Darla's Dilemma

"You won't, sweetheart. I love you, Darla!"

"Sometimes I can't hear that enough, Daulton. Because, even to this moment, I still have trouble believing it. I bet if I asked you to name ten things you love about me, you'd have a hard time coming up with all ten."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Well...no. I mean...I dunno. I was just saying..."

I got up from my seat and kneeled down on the floor next to her and took her hands in mine.

"Darla, I love you. I think I have since I first met you. I love things about you that you didn't even know were lovable. I love the fact that you're a wonderful mother. I love watching you read bedtime stories to the kids and tucking them in at night. I love the fact that you have been their rock and their world during some of the shittiest times in their lives. I love your smile, even though you think your teeth are crooked. I love and am infatuated with your feet, even though you think they're your worst feature. And I really, really love how uncoordinated you are when painting your toenails and manage to get just as much polish on the bathroom floor as you do on your toenails."

Darla giggled at that last one but also had tears in her eyes.

"I love the way it feels lying next to you in bed, naked, with our flesh melting into one. I love the fact that you snore, ever-so-slightly, even though you vehemently insist you don't! I love the fact that you work so damned hard at Callahan's because it is the first real job you've ever had and you like showing the guys you can work just as hard as them, if not harder. I love the way you smell when you come home from work, even when you're all hot and sweaty."

"Gross! I couldn't feel any less sexy than when I get home from Callahan's!"

"I don't care. I have no idea what it is but there are fewer times when I desire you more. Grunge sex is some of the best sex! The sweat mixes with your natural pheromones and just sends me into beast mode!"

"You're weird," she said, leaning in for a kiss.

"I love that you think I'm weird and actually have the brass to tell me. I love how you look when you come to bed dressed only in one of my t-shirts and that I'd rather see you in that than the most expensive lingerie. But most of all, I love the fact that you chose me. I just hope I can live up to it and prove that you made the right decision."

"Oh, Daulton," she said hugging me and crying softly. "You've made me so happy."

"I want to marry you, Darla. I want you to be my wife and my lover. I want your children to become my children and I want you to be the mother of our future children. I want to live with you, laugh with you and even argue with you sometimes because I know we can handle it and become stronger through it. Will you have me? Will you make one more good decision and take me as your husband?"

"Yes! Oh, God, yes!! I love you so much! I love you so very, very much!"

"I love you, too, soon-to-be Mrs. Darla Anderson!"

*****

Epilogue

I didn't give Darla a ring that night. I wanted to keep with the theme of allowing Darla to grow and gain more control over the direction of her life. Instead, I gave her a budget that I was comfortable with (around $4,000, which still just about blew her away; me too, for that matter) and still allowed us to set a reasonable budget for a modest wedding the following summer. In short, I wanted Darla to choose a ring that she liked, one that fit her style and personality, and one that she would feel comfortable and confident wearing for the next five or six decades.

We chose to have a fire-themed wedding where I simply wore my dress uniform, especially since Danny Larson was my best man and the groomsmen were all co-workers from RRFFD. I thought all the law enforcement and firefighters looked pretty sharp in their dress uniforms. Natalie and Nathan served as a junior bridesmaid and ring bearer, of course.

At the end of the ceremony, we all filed out of the Methodist church I grew up in and were whisked away on the old beautifully restored open-cab Seagrave fire engine that belonged to our firefighter's union. It had belonged to the Red River Falls Fire Department back in the late 1920s and 30s and was painstakingly brought back to her former glory by our members.

Darla looked absolutely stunning in a simple silver sleeveless knee-length dress. It had a low neck line with an open back and thoroughly accentuated her ample cleavage and her gorgeous hips. She might as well have been wearing a sign that read "Danger: Curves Ahead". She had also started a five-alarm fire in my loins that would only be doused during our consummation that night!

Darla's side of the bridal party had included Diana, Meg and Misty, whom she had gotten very close to. Diana and I had hit a pretty rough patch while Darla and I were on the outs last year. Diana had done everything she could to nudge Darla and I back together, at least as friends if not as a couple. I hadn't always been very nice to her, either, especially since she was there for me right after Darla had left me. She had been one of my closest friends for the longest time and I had been too much of a jackass to realize she had been in my corner all along.

I helped Darla navigate her way to her seat on the old fire engine so she wouldn't trip in her heels. Natalie and Nathan stood behind the seat in the hose bed as there were rails they could hold on to. We wouldn't be driving very fast in the old engine. I turned around and waved to all of the guests who were still blowing bubbles and tossing bird seed at us. I saw Diana standing there, holding her small bouquet and I deliberately walked over to her and bear hugged her.

"I love the friggin' shit out of you. You know that, right?" I said into her ear as I hugged her.

"I know," was her teary response.

"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you."

"Damned right you wouldn't," she said, laughing and hugging me even tighter.

"Thank you...for everything," I said as I pulled away from her embrace.

"My pleasure. Now go take your wife and kids for a fire truck ride, you perpetual little boy!"

My wife and kids! My heart swelled as those words rang in my ears and sounded so good!

I took Darla's hand in my own as I maneuvered the old engine into the street in our own little parade of fire trucks. One of our reserve pumpers and backup aerial ladder truck from RRFFD also joined the parade, along with a reserve pumper and backup tanker from the Royal Fork Fire and Rescue - all of which also carried or were driven by respective members of the wedding party.

We toured the city, honking and occasionally blaring the sirens and were escorted by members of the Mason County Sheriff's Department, courtesy of Sheriff Pat Quinn who drove his SUV with lights flashing to allow our little convoy safe passage through some stoplight intersection. I imagine Red River PD didn't care for our entourage but I didn't really care, either. This was our day and we wanted it to be memorable. Some citizens in the community would probably bitch and moan, too, but Chief Van Dyke had approved it, so long as we reimbursed the fuel usage, which was no big deal for a 25 to 30 minute cruise.

As we drove down the main drag through Red River Falls, I was as happy and content as I had ever been.

"You know what the best part of all of this is, Daulton?" my lovely bride asked.

"What's that, my love?"

"We effectively killed the theory."

"What theory is that?"

She squeezed my hand and said, "The theory that nice guys finish last. They don't. And the icing on the cake is that, sometimes, even nice girls finish first, too!"

"You did it, you know? You kept your promise. Even when I said that it wasn't going to be a race, you were patient and waiting for me at the finish line. Just like you said."

"It's funny, in a way. You rescue and save people for a living. And you literally saved me."

"I'd die for you and the kids. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you."

"And me for you," she said with a quick kiss. "I love you, Daulton."

"I love you, too, Mrs. Anderson!"

Just like the silver bell on the old fire truck, her new name definitely had a nice ring to it!

SB