“Yes, Mrs. Thompson, I believe that I have.” Jess flashed her a conspiratorial smile. “But mum’s the word. I haven’t asked her yet.”
“You’ve surprised a lot of people in this town,” she told him.
“Is that so?” Jess said, slightly offended on Addie’s behalf, slightly chagrined on his own. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said to her. “It’s time I danced with my bride-to-be.” The music began to play, and he crossed the room to where Addie was surrounded by her girlfriends.
“May I have this dance?” He smiled, extending his hand.
Addie blushed. Shyly, she took his hand, and he led her out onto the dance floor. The entire hall seemed to take a collective breath. All eyes were on them. Jess pulled Addie close. As they began to twirl around the dance floor, staring into each other’s eyes, the world fell away, the music stopped, the lights extinguished, the people vanished, and all that was left was Jess and Addie, finally together again where their hearts had always been.
Later, as they walked home through the darkened streets, Jess stopped in front of the old willow tree where he had taught her to ride his bicycle all those years ago, took her hand, and dropped to one knee.
They remained that way for a moment, neither saying anything, simply looking into each other’s eyes. “Addie, will you marry me?” he whispered, choked up at the enormity of the words.
“Of course I will. I married you the first instant I met you.”
He knew it was true for both of them. The question was unnecessary. He remembered the day of her birth, knowing she belonged to him. And, as it turned out, he to her.
A few days later, they sat bundled up on the lakeshore, talking excitedly about their plans. Weddings in Great Bay usually occurred on bright summer days when the lake was calm, but Jess wanted to marry Addie as soon as time would allow. He had a job back in the city, after all. How much time did she need to make the preparations for the wedding? Four weeks? Six?
For her part, Addie had always loved this time of year and was thrilled to be marrying her beloved Jess in the winter season. She had long dreamed of Jess coming for her in a one-horse sleigh. In her mind, they would dash off together through the white landscape, snuggled against the wind under a woolen blanket. It was all the stuff of a young girl’s romantic dreams, of course, but it was indeed coming true.
They would be married according to Addie’s wishes: a late afternoon ceremony in a candlelit church with friends and family singing Christmas carols to mark the occasion. A reception would be held at the town hall next door, with an army of local women providing the food and other refreshments.
“You’ll need to learn about life in the city,” Jess said to her. “It’s not like Great Bay.”
“How so?” Addie wondered how life on this same lake, albeit on a different shore, could be a world away.
“Life here in Great Bay is very simple,” Jess explained, “but in the city, you’ll see that it’s quite complicated. As my wife, you’ll be meeting people and doing things you never imagined. Going to parties, society soirees. Hosting dinners for important people.”
“Dinner doesn’t sound too complicated to me.” Addie smiled at him. “Wife sounds good, though.”
“It’s all about furthering my career in business,” Jess told her. “You’ll have as big a role in it as I do.” The words reverberated with a shallow ring in Addie’s ear. Her image of life as Mrs. Jess Stewart had included only the two of them, living life as one, as it had been when they were children. Now it seemed rather crowded.
“Inviting friends to share a meal is one thing, but I don’t know how to host the kind of dinner party you’re describing,” Addie said gingerly, looking into Jess’s eyes. “I’ve never even been to one. What if I can’t do any of that?”
Jess smiled, warming her with the softness of his gaze. “I taught you to ride that bicycle, remember? You didn’t think you could do that, either.”
Addie laughed at the memory. It seemed so long ago now.
“I can teach you this, as well,” Jess continued. “Listen, Addie, it was the same for me when I first left Great Bay. I didn’t know the first thing about the ‘new world’ of the city until I started experiencing it. I learned to move gracefully in that world; so can you. It’s really not that difficult, I promise. You simply watch the way other people are acting and act that way, too. Easy. You’ll see.”
“You seem so sure,” Addie said. “But this ‘simple’ life in Great Bay is rooted in my heart, Jess. Living on the tempestuous lakeshore. Shutting the doors against the elements and curling up with family at night. Helping neighbors when they need it. Attending church picnics and Saturday socials. All of that seems like such a far cry from the life you’re describing.”
“But is it a life you want, Addie?” Jess turned and faced her. It had never occurred to him that Addie might not wish to share his life in the city, with all that it entailed. “Do you want to marry me?”
Addie smiled. “I believe you’ve already asked me that question.”
“Marrying me means giving up life here in Great Bay,” he continued. “I know you love this place, and we can certainly come back to visit, but I can’t live here, Addie. There’s nothing here for me. I need to be in the city, my job—”
She silenced him with a finger to his lips. “Life, for me, is wherever you are,” she said. “We are supposed to walk through this world together, wherever that may take us. I’ve always known it. Since the first day we met.”
“But I’m taking you away from all of this.” He gestured toward the lake.
“You’re not taking me away from anything,” she told him. “You’re bringing me to something.”
Jess kissed her then. “I am such a lucky man,” he whispered into her ear.
Marcus Cassatt was elated when Jess Stewart asked for his only child’s hand in marriage. Oh, there was no doubt that he had been suspicious of Jess’s intentions for, well, the better part of his daughter’s life. But now that Jess had gone to college, secured gainful employment in a large, prosperous business, and had indeed made good on his promise and come back for the girl, there was no complaining from Marcus about losing his daughter to this man, or to the city where he lived.
“Better Jess Stewart than a fisherman like her father,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “She’d have a hard life here. He can give her a better one than we’ve known.”
But Marie was less than overjoyed at the idea of a union between her daughter and this man. Addie’s dreams seemed to be telling her that life with Jess Stewart would be filled with some sort of confusion and even danger. And now that he was back in town, proposing a marriage that would mean Addie would be leaving the only home she had ever known, Marie wondered what it all meant. The dreams weren’t concrete or clear enough to deny her daughter’s happiness. Just vague images, one after another. Fog. A knife glinting in the moonlight. A gunshot. Nothing she could put her finger on.
And she had never seen Addie look more radiant than in Jess’s company—that was real, tangible, and undeniable.