We all jump to our feet clapping and screaming as she shyly walks across the stage. Jesse didn’t want to do the whole cap and gown graduation thing, but I insisted. I also rented out the entire bowling alley for a surprise party afterwards. She is going to be so pissed. I laugh every time I think about the angry face she’ll make when she realizes what I did. She’ll have to get over it. This is something to celebrate.
Sarah has spent the last nine months in a court-mandated outpatient recovery center. It specializes in traumatic brain injuries, but they are also working her through all of her guilt. It’s where she should have been all along. Her sister moved up from Savannah, Georgia to take care of her.
I haven’t seen Sarah since that night when I said goodbye. The very next day I filed a restraining order so she couldn’t see Jesse ever again. Jesse had Caleb go behind my back and have it temporarily lifted so she could attend Sarah’s trial. She even spoke on Sarah’s behalf when it came time for sentencing.
I can’t forgive Sarah. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to. The fear I felt that day was too intense for me to ever truly get over. But the way Jesse has taken Sarah’s back has only reinforced why I fell in love with her to begin with.
“Where are we going?” she asks for the hundredth time since we left her graduation ceremony.
“Stop asking, gorgeous.”
“No, start answering, Brett.”
Did I mention that Jesse’s sass factor has increased over the last nine months? Gone is the shy, insecure girl I first met. I might be biased, but this woman is even sexier.
“Do you love me?” I catch her off guard.
“Of course, why would you ask me that? Oh my God, what did you do?”
“Forever. Right?”
“Brett Sharp, what did you do?” she yells. I just smile to myself and turn into the bowling alley parking lot.
“I bought you a graduation present.”
“Please tell me you didn’t buy me a bowling alley,” she says, looking more concerned than angry.
I throw my head back in laughter, “Remind me later, we really should sit down and have a talk about our finances. I definitely did not buy you a bowling alley.”
“Oh thank God!” she rushes out on a breath, causing me to laugh even harder.
“Come on babe, this is about to get better.” The familiar words cause her eyes to go wide before closing completely. “Jesse, let’s go inside.” When she opens them, her eyes dance with pure happiness. I might have given her too much with that one sentence, but the look on her face is worth it.
“Okay,” she whispers.
We walk into the bowling alley as everyone screams “surprise” around us. Jesse stumbles back into my body as her family and friends rush to greet her. I catch her eyes as she disappears into the crowd. There is no mistaking the smile on her face or the ‘I love you’ she mouths as she’s pulled away. I stay behind talking with Caleb and the woman he can’t seem to take his eyes off.
“Brett!” I hear Jesse scream from the other end of the room.
Even all these months later, my heart skips a beat in fear. I relax and head her direction when she holds up the custom bowling bag I had made for her. I had them monogram ‘Tiny’ on the outside to remind her of our first date in this very same place.
“You found it.” I pull her in for one last kiss before everything changes forever. “Well go on. Open it.”
“Brett,” she whispers staring up at me, her eyes sparkling with tears. I know, based on my words in the car, that what she is hoping for is not what she’s going to find when she unzips that bag.
“Wow,” she says, pulling out a blue and white swirled bowling ball. It’s brand new and wrapped in plastic. She searches the bottom of the bag but comes up empty handed. “I love it. Thank you,” she says, but her eyes say otherwise. I try not to laugh at her disappointment, but as always, I fail.
“I’m glad to hear that gorgeous. It took me forever for me to pick it out for you. You ready to get your ass kicked?” I tease. “I’ll even give you a warm up tonight, Jess. Who knows, I may have just been hustling you for the last year,” I grin as she gives me the eye roll I was half expecting and half hoping for.
I take the ball from her arms, unwrapping it, and place it on the ball return. A seasoned veteran at this point, I type our names into our lane and push play on the game of my life.
“You’re up, Jess,” I say interrupting her conversation with Caleb.
“Go ahead, baby girl,” he says with a wink.
Jess walks forward picking up her new ball trying to push her fingers into the holes. She struggles for a minute before looking up at me. “There’s something stuck,” she says, holding the ball out for me to fix.
“Just pull it out. Quit procrastinating! I know you’re afraid of losing tonight, but really stop blaming it on the ball,” I say with a false confidence as my heart threatens to beat out of my chest.
“I’m trying. It’s stuck.”
She toys with it for a few more minutes before it shifts loose. She pulls out a diamond solitaire engagement ring and her eyes snap to mine. Everyone knows but her, and they all stand behind us clicking pictures and smiling.
“Brett?”