His feckless proposal reduced her to tears. Tears he mistook for joy. In his nervous excitement to ask for her hand in marriage he had over looked something essential, the timing and delivery of the crucial question.

She could excuse him not getting down on one knee before her. That was quite impossible hanging upside down from a fifty foot oak tree crowned in mistletoe. She could forgive his raised tone, necessary to be heard over the noisy hawks flying overhead. She could forgive him the inability to place the ring on her finger, since she herself hung a few feet lower in the same mammoth tree. Her modest distance from him, made it impossible for her to see nothing more than a sparkle from the diamond, or did the ring carry more than one?

Every imagined past dream detailing her perfect marriage proposal vanished. In it’s place this feeble and ridiculous proposal now claimed that special page in her memory album. She wiped at her tears knowing he dangled overhead waiting for her reply.

At least she hung upright, though it only allowed her the ability to peer at his backside through fresh tears. His size thirteen feet planted themselves in the clouds, and his dark brown wavy hair danced with the beat of the soft breeze, flirting and brushing against a stout branch, adorned with green fern sprouts.

When he first suggested the idea of the two of them parachuting from a plane, hand and hand, with the intended target to land in an open field and share a quiet lunch together, she had caught her breath with excitement. In the past year they had gone wind gliding, rock climbing, bungy jumping, and high board water diving, but none of them had taken her breath away as sharply and heavily as the short, clumsy manner in which he had just asked her to marry him.

In a sudden and unexpected preforming act he swung, twisted and flipped himself around to face her. Now right side up, she held onto his winning smile centered on his face, setting his solid jaw, straight nose, and steady eyes in perfect balance with one another.

How could she have hesitated? His love for her dovetailed her love for him and united the foundation of their framework into a perfect fit. In her reply, carried on a soft breath overflowing with love, she sent her answer, married with a joyous smile.