and she was only fifteen; he was in the Air Force, and she was barely going into the tenth grade. None of this made any sense.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Cally could only nod, because she wasn’t sure she could even speak anymore.
“You haven’t said much,” he prodded.
What was she supposed to say? She could barely form a straight thought that didn’t sound mean, cruel, or completely insane. Her sister was going to kill her, she was on her way to talk with his family whom she was terrified of, and she didn’t have a clue how she was going to deal with the fact she was truly and seriously engaged to be married. And now he wanted to think that she should be saying something? Yeah, right!
Cally looked over at him, and it was clear he was waiting for her to say something, anything. So she found enough nerve and managed something she hoped wouldn’t send Savannah into a fit. “What do you want me to say?”
“Anyone else would be happy and laughing and making plans. You’ve barely said anything.” He sounded a little worried.
Cally shook her head. “I need to process.”
Okay, now that made sense, and it was the truth…sort of. She hadn’t processed any of this and she was shaking. Maybe it was all just a dream, and she would wake up and things would be back to normal. Or it wasn’t a dream and her mom was going to kill her.
Her mom was never going to go for this; she wouldn’t let her get married at fifteen. Her mom would stop all this, and she didn’t have to do anything; they didn’t really like the fact she was dating guys that much older anyway. She couldn’t help the little snicker and the grin that came over her at that thought. Her mother was never going to go for this, and if she did, she could tell her dad, and he would stop it. Yes, her dad would kill them all if he found out.
“I see you’re starting to process. Everything’s going to be fine. We’ll get married, and you can stay with my parents until we get base housing in six months or so.”
He sounded so sure of what was going to happen, but Cally knew her mom wouldn’t go for it. Yes, her mom would put a stop to all of this, and she would save her because when it all came down to it, she was still just a kid. Cally knew everything was going to right itself so it would all be fine.
They pulled up in the driveway to his parent’s house, and she got out and looked at the house. It was only three, and she had nowhere to go, and given that she was a bit shy really wasn’t helping her nerves. It took her a while to open up to people, and while she knew her mom would get her out of this mess, she was still not good with dealing with new people.
Yes, she had met his family once before, but she didn’t know them well and was a little nervous around them; okay, maybe that was a major understatement. She was terrified and completely froze up when she was near them.
Cally slowly followed Dakota in the house, and they were no more than through the screen door when his sister’s excited voice demanded to know, “What did she say?”
He pulled Cally in front of him as his sister started squealing and jumping around.
Cally didn’t know what to say or do. And she didn’t let go of his hand; for some reason, it seemed like he was her own personal life preserver, and they were in the middle of the ocean with sharks starting to surround them. The first one was standing in front of them, and she knew there were more to come soon because they were scenting fresh blood—her blood.
He barely got the door closed when his sister started with a million questions. “So when are you getting married? Can I be a bridesmaid? What are your colors? Where are you getting married? You’re not going to let him do this at the court house, are you?”
“Can we even get in the door before you start attacking her?” Cally could feel Dakota shaking his head behind her as he laughed.
Hannah backed up a little, and Dakota guided her over to the sofa. No more than they sat down, she started again. “Well? Tell me what happened.”
Okay, now that was something Cally wanted to hear too, because she had missed most of it when her mind decided to take her on a very colorful movie ride of what could be her life if she chose any one of her real options. Cally looked at him, and his smile just hit her heart so hard that she could feel her heart racing all over again, and she was sure everyone else could too. But she kept that to herself and let him tell the whole story, with some exceptions.
For the most part, she remembered what he was saying with some stranger, more fairy tale like details. She remembered him walking up the yard, but he didn’t mention the strange way he glowed or the overpowering warmth and happiness that seemed to radiate around him. She wasn’t sure he repeated everything he said to her in those lost minutes, but whatever the exact details were would come out eventually. And she knew he did some major editing on the whole reason they went in the house, which was greatly appreciated.
“Were you surprised?” Hannah asked, a little unsure of something.
Cally nodded. “He told me he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.” She wasn’t sure why she had said that, but that’s what came out.
“Yeah, but you didn’t know he was going to ask you?” his sister persisted.
Cally just shook her head. No, she hadn’t realized he was going to ask her to marry him or she would have broken up with him on the phone the other night. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She didn’t want to break his heart in front of his family; she wasn’t even sure she could. They could at least wait until her mom had a fit and called it all off.
“So when are you getting married?” Hannah asked again.
Cally shrugged her shoulders as she mumbled, “I don’t know.”
“You’re not going to let him have his way and get married at the courthouse, are you?” the younger girl asked, a little whinny.
That was the second time she had said that, and Cally still didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about. He hadn’t said anything to her about it, but apparently, he had said something to his family. It was clear that he had every intention of doing this as soon as possible, but she just didn’t understand any of it. She looked to him, questioning him with her eyes, but it didn’t seem to work, so Cally flat out asked, “What is she talking about?”
He just shot an evil look at Hannah. “We’ll talk about this when everyone gets home,” he tried to reassure her, but she could see through him; he was stalling.
Now who was evading the question? Cally shut out the fact that his sister was in the room and that they were at his house, and she focused on him. “Why does everyone seem to know what’s going on but me?”
He looked at her questioningly. “We talked about this.”
“When?” Cally asked, shocked and disbelieving him. She didn’t remember talking to him about this. Heck, she didn’t even remember what exactly he said when he asked her to actually marry him.
He squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her. “On the phone.”
Cally nodded. Knowing that meant on the phone when she was half asleep one night and she didn’t remember most of what he was saying. “Okay, I missed something.” She just shook her head, trying to figure out what was going on.
Hannah asked, “You really didn’t know he was going to propose?”
Cally shook her head and bit her tongue. She had no clue what he had been thinking, because she wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying, and now she was going to have to deal with her mother’s anger at all of this when they told her what had happened.
“But you still said yes. So you have to love him,” Hannah answered, like that made everything else make sense.
If that is what his sister thought, then great. But she was sure that her mother was going to kill her for even agreeing to this; that was if Savannah