Page 57 of George’s Big Day

His smile made his eyes gleam. “I need a promise.”

“Well, you’ll be getting a big one here in just a bit.”

“I need another.”

“Whatever you want.”

He cleared his throat. “You promise me now to always do everything in your power to come home to me, be it from work or when you’re deployed.”

“But I’ve already––”

“Yes,” he agreed. “But this is different. This is forever.”

Staring into his sweet eyes, I couldn’t immediately find the words to give him.

“I don’t know what I would do without you,” he confessed gruffly. “I need this.”

Knowing him as I did, I knew better than to ask him if he still wanted to marry me. He wasn’t going to change his mind. His love was far stronger than his fear.

I took a breath. “I promise to always do everything in my power to get home to you. It’s where I want to be more than anything.”

Long exhale from him and he quickly brushed away a couple of stray tears. “Good.”

We were quiet then, just standing together in the doorway.

“You know, I might have worked myself up to nearly puking, thinking about how much I want to marry you and how crazy it is at the same time.”

“Yeah. Because what the hell do you know about getting married?”

“That’s exactly right. Did you do that too?”

I laughed. “Maybe it’s a good sign that we’re both worried and neither of us wants to screw up.”

“It’s a very good sign,” he stated firmly. “And so you know, I can’t wait for you to wear your two rings together. I’m ridiculously excited.”

“And I can’t wait for you to wear yours, even though you should have diamonds too.”

“No,” he said with a smile, and I saw him shiver a bit. “Like I told you before, all I need is a plain thick band to tell everyone that I belong to you.”

“Which you do,” I said, leaning in.

He met me more than halfway. “We’re going to be great at this.”

And truly, I was betting on us.