Page 96 of Eden's Joker

Then he lays his hand over mine on my belly, wraps his arm around my shoulder and hugs me tight.

“Thank you. For everything,” he whispers into my hair before kissing the top of my head.

“It’s been my pleasure,” I say.

Then we just sit like that, watching the sunset for a while and nibbling on the pie.

After a while, he moves away and pulls something else from his pocket.

“We best get this show on the road then,” he says. “I had another surprise for you lined up.”

“Yeah? This day has just been full of surprises,” I say trying to see what he’s holding in his hand. It’s a colorful flyer of some sort. “What’s that?”

“An idea for our wedding. I thought we could do something special,” he says. Figures he’d already be planning our wedding. He loves to plan. And taking care of me. He loves doing that as well. Almost as much as I love taking care of him.

“I was thinking an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding down in Vegas,” he says and hands me the flyer. “Seeing as you love the book so much.”

My heart was all soft and full of love before and now it all just spills over. I hardly see the flyer. All I see clearly are his beautiful eyes and his beautiful soul.

“Unless you think that’s too corny,” he adds, clearing his throat softly. “Or you want something more, I don’t know, traditional.”

“I would absolutely love an Alice in Wonderland wedding,” I whisper. “Thank you for always thinking of me.”

He grins. “Better get used to it. Because I’m not stopping anytime soon.”

Then he clears his throat and seems to grow nervous again. I have no idea why. Maybe he doesn’t know I love him just as much as he loves me. I should find my words to tell him that.

But before I can, he says, “And if you want your family to be at the wedding, I’m fine with that.”

I gasp so loud I spook a couple of birds digging for seeds nearby. But I can’t help it. I’m pretty sure my heart just exploded with all the love I have for this man.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

He nods, not breaking eye contact with me. “I know they mean a lot to you, so I won’t stand in your way anymore.”

“That’s so big of you,” I say. “But I never doubted that this is the kind of man you are. Good, and kind, and strong. It’s why I love you and it’s why I always will.”

Those empty icy plains in his eyes are showing me our entire future now, all the way to the end of days. And as he kisses me, I feel that future too, all of it, from now until eternity. Lifetimes upon lifetimes of love and devotion, peace and love and everything else good that I can imagine. And so much more!

My life began when I met him, I always knew that. Now I get to share to rest of it with him. Mere words have no hope of ever describing the joy I feel knowing that!