We were both silently cried. I reached over and grabbed his hand. He began to rub my hand with his thumb. A very comforting feeling.
"I went home and decided to start a new life. I felt betrayed by God, and it took me a long time to deal with that. Forgiving God is very hard, I found that out the hard way. But forgiving ourselves for allowing your heart to lose trust in God is even worse. Every once in a while I would talk to Tracey and Mike, but after that day I made them promise never to mention your name to me. I had to completely cut you off from my life. But that never works, does it. Do you have any idea what it is like to feel guilty for finding your thoughts automatically dwell on a woman you thought was married for the past three years?" He asked me in anguish. My heart was breaking while listening to his story.
"Oh Rich. I'm so sorry." I said to him. That was barely enough, but I couldn't say anything else.
"Wynne, don't ever apologize. If I hadn't been stubborn, I would have found out the truth a long time ago,” he told me with a sigh.
"So how did you find out that I never was married?" I asked him.
"Heather." he responded. "I ran into her one day, quite by accident, and before I could stop myself I found myself asking her about you." He told me.
"You wouldn't believe the shock I felt when she told me that you had started a store with her and her husband and that you were still single." He confessed.
"Believe me Richard, when I tell you that I can imagine." I told him, remembering how I felt when Heather told me that he wasn't married like I thought he must have been.
"Well," he said. "It was finding out that you were still single, and that you in fact never did get married that made me start to believe that my dreams weren't destroyed, that there was still some hope." He confessed to me.
"The rest you heard tonight at the church." He told me somewhat sheepishly.
I breathed a deep sigh and then smiled.
"Rich, I couldn't get married that day. Jude always knew that you held a large part of my heart, and that he would always be second best in my life and in my heart. Probably at the same time that you came to the church, Jude came into the room where I was and asked me if I could ever give him my whole heart. When I told him that I would never be able to do that, we both decided that it wouldn't be right to settle for second best. You were the only man who has ever or will ever own my heart Richard." I softly told him. I waited breathlessly for his response.
"Tell me about your dreams Wynne." Richard asked me.
So for the next hour I proceeded to tell him about my dreams. Both the ones where I dreamt of him, and the ones that I for my future plans. It was the perfect evening.
Realizing how late it was becoming, we made plans for the following day to spend together. Now that we were finally together and the thought of a future was before us, we wanted to spend as much time together as we could.
I walked Richard to the doorway. We both stood there together and stared into each other’s eyes. Richard pulled me closer to him and held me against his heart. I could hear the rhythm of his heart beating.
I gazed into his eyes. I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead he placed a finger against my lips.
"There is something between us that has never gone away and it never will. It is a gift from God that we have to accept. I love you. I have always loved you and I always will love you. I want to ask you a question that I want you to pray about. Please don't answer me now, just think about it. I don't want to live another day without you in my life. I want you to be the other half of me, I need you to complete me. Please Wynne, become my wife and fill that empty space in my heart that was created just for you." Richard pleaded with me with love shining through his eyes.
Before I could even answer him he lowered his mouth and kissed me.
It was the type of kiss that made all those kisses in my dreams fade away. It was even better than my dreams. This kiss spoke of love, commitment and promise.
Tears began to fill my eyes and fall down my face. Richard gently kissed those tears away and then whispered in my ear.
"Sweet dreams, my darling."
6 Months Later
We were seated on the bench by the tree sharing a sundae together. He was eating all the caramel sauce while I was digging for the hot fudge. We had just finished doing our devotions together, a habit we developed after the night of our mystery date. Whether we were on-line together, on the phone or in person, we would do daily devotions that only helped to strengthen our relationship.
Rich had come up for the weekend. School semester was over and he had given his resignation to the school. This was his first weekend school free, and he wanted to enjoy it to the fullest.
With the warm weather upon us we decided to head to the park, our favorite place, and enjoy the sunshine. Of course we had to share a sundae.
The past six months have been wonderful. Richard and I have become so close to each other. We have redefined our relationship by getting to know each other all over again. So many things happened within the five-year period that shaped who we have become. It has been fun though discovering each other’s little quirks.
While Richard had plans to only relax and enjoy this weekend, I had decided to rock his boat a little bit. Six months ago he asked me a question that he wouldn’t let me answer. It has never come up since then in words, but the thoughts and promise has always lingered between us.
With only half of the sundae left, I turned to Richard and gave him a kiss. He tasted like caramel and ice cream. Deliciously sweet and tempting.
“Richard,” I began. “You asked me a question six months ago that you wouldn’t let me answer at the time.” I said to him
Licking some caramel sauce off of his plastic spoon he grinned.
“I did?” he asked me somewhat playfully. I swatted him on the arm.
“You did.” I answered. “I have an answer for you, but I think you need to ask it to me it again.” I told him with a little bit of prima donna attitude to my voice.
Rich had this mischievous look enter in his eyes when he answered me.
“Hmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “I think you might need to refresh my memory some. Six months is a long time to remember something.” He said to me with a smile.
I gave a playful smile and sighed.
“The question,” I began, “was, will you marry me?” I told him.
“I will” he responded with a huge smile on his face.
I laughed.
“No. You are supposed to ask me that question.” I protested to him.
“I don’t understand Wynne. You just proposed, I accepted, so now why do I have to ask you?” he said to me as he took another bite of our sundae.
“Richard Carradine, don’t you play games with me.” I said to him.
“Oh honey, I’m not playing games. You proposed, I accepted, and now our sundae is melting. Hurry up and eat your part before it’s all gone.” He said to me as he plunged his spoon back into the ice cream.
Feeling somewhat flustered, I did as he suggested, not thinking twice about it. I made sure I dug to the bottom where the gooey hot fudge had melted. Bringing the spoon to my mouth, I let it slide into my mouth and as I bit down, something hard hit my teeth.
Pulling the spoon from my mouth, I saw something round and shiny amongst the spoonful of ice cream that was still left on the spoon.
“Rich, what is this?” I asked him as a huge smile lit his face.
“Well, that my dear, looks to me like it’s a ring to go along with your proposal” he said to me in a teasing voice.
“Ah, but is the ring for me or for you?” I asked him with a smile.
“We’ll just have to see, now won’t we?” was his response as he took the ring off of the spoon and wiped it off with a napkin.
There in the napkin was a beautiful gold ring holding the largest solitary diamond I have ever seen.
Getting down on his knees, Richard reached for my hand and slowly placed the ring on my finger.
“Wynne, will you fulfill my life long dream of becoming your husband? Will you fill that place in my heart completely that belongs to you? Will you become my wife?” Richard asked me with love shining in his eyes.
I leaned down and kissed him. It was a kiss full of love and happiness, promises and dreams come true.
“I love you Richard Carradine, and would love to spend the rest of my life making all your dreams come true” I answered him with a smile.
Who said dreams never come true?