Hummingbird
Copyright© 2026 by Krista*
Chapter 14
Anne woke up with a feeling that she had never experienced before. She was wrapped in Mickey’s arms, snug against his chest. She could feel the soft rumbling of deep breaths within his chest as he slept, and she smiled.
Complete and utter safety.
She gently extracted herself and shuffled towards the bathroom. Upon her return she saw that he was sitting up and looking around. He smiled when he saw her, wearing a long t-shirt that went to her knees. She looked like any number of college co-eds that had spent the night in a dorm room with her boyfriend, not a woman who had bared her soul to share something that was truly horrific from her past. “Thank you for staying with me last night.”
“After what you told me and how much it took to do so, there was no way on earth I was going to leave you alone. Thank you for trusting me. Once you fell asleep last night I did a lot of thinking. The way I see it, we have three options on how we go forward.”
She sat at the bed, nervous, wondering what he meant. “Three?”
“Yes. I said it last night and I will say it again,” he took her hand in his own. “Anne, I love you. Yes, it’s sudden for both of us. You told me that I needed to know about your past before we moved forward. Option one is that you decide that you made a mistake and tell me to go and never return. I will be crushed if that is your choice but I will respect it.”
“Option two?”
“We enjoy breakfast, and then go out to the jeweler and find you a pretty ring to wear while we gently work through this together to the point that you are no longer afraid of the past coming back and we build a life that is full of love, frustrations that can be worked through together and raise a family in a home full of devotion to one another. Yzzy can be your maid of honor and my brother will be the best man. I need to warn you that I have a cat named Simon. You set the time frame.”
“Option three?”
“We shock everyone and elope. Anne, I am formally requesting your hand in marriage. Will you honor me and become my Bride? To have and to hold, stand with me at my side for as long as we both shall live? Build a future together?”
“Yes,” she smiled through the tears. “I will happily accept your request, but I think option two is the best for us, for now.” Sitting on his lap, Anne wrapped her arms around Mickey’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. Lips pressed gently and mouths opened to allow tongues to slip out and dance together. “Mickey, I love you. I never thought I would meet someone that I could feel so comfortable with and share my darkest secret with. When I first moved to Choteau, all I could think was what had I gotten myself into, agreeing to come out here? And now I know it was so we could meet. One thing though,” she looked into his eyes, searching to make sure of their feelings, “I’m begging you to never use that knowledge against me. Never decide that for fun you would trigger me and use me. I think I would kill myself if that happened.”
Absolute shock washed across Mickey’s face. “Never! The very idea of doing something like that? Oh baby, if I ever did, please drive a knife n my heart when I’m sleeping because a man who would do that doesn’t deserve to live!”
“It’ll be a dull knife and I’ll slap you awake first.”
“Deal!” More kisses followed. “We can wait to make love if you want to. I understand.”
“Thank you. I’m not quite ready for that step yet, but I will tell you that it wont be long though. First,” there was a twinkle in her eyes, “we should grab breakfast and second, head over to the jewelers.”
“As you command.”
“After that?” she laughed, “We go to your place so you can introduce me to the family. And I want to meet Simon.”
Tongues started wagging quickly. After breakfast, the two were seen walking down the sidewalk to the jewelers and stepping inside. When they emerged, Anne was glowing as she looked down at the engagement ring on her left hand. “This is never coming off!” she sighed. “It’s so beautiful! Thank you!” It was a simple ring. Gold band and a ¾ carat marquis cut diamond on an elevated setting.
“Actually, it will need to come off for a few minutes at one point.” Anne looked at Mickey, curious. “For the actual ceremony, I will need to remove the engagement ring briefly to slip the wedding ring on, then I put it back in place.”
“That’s acceptable,” she grinned. “Now we need to get going. Lots of people to share this news with but your family comes first!”
Anne found herself enveloped in hugs and loving comments. Mickey proudly stood in front of his parents and made the following statement; “Mom? Dad? You have heard me talk about Anne. She moved her from California to help that the law office that Mr. Cunningham and his new partner, Ms. D’Santos have. She is the admin there. Meaning she keeps everything in order so the place runs properly. She is also taking on a new role,” he smiled and pulled her closer. “She has agreed to become your daughter in law.”
“Goofball,” Anne giggled. “You could have just said that you asked me to marry you!” She looked up at her future in-laws. “And in case you are wondering, I said ‘yes’ when he asked.”
Anne found herself wrapped in a big hug. “You will call us ‘mom’ and ‘pop’, young lady!” Megan Packard sighed. Her husband, Alvin, agreed. “We can’t want to tell the rest of the family and meet yours!” He looked over at his son. “We weren’t aware that the relationship had progressed to this point. Last we knew, you were only ‘courting’ as the saying goes.”
“He captured my heart. I love him,” Anne looked at her intended, love shining from her eyes. “And I know that we will be happy together. One thing, though,” she looked up. “Don’t plan on grandbabies too soon. We want to enjoy each other for a while first. Be selfish.”
“That’s perfectly normal! We were married almost three years before I got pregnant with his sister. Then two years after that, his brother. And a year later? Him.”
“We don’t have a time-line set,” Mickey rolled his eyes. “Mom? You will just have to wait.”
“Fine. Just don’t wait too long so I’m not too old to chase them around!”
There was a touch of chaos at church the next day. Pastor Smith would sometimes pause during the sermon and state ‘Joys and Concerns of the church’ to the congregation. Today was a bombshell.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “I received notice this morning that Michael Packard has asked Anne Halberd for her hand in marriage. She accepted. You know Michael, or, Mickey, because he has lived here all his life. Anne comes to us from California recently. Please join me as we celebrate this news!” In a stage whisper he continued, “Your mother told me earlier today.”
Talk about a fox in the hen-house! While the older members of the congregation offered their best wishes to the couple, the people in their age range were surprised. Some not happy. “How did pizza face manage to get that hot girl?” was muttered by a number of men. “Who does she think she is, waltzing in here and poaching one of our guys?” came from a number of girls that previously had zero interest. But there was also a group that simply said “We wish you joy.”
“Well, that was fast!” Yzzy laughed after the service. She had taken several pictures of the couple and forwarded them to Anne and Mickey. She wanted a nice picture to forward in an email to her friends at Magdalena.
“I will probably hate you for dragging me out here when there’s snow piled up to the second floor and the temperature is so cold that boiling water freezes in five seconds when outside. However,” Anne sighed, “I will always be grateful to you for asking me to come to Choteau with you. Thank you.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Yzzy giggled.”In the back of my mind I was thinking that you two were a good fit for each other. I was plotting all sorts of things to get you together.”
“Surprise!” Anne laughed.
Mid November saw the first significant snowfall in the area. ‘Significant’ in that it was around six inches of soft white fluffy snow on the ground in the morning when everyone woke up. There were still a number of flakes drifting from the sky in lazy patterns as Yzzy looked out the kitchen window.
“One of us can drive you to the office,” Francine stated. “I’m certain that you don’t have a lot of experience driving in the snow. And it looks like we might be getting more.”
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