Note: title of this chapter is at the bottom
Sarah and Aiden held each other and kissed on the meadow, surrounded by the wildflowers. They laughed occasionally for no apparent reason other than both of them being high on love after their second engagement.
Sarah looked at the butterfly-shaped ring. "It's beautiful."
Aiden smiled. "I am glad you like it. I designed it… Felix made it… the stones are from our mine."
"Any features?", Sarah asked.
Aiden gave her a knowing look. "Felix made it."
Sarah understood that it has at least GPS tracking and that Aiden does not want to talk about it more. Well, she will ask later.
Aiden hugged her tightly and his deep voice rang close to her ear: "The green matches your gorgeous eyes. At first, I thought that it should be all in clear diamonds, but when I saw this green one, it spoke to me."
There is one more reason behind the green diamond, but he will tell her that in a bit.
Sarah is not much into jewelry, but this ring is spellbinding. She was unable to stop smiling while looking at it. She laid with her head on Aiden's chest and moved her hand slightly, enjoying the view of the diamonds reflecting the sunlight at different angles, and remembering Aiden's proposal, hoping to etch every word into her memory.
"I am beyond happy to have you in my life. You are amazing.", Sarah said after some silence. "I hope you know that I love you very much and that I am grateful for everything you do for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world."
Aiden smiled. "I am glad that you approve of me, my love."
"I admit that this is more romantic than the first time, but I will remember the image of you proposing to me for the first time..." Sarah paused and wiggled her eyebrows playfully before adding: "It will stay in my memory for many years to come."
Aiden stifled a laugh. He understood that the image she will remember is of him kneeling naked.
He leaned closer and whispered softly: "I thought that if we spend the day outside, at least I will ensure that I have my clothes on."
Sarah laughed. "Hey, it's almost one year since you proposed to me the first time. Are you going to propose every year?"
"No.", Aiden said seriously. "I know I look cool on the outside, but all this is too stressful. I will not give you a chance to say 'no'. Also, we will be married soon. If you wish, we can renew our vows every year, and that can include a honeymoon."
"That sounds wonderful.", Sarah approved. "We can renew vows every year at a different place as a way of celebrating our anniversary." She thought for a second and continued: "We can dress up in the outfits of locals and mark the occasion by following their customs."
Aiden smiled. "Sounds like you already got it figured out."
"Not at all. I am just blabbering. You are my planning guy. But I think that we should plan our wedding first, before we plan for anniversaries."
Aiden agreed. "Makes sense. Is there any condition that needs to be met before we can get married?"
"No.", Sarah responded without missing a beat and added: "Honestly, when you mentioned that we will go to Vegas soon, I thought that we will be married there and I was mentally preparing myself to say 'I do' in front of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe impersonators. But now that we are on this meadow, how I see it, as soon as everything is set, we can get married."
"Really?"
Sarah lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. She gave a confident nod and confirmed. "Yeah."
Aiden observed her expression intently while asking: "What is that 'everything' which needs to be set in order for us to get married?"
"Uhm…", Sarah thought for a second before responding: "Few things. We need someone to officiate the marriage. And witnesses… I told you that I want Bridgette to be my maid of honor. And it would be nice if our friends and family can be here…"
Seeing that Sarah stopped talking, Aiden asked: "How about a wedding dress?"
Sarah nodded. "Oh, yes, that also. And a suit for you."
Aiden waited for few seconds before probing further: "Anything else?"
"Uhm… no."
"Are you confident that nothing else is missing?"
Sarah was not sure why is he so set on these details now... Is there something she is missing?
She decided to summarize: "Since you want to know my thoughts on the topic, here they are: the two of us, the officiator, and our witnesses are a must have. Nice to have is that we dress up and have friends and family present. Anything beyond that is completely optional."
Aiden inhaled more than necessary. "OK. Then we are all set."
"Eh?" Sarah didn't get it.
Aiden smiled slyly and licked his lips before whistling two times loudly.
Sarah got up into a seated position, understanding that the whistling was a signal for something… or someone.
"You got to be kidding me!", she exclaimed in disbelief when she saw Jeff and JoAnna walking from the direction of the forest. And not only them, there were Steve and Bridgette, Elanor, Oscar, Stella, Edward, Owen, Ron, Zula, Sophia, Felix, Lia (carried by her nanny), Ellie, Jasper, Ade, Jamari, Oni, Nala, Emma, Charlie, Allen, Julius, Petar, Lucija, Imani, Masika, Emir, Mishi, Eliza, Tereza, Marija, Penny, Ben, Sean, Ryan, Mike, Tiffany, Leah, Pam… More and more of them were emerging from the forest, each of them with big smiles on their faces and most of them were waving their way happily. Sarah saw that Matthew, Jarred, Mrs. Ronin, and Jasper's parents are here as well. Even Mason and Ryder from the White foundation.
Sarah rubbed her eyes and pinched herself few times. It's real. All these people are here, on this meadow, emerging from the forest and walking toward them.
Sarah's mouth was slightly open while processing this information. How did they get here? Why are they here? Did all of them come to celebrate her birthday? No, that does not sound right. They celebrated her birthday at the Cliffside Villa four days ago.
What are the chances that all of these people are here on a vacation? At the same time!?
The next thing Sarah noticed are their clothes. Women are in fancy gowns and men are in finely pressed exquisite suits. How is this dressed for a hike and a day in the meadow?
Did all of them come here to observe the proposal? That must be it. Right? RIGHT? But… that does not explain their outfits which are definitely NOT nature-friendly.
At the sudden gust of wind, Sara looked up and saw two nearly-soundless helicopters carrying large nets filled with huge boxes. One helicopter is piloted by Haru, and the second one by Michael (aka Jesse). They were slowly descending on Sarah's left, at the edge of the meadow. Julius, Allen, Daniel and Tejan rushed in pairs to hold onto the nets with cargo and to detach them from the helicopters. Art, Beck, Dezy and Nico helped with keeping the boxes steady and they started arranging them once the nets were loose.
Sarah was not sure if she is breathing, but she was definitely not blinking. She turned to Aiden and looked at him obviously shocked to the point of silliness. But no matter how confused Sarah is, she can see that Aiden is confidently smiling while observing her reaction.
"What… What is all this?", Sarah stuttered.
Aiden observed Sarah's expression with a devilish smile plastered on his face. He inched closer and kissed her on the lips before looking her in the eyes and responding: "My love, we are getting married."
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Chapter title: We are getting married
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