I shifted Danny to my other hip. "For how long?"
"We’re not sure, ma’am. But no one is leaving this airport on a plane in this snowstorm. We can get you a hotel-"
"No thank you. We’ll be checking in later, when the snow has lightened," I said. I turned around and walked back over to where Josh and my parents stood. I shrugged my shoulders. "They don’t know when we can get outta here, but they know it’s not going to be tonight."
"Well, you guys can come spend some time with us!" my mom said cheerfully.
"Yeah," I said, smiling at her. I put Danny down; I took one hand, Josh took the other, and we walked through the airport to get our luggage.
Josh and I sat in the far back seat of my dad’s Suburban. He traced his finger over the back of my hand and up my arm. I sat with my head on his shoulder, just taking in everything about him. It had been so great having him to myself for ten whole days.
"So," my dad said, glancing in the rearview mirror. "Did you have a good trip?"
I picked my head up, knowing that glance well. "Yes Daddy, we had a great time. You two should take a trip there someday."
"I’ve been thinking that, too, James," my mother said.
"Hmm, we’ll certainly see about it."
Silence again. I made sure my dad wasn't watching, and then put my head back on Josh’s shoulder for the remainder of the ride home.
"Mama?" I asked when we pulled into the driveway. "Can we stay in the guesthouse?"
"Sweetie, stay in the house, with us."
"But we like the guesthouse!"
"It’s not clean."
"I don’t care! Please?"
"Fine," she sighed. "Here, take her bags, James." She handed my stuff to my Dad, Josh grabbed his stuff, and we walked to the guesthouse.
"Here, let me help you light a fire." My dad grabbed some firewood from outside, threw it in the fireplace, and within minutes had a roaring fire going.
"Thank you." I hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He smiled at me. "You’re probably tired. I’ll let you two get some sleep." He eyed Josh, then turned and left.
I walked over to Josh and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Mmm, all alone again." He put his arms around my waist and brought me closer to him. "I say we take a little nap in front of the fire, what do ya say?"
"Sounds perfect." He grabbed a blanket from the bedroom. He lay down, then so did I, with my head on his chest. He covered us both with the blanket.
I stared up at the ceiling quietly as he fell asleep. The steady rise and fall of his chest slowly put me to sleep.
"Danny!" I called after him as he ran down the stairs toward the back door. "Sweetie, you need your jacket! Josh, take him his jacket!" Josh ran to the bottom of the stairs and I threw him the jacket. "I’ll be out in a second."
"Ok," he said, then disappeared.
My mom had gone shopping with my grandmother (I passed), and my dad was at a friend’s, helping him fix his car, so it was just Josh, Danny, and I. Danny wanted to play outside in the snow that had fallen that night.
I pulled a cute little red turtleneck on, in honor of Valentine’s Day, put my shoes on, grabbed my coat and ran downstairs.
They were down at the beach; I could hear Danny’s loud laugh from the back porch.
"No, you can’t climb the rocks," Josh said.
I walked down to the beach and stood next to him. "No, Baby. Josh is right."
"Why?" Danny asked, pouting his lip.
"I’m gonna kill Justin for teaching him that."
Josh chuckled. "Because," Josh explained. Danny crossed his arms again, another thing Justin had obviously taught him. "Don’t look at us like that. It’s icy, too slippery, you might fall. There, is that a good enough reason?"
Danny lowered his head and slowly walked back to where Josh and I stood, dragging his feet the entire way.
Josh reached down and picked him up, so they were eye to eye. "Hey, cheer up, Kiddo."
"Ok Kiddo."
"Hey! I’m not a Kiddo!"
"Uh-huh," Danny said, nodding his head.
"Is Mommy a Kiddo?"
"Yep." Josh put him down and he ran around in circles for a while, until he fell down.
"Hey," I interrupted. "How about we go back up, and we’ll play in the snow? And I can give you a Valentine’s present."
"Present?" Danny’s eyes lit up and he was the first one up the stairs.
"A present?" Josh asked as we neared the stairs. I nodded. "That reminds me…"
"Be careful!" I called after him as he rushed up the stairs. I could only laugh when his foot almost slipped out from under him.
"Not funny!" he warned.
"You didn’t see what I saw!" I replied.
Danny’s present was sitting just inside the guesthouse door. I could hear Josh rummaging around in the bedroom. I ignored him, grabbed the present, and went back outside.
"Remote controlled car?!" Danny asked in amazement.
"Yeah!" I handed him the racecar and the controller. "Look," I pointed to the back porch, "Grandma’s home. Why don’t you see if you can show her how it works in the garage?"
He ran off and I jogged back over to the guesthouse door. "Joshua! Come outside and play!" I called out in a singsong voice.
He started toward the door, so I went into the middle of the yard and lay down. I started moving my arms and legs.
"What are you doing?" Josh asked, making his way toward me.
"Making a snow angel." He neared me, so I stopped my movement. He knelt next to me. "How’s it goin’?" I asked.
"Eh. Ok, ‘cept my dear girlfriend laughed at me what I almost slipped and fell on my ass."
"Well, it was probably because she warned you to be careful going up the slippery stairs."
"Yeah, well…I got you something; it was supposed to be a Christmas present-"
"Oh, Josh, you didn’t have to."
He tucked a few stray strands of my hair behind my ear. "But now, it’s a Valentine’s present." I tried to cut in, but he pressed a finger to my lips to silence me. "I wanted to."
He handed me a black velvet, rectangular box. I slowly opened it to reveal a platinum, pink sapphire and diamond tennis bracelet.
"Joshua!" I hit his arm hard.
"Ow! What?!"
"It’s beautiful."
He took it out of the box and clasped it around my wrist, with a quick kiss on the back of my hand. I propped myself up on my elbows and kissed him.
"Thank you," I whispered against his lips. "Here, I made you something. Move!" He got up and moved away. I completed my snow angel and hopped up. "Tada!"
Josh’s face fell. "A snow angel-"
I put my hand on the back of his head, brought him to me, and kissed him forcefully. His excitement grew. He moved his hands to my butt and lifted me into the air; I instantly wrapped my legs around his waist.
"Oh, God…" I moaned when his lips moved to my neck. I jumped down suddenly. "No; nuh-uh. Not happening."
"What?!" His eyes were huge.
"That is not part of your present."
"Why not?" he demanded, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Yeah, why not? I asked myself.
"You know you want to…" he whispered, and nibbled on my neck.
I was finding it hard to breathe. "Well, of course I want to. But, my parents-"
"Danny will definitely keep them occupied."
He kissed me forcefully. My knees went weak, and I was forced to give in.
"Please, Johnny! It’s just one day!" I begged.
"No," he replied.
I sighed heavily into the phone. "But, it’s not like I’m asking for four days; Danny just wants to see Justin for one day before he’s gone for five months!" I sniffled. "I won’t get to see him for my birthday…"
Johnny was quiet for a minute. "Taking a bodyguard?"
"Of course. Lonny wants to go with us, and he’s gonna bring House along, too."
"Fine. But he better be back in the studio working his ass off perfecting those dance moves at seven sharp Saturday morning!" he barked.
"Aye aye, Captain."
"Holly-"
"Sorry, sir. Back in the studio Saturday morning, I got it. Thank you so much Johnny. Love you, bye!" I hung up before he got a chance to lecture me any further.
Justin looked over at me from my couch. "So?"
I smiled. "It’s all set. But you better be back in the studio working your ass off perfecting those dance moves at seven sharp Saturday morning!" I said, mocking Johnny. Justin chuckled. "So, yeah…Disney World! Tomorrow! We’ll be at your place at…8 o’clock…ish."
"Sounds good. Laura!" he called up the stairs. "Time to go!"
She came bounding down the stairs. "Bye Holly! Lunch was great!" She hugged me.
"Thanks. Bye J! See y’all tomorrow morning!" They walked out the front door.
"Where are we going tomorrow morning?" Josh asked, coming in the back door.
"I told Danny we’d take him to Disney World. Justin, Lor, Hannah, and Jayce are gonna go, too. It’s gonna be so much fun."
"I can think of much better ways to have fun…" he said, putting his hands on my back, underneath my shirt.
"So can I, but…no." I walked away.
"That hurt!" He chased after me.
"I'm sure." I turned around. "Come here, let me make it better." His eyes lit up. He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned in. I smacked the back of his head…hard. "Feel better?"
He rubbed the back of his head. "You know it. What’d you do that for?"
"You were trying to get fresh with me!"
"Trying to get freshwith you?" he laughed.
"…Yeah! And I didn’t appreciate it very much."
"I’m sure you didn’t."
"What’s with you lately? Always wanting to get some, geez! It’s crazy."
"It’s you, Baby," he said in a deep, raspy voice.
"Stop it!" I laughed.
"Ok, anyway, I’m going to bring Danny inside."
"You do that." He walked away quickly. "I love you!" I called out after him.
"I love you, too," he called over his shoulder.
"Welcome to the happiest place on earth, Little Buddy!" Justin said as we walked through the Disney entrance. Danny clapped his hands in delight. "Haha, come on."
Lonnie led our little group to a bench. Justin and Laura, with Danny in between them followed Lonnie, then JC and Hannah, Josh and I, and House bringing up the end.
"So," Laura asked, looking up at me, squinting at the bright sunlight. "Where to first?"
"Anywhere," I replied.
"Kiddo! Where do you wanna go?" Josh asked.
"Mickey, Kiddo!" Danny responded.
"You wanna see Mickey Mouse? Well, then let’s go!" Josh picked Danny up and they started on their way. Lonnie jumped up and followed quickly, giving everyone the signal that it was time to go.
We walked all over the park. Danny met, and took a picture with every single Disney character. We rode almost every ride. Danny’s favorites were the Dumbo ride and Space Mountain (which he rode about five times).
Around five, he decided he wanted to ride it one more time before we left.
"I give up! No more! I’m gonna wait out here," I said, collapsing on a bench.
"You’re loss," Josh said. He picked Danny up and lifted him onto his shoulders. Danny smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen. "You ready to go one more time?" They walked off, with Lonnie, Laura and Justin following.
Hannah sat next to me and put her head on my shoulder. "I’m tired," she groaned. "Why did I let you talk me into this?"
"Hey, I’ll be back," JC said and ran off.
"How are things going?" I asked Hannah.
"Wonderfully. Did I ever thank you for setting me up with him? ‘Cause if not, I’m sorry, because you deserve so much thanks." I smiled at her. "How about you?"
I sighed. "He’s so good to me."
"Good!"
"Yeah…and Danny, too. I mean, he treats Danny as if he were his own son. Danny really likes him, so that’s good, too."
"Very good."
We sat in silence for a while, until our Space Mountain group came back, about ten minutes later.
"That was quick!" I said as they approached.
Josh collapsed next to me. "The line was short."
"Hannah!" JC called as he ran back toward us, his hands behind his back. "C’mere, I gotta talk to you."
She looked at me, a puzzled expression on her face. "I’ll be right back." She walked over to JC. "What’s up?" He handed her a giant Minnie Mouse stuffed animal. "Aww, she’s so cute, thank you!" She hugged him. She turned the Minnie around to look at her more.
I got up and walked a little closer. I knew exactly what was going on. "The reporters are gonna have a field day with this one," I said to Justin.
"Huh?" he asked, and turned around to see what was going on.
"Jayce? What’s this?" Hannah asked, spotting a necklace around the Minnie’s neck.
JC pulled the necklace over the stuffed animal and slid the charm off of it. Well, it wasn't really a charm…
JC dropped down on one knee. I saw a few camera flashes go off. "Hannah Wilson," he said, looking up and taking her hand. I felt tears well up in my eyes. "Will you marry me?" There was a bombardment of camera flashes. Lonnie ran over to stand behind JC.
Hannah dropped the Minnie toy on the ground, and wiped her eyes with her free hand. She nodded slowly, and JC slipped the ring on her finger.
JC jumped up, took Hannah in his arms and swung her around in circles.
Josh crept up behind me and took my hand in his.
Hannah ran over and hugged me tight.
JC walked over, Minnie in hand, and accepted Justin’s handshake. "Johnny’s gonna kill you," Justin chuckled.
"Oh well, I don’t care."
As we walked out of the park a little while later, I couldn’t help but wonder why I had turned Josh down when he asked me to marry him.
