Damage Control Epilogue

She smiled and kissed me. "I love you Stacie Johnson."

"I love you too Tara Andrews."

Present time

I listened as the tour guide told us that we could wander around and take pictures and that the guided part was over. I looked back over to the cliff that I was at earlier and then touched Tara on the shoulder.

"I'm gonna go back over to the cliff, I want to see if the Jaguar is back yet." I Told her.

"Oooo, let's go!" She said grabbing my hand.

We walked until we were standing on the edge of the cliff. I looked up and saw the sun was perfectly overhead. There was a breeze blowing and honestly, there was never a more perfect time than now.

"The pictures just don't do it justice do they?" She asked.

"No, they really don't... Hey... what's that over there?" I asked, pointing to something in the valley.

She looked over but couldn't see what I was looking at. She turned back around to see me on a bent knee holding an engagement ring. Her hands went to her mouth and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Tara Andrews, you are my soulmate and truly the other half of my heart. It aches when you're not next to me. I didn't think it was humanly possible for me to love you anymore than I did when we started our journey together. I was wrong. Would you honor me by spending the rest of our lives together as my wife?"

I had bought the ring for Tara at the start of my final year of law school. But I needed someone's permission before I could give it to her. I asked Linda to take Tara shopping one afternoon and snuck over to her parent's house when I knew they were both at home. We were sitting in the den and I was looking at some of the pictures of Tara as a little girl. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but we were enjoying a Corona together. I looked at her father but suddenly was incredibly intimidated.

Now you know what guys feel when they do this.

"I know right?" I told my inner voice.

"Mr. Andrews, I love your daughter more than life itself and would give my life for hers without hesitation." I told him. "The time I've spent with her growing with her as my best friend and now as her girlfriend has been the most incredible journey I could ever dream of. With that in mind, I'd like to ask for your permission to marry your daughter." I heard glass breaking in the kitchen as her mom ran into the den to stand next to her husband.

"Tara tells me pretty much the same thing about you and how much she loves you. I'll admit that this wasn't what I imagined for Tara when she was a little girl. But as a parent you have to be flexible..." he started to say.

"Stop torturing her and say, 'yes you have my permission' so I can see the engagement ring she's got in her pocket." her mom said in a pissed off tone.

"Remember this saying after you get married. Happy wife, happy life..." He said nodding his head. "Yes, you have my permission to marry my daughter." He told me. Tara's mom was hopping up and down as I pulled the box out of my pocket for them to see. I won't lie, it was tough trying to stick to my plan of waiting to ask her to marry me until after I graduated. But it worked out in the end.

She started crying but got "YES!" out in between sobs of joy. I took the ring from the box and put it on her finger. She grabbed me and hugged me harder than she ever had before.

We both heard clapping. The people on the tour with us had gathered to watch and unknown to Tara, her parents and my mom had made the trip to meet us here so they could watch and share in this moment. Mine and Tara's mom were holding cell phones recording it. Tara's dad was holding a professional video camera with a microphone on it so he wouldn't miss a word.

My Fiancé hugged me and wouldn't let go. I felt her tears on my shoulder as she wept.

She squeezed me tighter and whispered, "I love you Stacie Johnson."

"And I love you Tara Andrews." I told her. I then looked up into the sky. "Thank you, Lord."