we watched the stars while we made plans for the rest of our life. We were crazy in love, and there was no holding us back.
Jim pours two glasses—the solo cups are exactly the same as our picnic sixteen years ago—and hands me one. We tap them together, then take a sip.
I grimace. “I remember this tasting better.”
“It’s pretty sweet, huh?” He laughs, setting his cup down and I do the same. He reaches behind the chair, pulling out a box of oatmeal creme pies. “Want one?”
Laughing, I take the box while shaking my head. “I’m stuffed from dinner, but I’m sure I’ll have room later. These are great. Thank you.”
Placing the box of cookies beside me on the chaise, I watch as Jim leans to the side one more time, grabbing something I can’t quite see in the dim light.
“I have one more thing for you… the most important.”
Something about his tone causes my body to lock tight because whatever he’s about to spring on me is something I know has impacted him. I can hear the emotion in his voice, which tells me he put a lot of thought and effort into this, and if I don’t like it, he’s going to be devastated.
Covering whatever it is he holds in his hand, he leans forward and asks, “Remember what else happened that night of stars, sparkling grape juice, and oatmeal cream pies?”
I snort, trying to lighten the mood. “I let you get to third base with me that night.”
Jim barks out a laugh. “True.”
But that’s not what he’s aiming for. “It was the first time you told me you loved me,” I whisper.
“And you gave me the words back,” he replies ever so softly.
“And then… you gave me a promise ring,” I continue with our story. I remember it like it was yesterday. “We had big plans of being together forever, but we were too young to get engaged. So you told me the promise ring was to hold me over, but it was a symbol of your commitment to me that we’d be together always.”
Those last words get stuck in my throat, my eyes a little wet.
“That ring was awful,” Jim says with a chuckle. “It was the best I could afford, but I remember the silver tarnished and turned your finger black.”
I can’t help but laugh. The design was precious—just a simple band with two interlocking hearts on top—but it ended up going on a necklace I could wear to save a blackened finger.
I have no clue where that ring is. True to his word, I got a bigger and better ring when he proposed to me after I accidentally got pregnant with Lucy. It was just a matter of time because it was going to happen anyway—the engagement, not the pregnancy—our timetable just got hastened a bit.
“I thought I should recreate that moment, too,” Jim says, and my gaze falls to his hands. I had forgotten he was holding something there. He reveals a black box, then opens it. In the candlelight, I can see diamonds twinkling. “I had a jeweler recreate the design. I hope I got it right as my memory isn’t the sharpest.”
I gasp as I see he did indeed get the design completely right. Thin band, the interlocking hearts identical to the ring he gave me, except this one isn’t made of cheap silver but rather encrusted with diamonds.
“Jim,” I whisper, overwhelmed and scared all at once. Because this right here is having an impact on me as I’m sure he knew it would.
“It’s a new promise,” he says softly, taking the ring from the box. Jim picks up my left hand and zeroes in right where my wedding band and engagement ring used to rest but I took them off the day I asked him to leave.
Part of me wants to jerk my hand away, while another wants to throw myself into his arms.
Instead, I hold my breath while he slides the ring onto my fourth finger and the weight of it feels right.
“It’s my promise to you, Ella, that I’m going to do whatever I need to do to give you the happiness I apparently denied you for so long. I can’t apologize enough for it, but I’m hoping your heart can forgive and learn to trust in me again, no matter how long it takes. I just want a fair shot.”
My eyes go from the ring twinkling from the candles to Jim’s face, whose expression is more earnest