Ali Vali - Love Match

"All I need is you."

"That you have, sweetheart."

"Read me something." Emily watched Parker roll the ladder to a section at the end and climb so she could reach the top shelf. Parker pulled down an old leather bound edition with faded gold lettering on the cover and when she opened it, the pages looked almost translucent.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed;

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Parker's voice faded away to nothing on the word thee, and Emily sat with food forgotten listening to what she had selected. For some reason the sonnet brought tears to her eyes and Parker wiped them away.

"If it's going to make you cry, I won't read you any other love sonnets."

"I'm crying because you love me enough to kneel here and do it for me." Emily wiped away the tears that had escaped from her eyes.

"Actually I'm kneeling for another reason," said Parker.

"Why's that?"

"Abby wanted to come and apologize about the roast, and I thought I'd butter you up for him."

Emily leaned forward and ran her finger along Parker's top lip. "It'll take a lot more reading out of this book to accomplish that, Shakespeare."

With a snap of Parker's fingers Abby came running through the door coming to a stop next to his master. He had a basket in his mouth and he put a paw up for Emily to shake.

"Emily, Abby and I love you, and we wanted to give you something that'd show you how much you mean to us. If I were a poet this would be much more eloquent, but I'll try my best. Will you give me the chance to make you happy for the rest of your life? I promise that if you say yes there'll never be another moment in your life that'll pass where you don't feel like the center of my universe. I love you and I will do so until there's no breath left in my body." The dog put his basket down on Emily's lap, put his paw next to it so she would look inside and let out a soft woof for his part of the proposal.

Emily cried again when she saw the ring box lying on the straw inside. "Yes."

"Is that yes to me, or the dog?"

"To both of you, goofy, I happen to know you come as a pair." Emily leaned forward for a kiss to seal the deal before Parker thought of changing her mind. She felt like she was home for the first time since being out on her own and Parker gave her the freedom to hope for the future.

"Shall we have a toast?" offered Parker. Emily laughed when Parker picked up two mugs from the tray she'd brought in. Hot chocolate was the one memory Parker had chosen to keep of her father.

They didn't need any other words as they tipped the mugs against each other and took sips of the hot, almost velvety, drink. Emily leaned on a strong shoulder and gave thanks that Parker lived her life by choosing the road less travel by. In the end it had led the tennis player to her doorstep, and there, Parker would always find the love she deserved Emily vowed. This was only their beginning.