Chapter 5

Jamie wanted to take the day off from school to stay home with his new fiance', but Lynn insisted that he go. She didn't want him to sacrifice his education for her, and made a promise to herself that she would make sure he went every single day, unless he was sick of course. Then she could dote on him.

He had told her once that he wanted to be an attorney and his parents had set up a fund for him so he could attend law school. She was afraid that if they objected to their relationship, they could cut him off and leave him struggling to find a way to pay for it himself. Lynn thought to herself that she wasn't a wealthy woman by any means, but she had some money saved and was more than willing to help Jamie accomplish his goals. She loved him that much, and wanted to see him succeed.

As the day progressed, Jamie found it difficult to concentrate, partly because he was so exhausted from staying up all night with Lynn, but also because he was replaying the events of last night over and over again in his head. A smile broke out on his face every time he thought of the utter jubilation he felt after she accepted his proposal. He also remembered how nervous he was before he asked her. He was almost certain that she would have said no, thinking it was too soon. This baffled him.

Granted, he was happy that she did say yes and looked forward to marrying her, but he started to wonder what her feelings were before she accepted. Why, out of all the men in the world she could have, did she choose him? He felt as though he needed to know the answer to put his mind at ease.

When the bell rang signifying the end of school, Jamie went over to Lynn's house.

As he opened the door, he saw her napping on the couch. He walked over to her and gently kissed her on the cheek.

"Wake up sleepyhead," he whispered.

A bleary-eyed Lynn awakened to see Jamie smiling at her and said, "Oh, hello handsome. Wow, I must have been really knocked out. What time is it?"

"Three o'clock," Jamie replied.

"Well, can you blame me for being so sleepy?" she asked. "We did have an exciting time last night, didn't we?"

"Yes we did, baby," he said as he sat down next to her.

"So, now that you saw how I spent my day, how was yours?" she asked.

"It was good. I was pretty tired myself, but the thought of coming home to you kept me from dozing off in class."

Lynn chuckled and hugged Jamie. He held her close to him, realizing how much he had missed her throughout the day. When they parted, she saw that his mind was preoccupied and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm better now that I'm with you," he said. "But there is something that I wanted to talk to you about."

"What is it?" Lynn asked, feeling slightly worried.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you, so I would expect you to do the same," he said.

"Okay sweetheart," she said, a knot tightening in her stomach.

Jamie took a deep breath and said, "Last night when I asked you to marry me, I wasn't sure what your answer was going to be. Of course I wanted you to say yes, and I'm more than thrilled that you did, but I half-expected you to say no. My feeling was that you may have thought it was too soon, so it took me quite some time to get up the courage to ask you. You are a loving, caring, beautiful, sexy woman, and you can have any man you want. What made you decide to choose me?"

Lynn mused over his question for a moment, and after a long pause gave her response.

"Jamie, I'm going to level with you. When my husband passed away, I thought it was the end of the world. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I became somewhat of a recluse, not wanting to see anyone or do anything. Then my sister had a heart-to-heart with me and told me that although Gary was gone, I still had to go on living because that's what he would have wanted me to do."

"I understand. Go on," Jamie said as he held her hand.

"After a year had gone by I felt like I had given myself enough time to grieve, so I took my sister's advice and went out. I got hit on many times, and I went on a few dates, but none of those men had the qualities I was looking for. I wanted something more than just a roll in the hay, and that was all they were interested in. I practically gave up on finding the right one, but then you came along."

Lynn continued, "When we first met and I looked into your eyes, it was as if I could see my future. I'll admit your age was somewhat of a concern to me at first, but the more I got to know you I could see that you were the sensitive, gentle, romantic man I had been searching for, and you have proven me right more times than I can count. So when you asked me to marry you, I knew in my heart that yes was the only possible answer I could give."

The relief Jamie felt after hearing her response was evident when she looked at him, his eyes tearing up.

She moved in to hug him once again, laying his head on her chest while tears rolled down his face. He simply could not imagine how any man would not want to be with this angel of a woman, and the thought of them being inconsiderate to her filled him with anger.

He sat up, looked her in the eye and said, "Lynnie, as long as I am on this earth my sole mission in life will be to keep you safe. I don't ever want any guy to try and pick you up or make any rude comments to you. I am not like that, and if anything ever happened to you I don't know what I would do."

"I know, sweetheart," she said. "I thank my lucky stars every day that I have you in my life. You saved me from making a huge mistake by settling for less. I now know I have the best, and I'm never letting go of that."

Jamie stroked her hair and leaned in to kiss her. He didn't think it was possible, but he loved her even more than he did when he first walked in the door. And he knew that as the years would go on, when they were both old and gray, he would still love her as much as he did at that very moment.

After their conversation, Jamie could barely keep his eyes open. Lynn told him to go ahead and lie down for a while, and she would wake him up when dinner was ready.

While he slept, Lynn straightened up the living room. She started to laugh to herself as she picked her dress up from the back of the recliner, fondly remembering how she and Jamie started to tear each other's clothes off as soon as they got in the door, unable to wait until they were in the bedroom before they ravaged each other.

She then heard a knock on the door and looked out the window to see who it was. She was pleasantly surprised to see her sister, a successful photographer, standing outside. She was away for two months on various photo shoots in Manhattan, so Lynn was ecstatic to see her.