Something Lovely Read online

I had a plan about how to surprise Jolene. I had already talked to my mom about it, but I knew I couldn’t rush it, so I just walked up and greeted like everyone else, trying to act as natural as possible.

  "Did you get in touch with my brother?" she asked casually.

  "Oh, that, no. I mean, I-I think I ended up just emailing him."

  It was a ridiculous lie, but I was so nervous that it just came out. She hadn't even given me his email address. What was I thinking? Fortunately, Jolene didn't seem to think twice about it. There were so many people standing around who had questions for her and Wes that she easily went on to other things.

  "Dinner's gonna be a few more minutes," Mom announced a moment later once everybody had the chance to settle down. "I think Ivy's got a game for y'all to play while we're waiting."

  Chapter 20

  It was not out of the ordinary for me to make everyone participate in some sort of game or contest, so no one thought it suspicious that I wanted to play a game while we waited for dinner. Everyone besides Wes and Jolene knew what was going on, anyway, and they played along, gathering around the big kitchen peninsula.

  My mom already had pencils and paper handy for the big moment. She even had a scarf for blindfolding, which was super prepared of her.

  "Okay, so some of y'all will remember this one," I said, getting everyone's attention as I absentmindedly shifted the papers. "It's one we used to play a long time ago."

  There were a ton of people at the house, so a few of them lost interest, talking amongst themselves in the back of the group or tending to the children. All of them were gathered around, though, which was only happening because everyone wanted to see the surprise. (Usually, I could only rope about five or six at a time into playing my games.)

  "So, it's like Pictionary, only the person drawing has no idea what they're doing. They just follow the instructions that are given to them."

  "Oh, I remember this," Wes said.

  I nodded at him. "So, let's say the word is television." I said. "The person drawing the TV has no idea what they're drawing. They put on the blindfold and follow the instructions given to them. Only one person knows the clue, and they're trying to make us all guess it by telling the blindfolded person what to draw. Does that make sense?" Before anyone could answer I said, "Look, it's easy. Let’s just play, and you'll see. Wes, you can start. You can give the clues to Jolene."

  Jolene looked a little reluctant to be the first one chosen to play, but I thrust the blindfold into her hands, not giving her a choice.

  "Okay, sit right here," I said.

  I positioned her on a stool with the paper right in front of her. Behind her back, I shot a conspiratorial look to my mother. She knew to go and get Luke from the back room, and she smiled and nodded at me.

  "Okay, Jo, so you just do what Wes tells you, and we will all try to guess what you're drawing."

  "So, he knows what I'm drawing but I don't?" Jolene clarified.

  I nodded. "I'm going to tell Wes an object, and he has to give you instructions like, draw two small squares on top of each other, and things like that. He'll say 'on the right or left', and 'higher or lower', and give you instructions like that.

  Jolene looked a little hesitant. "Are you sure we shouldn't let someone try it who knows what they're doing?"

  "No, no, no, you'll be fine. You're an artist. It's easy, you'll see."

  She made a silly fearful face as she put on the blindfold.

  "Can you see anything?" I asked.

  "No."

  I could see my mother pulling Luke out of the hallway, and I watched, feeling delirious with nerves and adrenaline as they silently but quickly crossed the living room, headed toward us. Wes was standing right next to me, and I squeezed his arm tightly enough to cause him to look at me. I put my finger to my lips and made a face, pleading with him to keep quiet about Luke's arrival. I began winking—that over exaggerated wink that let Wes know that whatever I was about to say was a lie.

  "Okay, let me tell Wes the object," I said, talking to Jolene. "He's going to give you the clues in just a second. Are you sure you can't see?"

  She touched the blindfold. "I'm sure," she said.

  I kept my eyes trained on Wes, begging him not to say anything as I pulled Luke toward me. I was about to whisper into Luke's ear, but I was afraid I would say it too loud, so I grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote down the word "snowman". I was so anxious that I nearly flashed it for the whole crowd to see. It wouldn't have mattered, anyway, since we weren't really playing the game.

  "Got it?" I asked.

  Luke nodded.

  "Okay, you guys have two minutes. If you can't make them guess it in two minutes, we'll let somebody else go."

  "I'm nervous!" Jolene said, taking the words out of my mouth. "Are my hands in the right place?"

  I glanced at her right hand, which was holding a pencil and positioned right in the middle of the paper. "Yes," I said. "Perfect."

  The kids were in the living room. My dad was keeping them preoccupied while the whole thing went down. I nervously shifted my gaze around the bar. Everybody was smiling and watching us to see what would happen.

  I gave the word… "On your mark, get set, go!"

  "Okay," Luke said. "Draw, three circles on top of each other, and make the bottom one the biggest."

  Yikes. It was too good of a first clue, and I cringed, fearing that someone would call out the answer before Jolene even had the chance to figure out it was her brother's voice.

  Jolene began drawing the circles. She drew one, and then a second that was positioned on top of the first—they overlapped a little, but it was pretty accurate for being blindfolded. She started to draw the third circle, but then she stopped, holding her pencil completely still.

  My heart raced because I knew she had figured something out.

  "Wes?" she asked.

  "Yeah?" Wes answered.

  "Okay, for a second… you sounded like…"

  Slowly, Jolene continued drawing the third circle. She had stopped and started on this one, so it was completely in the wrong place, and we all smiled at each other at the sight of it being several inches from the others.

  "Now, I'm going to help you find the right spot, and when we get there, I want you to draw a little line, about an inch long."

  "That is not Wes," she said. "Who's giving me clues?"

  "Who do you think it is?" I asked.

  "It sounds exactly like my brother. Who is it? Liam? Uncle Gray?"

  "What if it is your brother?" Luke asked.

  Jolene was still for a second, and then, all at once, she gasped and spun around on her stool, ripping her blindfold off.

  I couldn’t stop myself from laughing as I watched them. I felt like I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She stared straight at her brother in total amazement before shooting off of her stool to hug him.

  "What in the world are you doing here?" she squealed. "I can't believe it!"

  She squeezed him tightly before pulling back to regard him at arm's length. She glanced around at all of us who were standing around, watching them.

  "Did you know about this?" she asked, looking straight at Wes.

  He shook his head, holding his hands up innocently.

  "He had no idea," I said.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Is everything okay? Are Mom and Dad—"

  "Everything's fine," Luke said with a broad smile.

  He reached for me, pulling me toward him.

  My heart hammered in my chest as I took those steps, coming to stand right next to Luke and directly in front of Jolene. He put his arm around me protectively.

  "I came here for Ivy," he said.

  I honestly expected her to squeal with delight and reach out to embrace us, but to my horror, the opposite happened.

  Her smile faded and her face became a mask of confusion and maybe even distress. She hadn't even said a thing and, already, I felt like I couldn't breathe. Everyone was silent, watching
us.

  "What?" she asked, still looking dumfounded.

  "Ivy," he said calmly. "She and I are… well, we're in love, Jo. We love each other."

  He sounded way more composed than I felt.

  Dread and panic washed over me because of the disgruntled look on her face.

  "No," she said, shaking her head a little and staring at us. "You must be joking."

  "I thought you'd be happy," Luke said.

  "Are you guys playing a joke on me or something?" She looked around with a little smile like she thought she might be on a hidden camera show. Then her smile fell as she regarded us again. She was stunned, not happy at all. "Please tell me you're joking." she said.

  "Babe, calm down," Wes said in a comforting tone.

  My mom stepped forward. "Luke came in last week to see Ivy. They thought they would surprise you."

  "Well, they sure did surprise me," Jolene said seriously with wide eyes. She shook her head in dismay as she continued to look at us. I saw her eyes go to the place where Luke's hand was wrapped around my shoulder, and she stared at us as if she was sickened by the sight of us together.

  My heart was broken.

  I was shocked and humiliated.

  I was speechless. I didn't know what to do or say. Never, in a million years, would I have anticipated her reacting this way.

  "I can't believe you're serious," she said, looking straight at Luke.

  She looked at me.

  I wanted to cry.

  I wanted to disappear into thin air.

  "You better stop," Luke said. "She's gonna think you're actually serious."

  "I'm totally not serious," Jolene said, looking at me with a straight face. I felt like I was dreaming as her scowl slowly turned to a little smirk.

  My stomach churned and my heart pounded.

  I felt the blood leave my face. What was going on? I turned to stare up at Luke who glanced at me with a little grin. He held me tightly, which was a good thing, because I was weak in the knees.

  Luke smiled and leaned down to kiss my cheek. "Jolene's not the one being surprised here," he said.

  "She's not?" I asked weakly.

  I glanced around, noticing everyone's eyes on me. They were all smiling. A couple of them—Shug and my mom were looking like they wanted to cry. Even the babies were standing around, watching. Uncle Gray had out his phone and was videoing. It was completely surreal.

  There were so many people staring at me that it took a few seconds for my eyes to fall on them. I had to do a double take. Ben and Ginger Wright were standing at the edge of the crowd. They were holding onto each other and Ginger was staring at me expectantly with her hands clasped in front of her face like she, too, was about to cry.

  "What, wh… what are y'all…" I looked at Luke again. "Your parents," I said. "Is that your parents?"

  He nodded, and I felt Jolene reach out to hug me. She took me into her arms. "I'm so sorry," she said, laughing a little. "I had to mess with you a little. I love you, Ivy, and I couldn't be happier that you love my brother."

  I hugged her back. I didn't fully understand what was going on, but I was so very relieved to see a smile on her face.

  "I couldn’t resist teasing you a little when Luke told us your big plan," she said.

  I turned around so that I could face Luke. "You told them my plan?" I asked.

  "I had to," he said. "Because I had a plan of my own."

  "You did?"

  "He does," Jolene said proudly as she stepped back to sit on her stool.

  "A big one," my mom said.

  Again, I glanced around, and could see that most of the women in the room had their hands in front of their faces like they were about to cry or were already crying. Daniel must have noticed it as well because I heard him say, "We might need a box of tissues over here," causing everyone to laugh.

  "Are your mom and dad really here?" I asked Luke. I truly thought I might be seeing things.

  He nodded. "They flew in this afternoon."

  I glanced at them, and Ginger smiled and waved at me. I waved back, although it was probably somewhat stiff since I was still stunned.

  "I'm only going to do this one time in my whole life," Luke said. "So, I wanted to do it right."

  "Amen to that!" my dad said.

  And then it happened.

  Right there in front of God and everybody, Luke went to his knees. Not one knee, like you see in the movies, but both of them. He got on both of his knees, holding onto me by gripping onto my pants and staring straight up at me. He was so tall, that even on his knees, his face was almost at my chest.

  Hot tears sprang to my eyes as I realized what he was doing. I could hear people around me whimpering and sniffling, which made me cry even more. I held onto Luke's arm, feeling like if I didn't, I might fall over.

  "Ivy Bishop, I love you more than any man has ever loved any woman, ever."

  I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

  Various noises were coming from the onlookers, but our eyes were trained on each other. I stared straight at him feeling an undeniable sense of comfort in the midst of this whirlwind of emotions.

  "Please, please, my sweet, precious, beautiful Ivy, would you please marry me?"

  "Oh, Luke, yes! Oh my gosh, of course, yes, yes, yes."

  My face crumpled as I collapsed into his arms. He caught me and held me there while everyone cheered and clapped. There was so much noise and movement that I didn't even know how we got to our feet.

  One second, we were on our knees, then we on our feet, and then, just like that, my feet were no longer touching the floor. Luke lifted me by the waist, and I held his face in my hands as I kissed him over and over again. People were clapping, whistling, cheering, crying, talking, and patting us on our backs. It was the most beautiful chaos I had ever experienced.

  "Don't forget the ring!" someone yelled out.

  "Oh yeah," Luke said. (kiss) "There's a (kiss) ring in my (kiss) pocket."

  I smiled, stealing a quick glance at his gorgeous mouth as he smiled back. "I'll get it later," I said before kissing him again.

  Epilogue

  It was difficult to watch Luke get on an airplane to go back to London. I knew in my heart that a three-month separation wasn't a big deal, but I had grown undeniably accustomed to having him around.

  I didn't have any plans to go to London during that time, but at a little over the half-way point (in early May) I broke down and booked a trip. I was non-stop back home with wrapping up the school year at the nonprofit and getting prepped for summer programs. Making sure the contractors focused on finishing the house was a job in itself, but I got desperate and cleared my schedule for three days so I could go to London to see him.

  That trip was short, but it was just the boost I needed. Seeing Luke was like a breath of fresh air. It motivated me to work even harder to prepare myself and our home for his arrival.

  My contractor had crews at the house around the clock, and my family also helped tremendously. Between my parents, siblings, cousins, and aunts and uncles, I had lots of help. I also received a lot of really nice hand-me-down furniture that made the house feel comfortable and warm right from the start. My aunt Rhonda was an expert gardener, and she put my dad and brothers to work, planting and seeding. I couldn't believe how quickly it all came together. It turned out even better than I pictured.

  I moved in five days before Luke's arrival. I had planned on spending my first night there with Luke, but the house was finished early, and I loved it so much that I couldn’t resist moving in once it was done.

  Shug and Doozy gave us their gigantic four-poster bed for the master bedroom. She said it was because she wanted to get something new, but I knew she just wanted to give me her old one. It was made of cherry wood with thick, ornate posts. I had always loved that bed. I looked forward to spending the night at Shug and Doozy's because I loved sleeping in that bed—it made me feel like a princess. And now it was mine. Ours. She gave us the frame and dresse
r and even bought us a new memory foam mattress for it.

  My mom and dad supplied the bedding—a beautiful, fluffy, light grey comforter with matching sheets and lots of throw pillows. It was the most luxurious sleeping situation I could ever imagine.

  Luke flew in the evening before the wedding. We both knew we were cutting it close with choosing to book his flight that close to the wedding, especially with possible flight delays or cancelations, but that's just the way it had to be. If Luke and I would have had it our way, we would have planned the wedding the instant he stepped off the plane, so it was already a stretch to give ourselves the one-day buffer.

  I didn't see him at all the evening he flew in. I hadn't seen him since my trip to London, which was five weeks ago. He was staying at my parents' house, and knowing he was there was torture for me, but I kept myself away. My whole family knew we were waiting until the wedding, so they all chipped in with helping us stay away from each other.

  Luke's parents had flown in with him, and they came to our new house the evening before the wedding, but they made Luke stay behind. Mr. Wright had an extensive collection of fine art, and he brought three amazing paintings for us. I knew they were coming. I had been given their dimensions and had prepared places on the wall for them, so when he and Ginger came over, we made quick work of hanging them up. The Wrights were happy with how the paintings looked in our new home, and I was ever so grateful for the gorgeous gifts. I was sad, however, that they left Luke behind when they came. I was desperate to see him.

  My brothers and their families were at my parents' house, so they kept him occupied. I could not believe he was so close to me and we weren’t seeing each other. Whose crazy idea was this, anyway? Okay, so it was mine, but what was I thinking? I really regretted saying I didn't want to see him before the wedding, and I did my best to try to talk everyone into letting me change my mind, but they assured me that these short hours would fly by and I would live through the torture.

  I tried my best to make it, I really did, but at midnight, the temptation proved to be too much. I sent him a text.

  Me: "I can't do it."