The Engagement: (His perspective on) Her version

July 19, 2009. It started like any other day... except that I had a sneaking suspicion that Reuben was going to propose to me that day. :) We were back at my parents' place in West Salem for the weekend because my friend Andy was getting married up in "the Cities". I could tell that something was up because my family was acting very strange - some seemed to be avoiding me, others were way more talkative than normal. My mom brought Grandma home with her Saturday night (she almost never spends the night), and there were more relatives that were coming down Sunday for Tim's baseball game. So these were the early events that gave me the impression that this might be THE weekend.

Then, at church Sunday morning I had the sniffles and Reuben pulled out a stack of neatly folded tissues from his pocket - honestly, what guy carries around folded up kleenex on a regular basis! Then, we went to Fayzes for breakfast and my mom, who almost never goes out for breakfast after church, comes along and starts snapping all kinds of pictures.

Anyway, he asked if I wanted to go for a walk after breakfast. He started heading toward the more industrial part of town, so I steered him toward Riverside park instead. We walked for a while before returning to the car. Then he opens the trunk, pulls out a rose and tells me that he wants to take me somewhere. He said it wasn't far - at this point I figured everone stayed at Fayzes and we were headed back that way. Thankfully, we passed on by the breakfast joint! We walked into one of my favorite bookstores and this is where he started acting really strangely. We toured up and down a few isles and I kept asking him what we were doing. He replied something like, "I just wanted you to show me around your favorite book store." I started panicking - there was no way I was going to let him propose to me in front of a store full of strange people. We walked toward the front of the store and he grabbed a book - Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult (I already own a copy) - and asked if I wanted to open it. I said "not really" and so he grabbed the book and we walked out without having paid. I told him that you can't just take the book, you have to pay for it, but he smiled back and said he didn't see anyone trying to stop him so it must be ok.

We walked for what seemed like hours now, and found ourselves back at the park on the river. I picked the bench for us to sit on and then he gave me the book. I opened it and found the letter, behind which sat the most beautiful rock! He read the letter and then got down on one knee (those tissues came in handy again). I was very impressed with how clever the idea was. Oh, and I did say "Yes"!