Not believing my eyes, I leapt into his arms. We embraced. Spinning, crying, hugging, and squeezing until finally, he managed to pull himself away while wiping the tears from my face with his hand.

“William, what are you still doing here? I thought you were supposed to be on the plane! We almost got hit by a truck and died, then I almost got shot, and then the dog, the dog almost—”

“Montana, Montana! It’s all right, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“What about your flight to Venice?”

“I got to the airport and waited, hoping you would show up. But when I saw that you weren’t going to make the flight, I got off the plane. Going to Venice was about being with you. If I couldn’t go with you, I wasn’t going without you.”

“So why are you dressed like a skycap?”

“I got off the plane, and figured I’d give it one more try. I borrowed the uniform and was on my way to your apartment. I always heard you say that with all the baggage you had in your life, maybe it wasn’t a man that you needed but a skycap. So, I figured, I’d show you that I was both. Montana, I don’t just want to be the man in your life that helps you carry your baggage. I want to be the one to help you check it, and then walk away from it.

“Montana,” he said as he pulled out a ring box and handed it to me, “this is for you.” I opened it slowly and it was the most beautiful ring in the world. The exact same ring William had offered me almost thirty years ago from inside the Cracker Jack box. My eyes swelled once again with tears. Then removing it from the small box, and kneeling down on one knee, he held my hand and asked.

“Montana Christina Moore, for the third and final time, will you marry me?”

Hardly able to breathe, barely able to utter the words, catching my breath, grabbing my heart, I answered, “Yes, William, yes. I’ll marry you!”

Grabbing me, lifting me, spinning me round…I felt lighter and lighter, pinching myself, hoping that this wasn’t a dream. This time I wanted it to be real. And it was. I was not only claiming my future, I was kissing it too.

Acknowledgments