At First Sight - Nicholas Sparks [7]
It was a romantic vision, even poetic, and Jeremy had never been prone to poetic thoughts. Maybe that was another reason he knew she was the one. Because she’d opened his heart and mind to new feelings and ideas. But whatever the reason, as he rode in the car with his lovely bride-to-be, he was content with whatever might happen to them in the future.
He reached for her hand.
Did it really matter, after all, that he was abandoning his home in New York City and putting his future career plans on hold to move to the middle of nowhere? Or that he was about to embark on a year in which he had to plan a wedding, set up their household, and prepare for a baby?
How hard could it be?
Two
He’d proposed at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.
He knew it was a cliché, but weren’t all proposals something of a cliché? There were, after all, only so many ways he could do it. He could do it sitting, standing, kneeling, or lying down. He could be either eating or not eating, at home or someplace else, with or without candles, wine, sunrises, sunsets, or anything that might strike someone as vaguely romantic. Somewhere, sometime, Jeremy knew that some guy had already done it all, so there wasn’t much sense in worrying whether she would be disappointed. He knew, of course, that some men went all out—skywriting, billboards, the ring found during a romantic scavenger hunt. But he was pretty sure that Lexie wasn’t the type to require total originality. Besides, the view of Manhattan was breathtaking, and as long as he remembered to hit the highlights—why he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, the presentation of the ring, popping the question—Jeremy figured he had it pretty much covered.
It wasn’t as if it were a total surprise, after all. They hadn’t specifically talked about it beforehand, but the fact that he was moving to Boone Creek, coupled with various bits of we-type conversation in the last few weeks, had left no doubt that it was coming. As in, We should go shopping for a bassinet to put by our bed, or We should visit your parents. Since Jeremy hadn’t contradicted those statements, a case could be made that Lexie had already sort of proposed to him.
Still, even if it hadn’t come as a complete surprise, Lexie was obviously thrilled. Her first instinct, after wrapping her arms around him and kissing him, was to call Doris to let her know the news, a conversation that lasted twenty minutes. He supposed he should have expected that, not that he minded. Despite his outer calm, the fact that she’d actually agreed to spend the rest of her life with him was overwhelming.
Now, nearly a week later, they were in a cab on the way to his parents’ house, and he noted the ring on her finger. Being engaged, as opposed to dating, was the Next Big Step, one that most men, Jeremy included, rather enjoyed. He could, for instance, do certain things with Lexie that were pretty much off-limits to anyone else in the world. Like kissing. For example, he could lean across the backseat right now and kiss her. More than likely she wouldn’t be offended. She’d probably even be pleased. Try that with a stranger and see how far it got you, Jeremy thought. The whole concept left him feeling rather good about what he’d done.
Lexie, on the other hand, was glancing out the window and appeared troubled.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What if they don’t like me?”
“They’re going to love you. What’s not to love? And besides, you had a good lunch with my mom, right? You said you two really hit it off.”
“I know,” she said, sounding unconvinced.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“What if they think I’m taking you away?” she asked. “What if your mom was just being nice, but deep down she feels resentment?”
“She doesn’t,” he said. “And I’m telling you not to worry so much. For one thing, you’re not taking me away. I’m leaving New York because I’d rather be with you, and they know that. Trust me, they’re happy about this. My mom’s been hounding me to get remarried for years.”
She pursed her lips, thinking about