"You have caramel-colored eyes. I've never seen that on a girl before."

"Yours are more like milk chocolate.” Just then, she snorted.

"What?"

"I'm just glad you didn't say ‘peanut butter colored,’ cuz then we'd look like a Reese's Cup walking along,” she teased.

He grinned, then chuckled.

"You said you were going my way…?” She hooked a thumb in the direction of the class she was late for.

"Oh, yeah. Heading over to the rifle range for ROTC actually.” He grimaced. “Target practice. I'm trying to pass my qualifications and I…"

Marcy's head snapped up to instant alert, her eyebrows going up in surprise. This might be the opening she'd been praying for with Paul.

"And you…?” she led the question.

Paul actually blushed and ducked his head down a bit. “Oh, it's nothing. Just having problems with landing my center matches at distance. I'll figure it out.” He'd done the typical guy thing of throwing out a couple of technical terms figuring she wouldn't know exactly what he was talking about and be impressed. He'd miscalculated.

Marcy grinned over at him in delight. “I can help with that. Let's go.” She took the lead and walked straight past her assigned classroom out toward the ROTC area. She glanced back to see Paul staring after her in shock for a second before hurrying to catch up.

That had been eight years ago. It had been Paul and Marcy-shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back-against the world ever since.

A gondola ride around the lake, complete with hot cocoa and warmed lap blankets followed dinner. There was even a singing gondolier-but, still no proposal-although Paul pulled her into his arms and kissed her silly as they went under the bridge, a tradition said to ensure eternal love according to their poleman.

As the gondola started back to the dock, Paul looked down at Marcy and, with a sigh, gently pushed her away from his body and set them both back to rights, straightening the front of her jacket, and even making sure the laprug was tucked in so she wouldn't be chilled. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “Honey… there's something I have to tell you. Something I want to ask you."

Here it was! Her ring finger had been right and gave a happy little tingle. He'd just been waiting for the right moment.

"Honey…” He paused, took another deep breath.

Marcy mentally urged her big-strong-knight-in-shining-armor to be brave and just ask. It shouldn't be so hard to ask her to marry him. Afterall, they had been together for ages. What was he waiting for?

"Paul… what is it?” she prompted, giving him the opening to ‘pop the question.'

He took her hand in his, brought it to his lips and kissed her fingers. “Honey…” Another pause and then it all came rushing out at once. “I joined the Army. I just got my notification. I've been accepted AND I've got a chance to eventually get into the Rangers. I leave in three days for bootcamp at Fort Benning, Georgia. Will you keep my dog?"

The cold must be affecting her ears. ‘I've discovered that I love you. Desperately. Passionately. You are my heart, my soul, my life, my very reason for living and I can't endure another day without you as my wife. Will you marry me, my darling Marcy?’ came out sounding exactly like ‘I've joined the Army, will you keep my dog.'

Marcy sat in stunned silence, a weird, bloodless pressure seemed to be centered around her face, over by her ears. Her eyes were having trouble focusing all of a sudden and her mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out. Her ring finger was strangely silent.

"Honey?” Nothing. “Honey? Did you hear me?” Paul reached up to gently touch her face.

She slowly turned to him. “You joined the Army and you want me to keep your dog.” Her deadpan response quietly fogged from her mouth into the frosty night air.

Paul's face relaxed. Yes. She had heard him. He looked expectantly at her. Still nothing. He took a deep breath and plowed on. “You've known Alex since he was a puppy. He likes you and I know he'll be safe and happy with you while I'm gone."

Marcy's brain finally started to function again and she closed her mouth that had been hanging open ‘catching flies’ as her mom would have said. “You joined the Army. And you want me to keep your dog."

"You already said that."

"Just checking to make sure I heard you correctly."

As soon as the gondola pulled up to the pier, Marcy stood and reached for the hand of the man waiting to help the ‘romantic couple’ from the boat. She thanked him, turned around without stepping back from the edge of the dock-thus preventing Paul from exiting the craft-and looked down at her not-fiance trying to steady himself while standing in the unstable vessel.

Her too-quiet, measured tones and deliberate sentences dropped onto his head like lead weights from above. “Thank you for a lovely evening. Good luck with your Army career. I hope you make it into the Rangers. Yes, I'll keep your dog. No, I don't need a ride home.” With that she turned and walked away without looking back.

Paul watched Marcy brush past the carousel and the street vendors without stopping and disappear into the crowd. He sat back down on the blanket-still warm from being on her lap-a strange, unreadable expression on his face.

The gondolier looked down at him in amusement. “You're an idiot."

Paul's eyes flew up to glare at the man standing over him, then flicked back to see where Marcy had disappeared and his shoulders sagged. No point in being pissed at the gondolier… the guy was right. Without wasting another second, he reached up, grabbed the mooring pylon, heaved himself up onto the dock, and took off running after Marcy.

"Marcy! Mars! Wait up!"

Thankfully, she stopped, and waited for her idiot boyfriend to catch up with her.

"Honey, what's wrong? Why did you leave me like that?” Paul's eyes desperately searched her face for clues as to what she was thinking.

"I love you,” she whispered, then just stood there silently, not even looking at him.

"I love you, too.” This uncharacteristically deflated Marcy was starting to scare Paul. “Mars? Talk to me, honey."

"A woman waits her whole life for a proposal from the man she loves, and I guarantee you, when she's a little girl thinking about her ‘Prince Charming,’ that proposal does not come out sounding like ‘Will you keep my dog!'” She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her empty-fingered left hand and sniffed back her hurt as she stared out across the piazza.

Paul closed his eyes, his head falling back for a moment before he blew out his breath and brought his gaze down and forward to stare at her.

"Mars, I…"

"No. Don't. You don't have to say anything. I let my expectations ruin a beautiful evening between us.” Her voice caught in her throat. “Apparently, one of the last ones we're going to have from the sound of it.” She gathered as much of her dignity and her aching heart as she could scrape up off the cobblestones and pasted a smile on her face as she looked up into the big brown eyes of the man she loved. “It'll be okay. And, yes. You know I'll keep Alex. He's as much mine as yours. And… I'm… Congratulations on getting into the Rangers. I know you've talked about joining up for a long time. Since before college even.” She took a deep breath that only shook slightly. “I just didn't know you were going to do it so soon."

"I'm not in the Rangers yet. That's at least a year off, if then. But at least now I have the possibility of being accepted.” He paused before gently continuing. “I waited until you got out of college and got settled into the new job. I wanted to make sure you were all set before I headed out."