Chapter 13

"Alright! We're going!" Jess exclaimed from the front porch. Katrie came flying out of the door, frantically tying her hair into a ponytail. She ran past Jess and joined Pam and Susanne at the car. Betsy was taking pictures of the house and garden, trying to capture as many memories of this trip as possible. The sun shone, the house stood solemn and strong, and the flowers bloomed cheerfully. Jess smiled as she joined her friends, happy that their last day together was so peacefully beautiful.

"Wait," Betsy protested, glancing at the group piling into the car. "I wanted a picture of you guys."

They gathered around the front of the car. Pam sat on the hood with her hands in the air and Jess stood underneath her. Katrie and Susanne each had an arm around Jess' shoulders and were kicking out their outside leg with their other arm in stretched up to the sky. Betsy declared them to be 'perfect,' and prepared to take the picture when she was interrupted by a loud beeping.

Whirling around, she saw a dirty blue compact speeding towards the house. A small cry from Jess turned her back to the car, and her friend was wearing an expression of happy, surprised fear. Pam had her arms around her neck and was whispering something to her, and Katrie and Susanne were turned to her, looking concerned. Betsy, quickly figuring out who was driving the car, rushed to the group.

"We okay?" she asked. Jess shook her head, but the others looked excited.

"Oh, psh, Jess," Susanne said. "We told you he'd come back. No need to worry now!"

"This is perfect!" Katrie exclaimed. "I'm so happy for you!"

"But what if..." Jess finally voiced herself, or at least tried to.

"No what if's, dear," Pam told her, interrupting. "Now shush. He's here!" The car had slowed down and was now pulling up beside the house. Pam leaned away from Jess, and Katrie, Susanne, and Betsy took steps away from the petrified woman. They silently watched the man they all knew from the tackboard picture climb out and survey the situation.

"Someone was taking a picture," he finally said.

"Um, that'd be me," Betsy said after a moment.

He seemed relieved to get a response. It loosened something inside him, and he came forward. "Yeah," he said. "And there were only four of you in it, when there should be five. Here, gimme the camera." Betsy, somewhat surprised, gave it up. "Now, all of you pose just like you were before, and you- Betsy, is it?- get down underneath Jess." They did as he said, slowly and very self-consciously. He studied them critically for a moment. "Okay, perfect. Now give me smiles. Come on, Jess. I want you to glow," Alex ordered. He smiled warmly, and each of the women returned a smile ten times warmer. None more than Jess, though.

After the click of the camera, Susanne pounced on Jess' arm. "Give me your keys," she demanded. "We'll take Betsy to the airport ourselves." When she saw the Jess' hesitation, she simply snatched the keys out of her hand.

Betsy leaned her ear away from Pam's mouth, and the latter immediately pulled Susanne closer. "Um, you know what guys?" Betsy said. "I think I forgot a.. um... tool in the backyard. Yeah. I should get it." She slowly turned to walk around the house.

"Hold on there, Bets," Susanne said, looking devilish. "Don't walk. We'll just drive around." With that, they piled into the car and sped around the house, out of sight. Leaving Jess and Alex alone.

"Hey," he said, coming forward. She said nothing, just stared at him as he took her hands in his and stared right back at her. "I think we need to talk."

"I know." Her voice came out as strained, weak.

"My computer is broken," he continued. "I saw that you had sent me an email and I was going to read it right after the day-long series of conferences. That's all I wanted to do; I was a horrible business partner on this trip; my mind was never where it was supposed to be... But the cleaning lady... See, I had left it out on the bed table; kind of precariously, I suppose, and when she was making the bed she tripped. It fell first, and she landed on it." He looked into her eyes; she remained silent. "Anyway, I rushed back here as soon as I could. I know I should have called, but I wanted to do this in person. I should've done all of this in person, but I thought maybe spur of the moment stuff would work too. I probably messed this whole thing up in the process, of course. I didn't want to; that was not the goal. So I'm here now to..."

"To do what, exactly?" Jess broke in. She seemed a touch more sure of herself this time. "To sweep me off my feet and make all our problems go away? To say good-bye? To get your things from my house and drive off? Or to marry me? What are you here to do? Because you know, it has been almost two weeks of your silence. You left me with nothing, Alex. I had no idea what you were thinking, why you refused to get in touch with me. Hell, I didn't even know where you were half the time. I couldn't believe you would just disappear like that, but you did. Even if you didn't want to do whatever it is you're here to do over the phone, a call to tell me you were coming would have been nice. But you left me to sweat it out. I... am.. so in love with you, and you left me with nothing!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she made this speech, and Alex could tell how high-strung this situation had made her. Rather than react to her almost angry tone of voice, he pulled Jess close, whispering soft apologies in her ear, and held her until he felt the frustration melt away from her body.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do to make things better. I came back to try to do this all the right way," he murmured as he let her go. Her tears were falling freely at this point, and they became more intense as he kneeled down and took her hand. Looking up at her smiling face, Alex finally said the words he meant to say the first time. "Will you marry me Jess? I love you."

And she finally responded with the words she wanted to say the first time. "Yes. Yes, yes!" Then she pulled him to his feet and threw herself into his arms. He held her again, this time encouraging any emotions she might be feeling. Jess was ecstatic, altogether too pleased to have finally found the love she had been looking for for so long. Alex lifted her into his arms and swung her around and around, altogether too pleased to be with the woman he loved once again. They spun around the entire front yard and the world seemed to fade away as they lost themselves in endearing kisses and laughter.

"I was so afraid I had lost you," Alex admitted, running his hands through the head of hair resting on his chest. They had somehow found their way up the stairs and to the porch swing, and were now snuggling on it most comfortably. "Can you imagine me sitting through meetings with Jeff and the rest of the guys, pretending to actually care about our web management when all I wanted to do was see you? It was horrible; I couldn't tell anyone about it, because I didn't want to hear the opinions of any of those geeks I work with. I was a nervous wreck."

"You?" Jess scoffed. "Imagine me here. My four best friends don't even know you and they're telling me that you'll come back and live happily ever after, or you won't and you were a bastard to begin with. I didn't know what to think; I've never had to have those kind of thoughts before. It was terrifying."

"Speaking of your four best friends," Alex replied. "They never came back from behind the house. Where are they?"

"You didn't actually think Betsy left a tool in the back, did you?" Jess laughed at the surprised, innocent face on her fiancee. "They're planning something, I'm sure. I don't know what, but I don't think they'd like it if I went into the house for another ten minutes or so. But that's perfectly satisfactory to me."

"I'd hope so," Alex said. They stayed silent for a moment, staring out at the sky and the profile of the town in front of them. "I'm so happy, Jess."

"Mmm, so am I," Jess sighed. "Everything will be wonderful from here on in. I can't imagine ever having a problem in the future."

"Never," Alex agreed. They sat in silence for a moment longer, and then a thought occurred to him. "What was in that email anyway?"

Jess grinned fondly, saying, "You're going to hate that cleaning lady if I tell you. It was all about how I was sorry I didn't say anything after you proposed to me, and that my answer was a definite 'yes.' If you had read it, it probably would've solved a lot of your stress problems." Leaning her head back, she saw Alex's stunned expression and laughed.

"You know, you're right," he replied. "I really hate that cleaning lady."

"Oh, but don't," she protested. "This is so much better. If you had read the email, we would have become engaged while you were in D.C. and I was in Montana. This way, we can become engaged less than two feet away from each other and celebrate together all night. It's much more romantic, I think. I wouldn't have it any other way." She rotated in his arms and landed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

"That's true," he admitted, pulling her closer up to him. "This is much more romantic, not to mention fun." They kissed then, intensely and for a very long time. They became so wrapped up in it that they didn't notice the car sneaking away from the back of the house and driving towards town.

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