Saving Me

My Last Name

            Stormy's POV:

Joel's funeral was today. While I didn't really want to go, I felt like I needed to be there. I knew that I was not going to be welcomed with open arms, but it was something that I felt like I needed to do. Call it getting closure, call it wanting to see for myself that he was really gone, or call it whatever you want, but I felt it deep in my soul that I needed to at least pay my respects to his family. His mama deserved that even if Joel didn't.

"You know that no one will think bad of you if you don't do this right?" said Matt as he wrapped his strong arms around me and pulled me into his chest, breaking into my train of thought.

"I know. But I feel like I need to go. At least to pay my respects to his mama." Placing the mascara tube that I had been holding, I spun in Matt's arms, and I lopped mine around his neck. "He and I might have been like oil and water, but she always treated me with kindness. It was only my fear of him and the things that he could do to me and Sadie that kept me from going to her when things got really bad. If he was willing to harm me, lord knows what he would have done to his own mama. I couldn't have lived with myself had she been hurt because of me."

"I get where you're coming from. I really do." Said Matt. "That being said, why don't I call mom and have her come over and sit with Sadie so I can go with you to this. Emotions usually run high at these things, and I don't want you to be alone when his mama or his family gets a wild hair up their asses and decides to take their misplaced anger out on you."

"I can handle them, Matt."

"I know you can. You're the strongest person I know. But you don't have to do this alone. Not as long as I have a breath in my body will you ever have to do the hard shit alone."

"And what will people say when they see me at the baby-daddy's funeral with my new boyfriend?"

"Tell them I'm your fiancé." He said.

I was pretty sure my jaw was lying somewhere on the hardwood floor. Had he really just said what I think he said? I had to be dreaming right? There was no way in hall a man that I have know for all of 3 weeks was actually proposing marriage.

I felt his hands leave from around my waist before he placed them gently on my cheeks and tilted my head back so that I was looking into his eyes. He had that smile that I love so much on his face, but it was the deep blue of his eyes that pulled me in, a deep shade of blue that one could drown in. Which made sense since as soon as he started talking, I felt my eyes pool with tears that would undoubtedly roll down my cheeks unchecked.

"Stormy, since the day I met you, you have changed my life in ways that I never thought possible. You have brought nothing but joy and compassion to my life. Just when I thought that I was never going to know what it means to love someone or be loved my someone ever again, you came into my life. The sky got bluer. The trees got greener. The feelings I felt for you right from the day I laid eyes on you forced me to move on with my life, to stop living in the past. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how thankful I am for you love, your compassion, your humor. I want to spend the rest of my life making sure that you and Sadie have the best life possible. I want to make sure that both of you know just hoe much you are loved and appreciated. I want to be there for the good days, the bad days, and all the days in between. I love you, Stormy. You already have my heart. Now make me the happiest man on earth and take my last name."

I watched, frozen in place as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet ring box before dropping down on one knee. My heart was racing a mile a minute, tattooing the impression of this moment onto the muscle for the remainder of time. When he snapped the box open, my breath hitched at the beauty that stared back at me.