We spent the weekend with her father in Ocean Pines. I'd set it up with him ahead of time to have his wife take Gretchen out of the house on an errand on Saturday night so that he and I could have a one on one conversation. If you're a man who's gone through that before (or a quarterback who's sat in the locker room before a Superbowl) you understand the gut-churning that takes place before such a talk. Thankfully he was pretty merciful on me. We had a really great talk, he gave me his blessing, and I refilled my wine glass.
On the drive home on Sunday I mentioned to Gretchen that I'd like to stop by the Chestertown waterfront and check out the restorations on Echo Hill's buy boat, Annie D. She said that sounded fine. Then as we got closer she mentioned that she was feeling kind of tired and would rather just head home.
"Let's just check out the boats for a few minutes and let the dog stretch his legs."
"Okay, fine."
By this point it was 5:30 and there was still plenty of light left in the day, but it was kind of overcast. So I was surprised to find so many people strolling about the waterfront; feeding the ducks and looking at the boats. I wanted this moment to be private between us, so I wasn't about to drop to one knee and create a spectacle.
We walked over to the boats and took a good look at them. I thought about proposing to her right on the deck of the skipjack Elsworth. But boats, even 110 year old boats, are temporary and I wanted to do it in a permanent spot. By this point the promenade was clearing out and I saw my opening. I led her back over to the area I had in mind.
"Do you remember when we first started dating and walked down to the river one night to look at the water? We were standing here hugging when that old, drunk guy starting laughing and shouted over to us, 'Hold on to that one, man. You're gonna marry that girl one day!'"
"Yes, I remember that."
"Well it made me think that this would be the perfect spot," I said as I dropped to one knee, "To ask you to marry me." With one hand holding the dog's leash and the other hand retrieving the ring from my pocket I thought I was incredibly smooth, although Gretchen told me afterwards that my hands were trembling the whole time.
I told her about my feelings and desires for the future, and those words I will keep as our own. I'll never forget the look on her face. Her eyes were wide and filled with tears and her hands covered her mouth.
"Will you marry me?"
"Yes!" she cried out.
I fumbled around trying to figure out which finger the ring should go on. "Here let me," she said taking the ring from me, "You're shaking."
She slid the ring onto her finger and miraculously it was a perfect fit. (I never got her ring size, I just bought the ring I liked figuring we could resize it later if it didn't fit.)
Then she smiled and said, "Oh my gosh. I don't remember anything you just said." So I repeated it to her and her response remained the same and we headed back to my car as fiancées.
Angus was blissfully unaware that anything significant had taken place.
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