“Please believe me.”
“I do,” she replied, her voice
soft. “I was just angry.”
Josh nodded, rubbing his eyes
roughly as the waiter appeared with our food. He cleared his throat and Annie
swallowed a few times. I knew their moment was over, but I was happy they’d
finally seemed to come to some kind of understanding.
After the waiter left, we all
awkwardly tucked into our food. I began to wonder if maybe I had misread things
with Josh yesterday. Maybe he had only wanted to apologize, and not ask
us…well. Maybe he had said his piece.
“So, girls,” he said, setting down
his fork after a few moments. “Now that we’ve cleared the air a little bit,
there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Or maybe not.
“I’m kind of old-fashioned about
some things, so it was important to me that I do this the right way.” Josh
seemed less nervous now, more excited. I felt my heartbeat quicken.
“The two of you are Ginny’s family,
much more so than her parents. So it’s only right that you be the ones I ask.”
I wanted to look at Annie, wanted
to see if she had figured it out yet, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from
Josh.
“I want to ask for your
blessing...To propose, I mean. I’m going to ask Ginny to marry me.”
Chapter Eight
Josh proposed to Ginny on a Monday
afternoon in the living room of our little yellow house.
Annie and I were both at work when
it happened, but Ginny described it to us later in intricate detail.
He didn’t go for any huge romantic
gesture—that wasn’t their style. Instead, he made her a sandwich and
changed the baby so she could eat her lunch in peace. When she was finished,
they went to the living room to play with Danny. Ginny knelt on the floor to
place Danny on his play mat—when she looked up, Josh was kneeling beside
her with the ring.
My best friend is engaged.
I still can’t believe it. Ginny is
going to be married. Ginny is going to be someone’s wife. How weird is that?
After Josh asked us for our
blessing, Annie and I stared at him for a full minute before either of us could
say a word. I snapped out of it first, telling him, of course, that I would be
so happy for them and getting up to kiss his cheek.
Annie took a bit longer, and she
couldn’t be quite so effusive as I was. But she did smile at Josh and tell him
congratulations, very nearly managing to sound happy.
Waiting for him to actually ask her
was the hardest part. I felt very weird knowing about this before Ginny did,
but Josh assured us they had talked about it extensively.
“I’ve wanted to get married since
the day I came back,” he explained ruefully. “But Ginny has been dead set
against it. She wanted to keep her independence, and stay with you girls. I ask
her about it every month or so, and lately she’s finally saying she thinks
she’s ready. All that’s left is to actually propose.”
When I got home Monday night, Ginny
was still weepy.
“Oh, Jen,” she said shakily, her
eyes red-rimmed. “I’m just so happy. I knew this was coming, we had talked
about it, you know, but for it to be real…” She trailed off in tears. Her smile, though, was radiant and had
yet to leave her face since I walked in the door.
“Ginny, I’m so happy for you,” I
told her honestly, hugging her tight.
“It’s what I’ve wanted my whole
life,” she said simply. “I know that might sound silly, but it’s true.”
I was happy for her, honestly I
was. I knew she loved Josh, always had, and I knew he loved her back and took
good care of her. I knew it was great for Danny that his parents would be
together.
But I couldn’t help but be a little
sad for myself. I knew it was selfish, but there it was. I loved the little
family that Ginny, Annie, and I had created with Danny. I loved coming home at
night, knowing that they’d be there. I loved making my plans based around them.
When I first started at NoLimits , I let
myself get a little bit nuts with the