engine started, a video began with the most tender piano solo playing in the background, and Rafe’s face appeared on the large screen.
“There aren’t enough words in the dictionary for me to express how you have changed my life for the better, Ari. I was a fool for a long time, and yet you have given me a second chance. I promise you that I will never betray your trust again. I promise never to hurt you. I promise to do everything in my power to make you supremely happy.”
He faded away, and her mother appeared on the screen, her face beaming. Ari felt as if she could reach out and touch her.
“My beautiful daughter. You have always brought me so much joy. I am so very proud of you and all that you do for those you love, and for those who love you. If more people in the world were like you, there wouldn’t be war or hunger. There wouldn’t be crime. You are gentle and kind, loving and giving. You are the child every parent dreams of having. I love you always. This is a special day, and I am so grateful to be a part of it.”
The next image was of her friends from her old job, then Lia and Rachel, Rafe’s parents, her favorite professors, a few of her students. So many people on screen telling her how wonderful she was.
Even though none of them could see her, Ari’s cheeks heated with modest embarrassment at a video that was all about her.
The car slowed, and Ari’s stomach tensed. When would Rafe appear? Was this a marriage proposal? She didn’t want to hope, but suddenly that was all she could think about. Surely a man wouldn’t do all of this just to express his love.
The door opened, and Ari stepped out onto a red carpet, one that led through a luxuriant garden. Softly glowing candles aligned the edge of the carpet to light the way. No one was around; the driver just gave her instructions to follow the path.
A few steps in, there were more vases of her favorite flowers highlighted by the glow of the candles. Suddenly a song started playing over speakers she couldn’t see. Ari stopped as tears began cascading down her face.
“Bless the Broken Road” filled the air, surrounding Ari with Rascal Flatts’s words of love, hope, and change.
Yes, Rafe had chosen the wrong path, but he was showing her in so many ways that he had finally chosen love over pain, that he had chosen her above anything else. The song finished as she went under an arch filled with stargazer lilies and finally found Rafe in the center of a large field.
Candles burned all around him; he stood there holding a single rose, looking unbelievably handsome in a sharp black tuxedo. She glided along the path toward him, not even sure whether her feet were touching the ground.
Somewhere in her brain, she registered Keith Urban’s song “Making Memories of Us.” All of it was too much, but oh, so perfect.
She reached Rafe and he kneeled before her, the dark of the night enveloping them both, all of which made Ari’s knees shake and her tears fall.
“I’d rather die a thousand deaths than spend one more day without you in my life. You are the air that I breathe, the beat of my heart. You are the calm in a storm, and the only person who can take my pain away. I know you would flourish on your own; I know there isn’t anything that you can’t achieve for yourself. I am the one who will fail if you walk away. I would wither, crumple to the ground. You make me whole, Ari. Please say you will end my days of agony, my self-imposed prison. Marry me. Make me a better man.”
Her throat closed, making it impossible for her to speak. Rafe didn’t do anything by half measures. He loved her, really loved her, and he was showing her in the only way he knew how that it was forever.
Finally, her voice returned.
“You are wrong, Rafe. Both of us would survive without the other, but it would just be survival; it would be empty. Walking away from you once nearly destroyed me, and I don’t think I could ever do it again. Yes, I will marry you. Yes, I would be honored to stay by your side. You have given me so much, and I only hope that I can show you how much you mean to me.”
Rafe placed a sparkling diamond on her finger, the candlelight reflecting bursts of color in every direction. Yes, the ring was gorgeous, but only one thing, one thing alone, could keep her attention for long. Only the look in Rafe’s eyes.
With a laugh filled with joy, Rafe stood and swept Ari into his arms, spinning her in a circle as she registered the sound of applause.
When he set her back down, she looked around, seeing their friends and family approaching them with large congratulatory grins and nodding in approval.
“Now, what would you have done if I had turned you down in front of all these people?” she asked with a laugh.
“I would have deserved the humiliation,” he answered.
Rafe kissed her with so much love, she felt she would burst. Then they were surrounded, and Ari accepted congratulations from those she had loved her whole life, and from those who had recently become a part of her life.
How he’d managed to keep this all from her, she had no idea, but knowing that she’d get to fall asleep every night in his arms and wake every morning in the same place filled her with so much joy, she couldn’t keep the wide smile from her face.
When there was a pause in the hugs, her head lifted and Rafe’s gaze captured hers. He simply smiled back at her and Ari lost her breath. For the rest of their lives, he was hers.
Chapter Forty-Two
“This has got to be the world’s shortest engagement,” Ari said as Lia and Rachel danced in circles around her.
“What can we say? When Rafe decides on something, he goes forward at the speed of light,” Rachel said with a forced laugh.
“Well, I expected it to last longer than two weeks, but I am excited to marry him. I really am,” Ari told them as she tried on another gown.
Rafe had wanted one made, but Ari insisted that part of the fun of picking a wedding dress was to try on a hundred until she found the one that she couldn’t live without, so she was at the bridal shop with her mother, Lia and Rachel.