“Will you marry me?”

Tina looked from the ring in the small jewelry box to Grant’s happy, expectant face. She took a breath and tried to memorize everything about this moment. The gentle sound of the tide rolling in, the orange sunset slipping down over the horizon, the smell of warm flowers that honeyed the air around them as the long grass on either side of the pier rustled gently in the wind. It was all so picture perfect.

Realizing that she had taken a beat too long to answer, the answer burst from her lips. “Yes! Yes of course I will!”

Grant took the ring from the box and slipped it on Tina’s finger. Tina couldn’t help making an awed little gasp as she held the ring up. It was beautiful. Large, but not tacky. The princess cut diamond sparkled and winked at her in the light.

“Oh, Grant,” she breathed looking up at him with tears in her eyes. “It’s so perfect. Everything is perfect. The day, the ring, you… I love you.” She flung her arms around him and they kissed. Grant wrapped her in a hug and murmured “I love you, too” in her ear. Tina studied the ring on her finger for a moment and then closed her eyes, clinging to Grant even tighter. It had happened. What she had always wanted and dreamed of. It was real. She was getting married, and now her real life was about to begin. Nothing that had happened before now mattered. The past was past. She was wanted. She had a future that was secure. One word filled her mind as an unshakable sense of security settled over her.

Safe. Right then, Tina knew that she was finally safe.

****

The next morning was gloriously bright, and Tina was trying to put aside her anxiousness as she climbed the wide white steps and passed under a Greek colonnade onto the front porch of Grant’s parents’ home. Grant rang the doorbell and Tina smoothed her hair and the front of her brightly patterned dress.