Once Upon...

It was Supposed to be a Happy Day

The sunshine was so bright. It was the first thing, Naomi thought as she came downstairs into the kitchen. Her mother was cooking breakfast, french toast by the smell, and her father was reading the paper at the table, his glasses perched at the end of his nose. It was a happy day, Naomi thought. Happy, good things were going to happen today, she just knew it.

"Morning darling, breakfast will be ready in about five minutes."

Naomi smiled as she looked at her mother, who was cooking as if she was one with the food. Her mother always said that it was fun to her, it made it easy. Her mother was of medium height and very slender, almost willowy, with her dark brown hair cut into a pixie style haircut. It still amazed Naomi how well it suited her mother after she had only seen her mother with long hair. She knew her mother had bright green eyes, one of the few things she didn't get from her and a face that didn't belong on a woman who was fifty years old.

Her father was her best friend. She loved her mother more than anything and was very close with her, but her father was like a friend, a confidant in a way her mother wasn't. He was a very artistic man, who often painted out in the backyard or down in the basement, where he had his little studio. He knew his way around a camera and she'd been fascinated by it and had gone to school for photography.

There were paintings of her as a child and as a baby, that hung in the living room. There were also two paintings of her mother, one shortly after they were married and another when her mother was about seven months pregnant with her. They were her favorites, because you could see the love he had for both of them in the strokes and in the colors he chose. She remembered a man had wanted to buy them, handsomely, and put them in a local museum, but her father had said no and never relented.

He was very tall and almost gangly looking, but he was never clumsy. He was always very graceful and it had always made her smile to watch him move. His hair was medium blond and was almost always pulled back into a ponytail. His gray eyes, the ones she shared with him, always seemed to be focused on one thing or another, like now with the paper. It never seemed to shock her with how much love she had for him.

She walked behind him and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. "Hey dad."

"Hey No, plans for today?" Her father smiled and used his pet name for her.

"Going to hang with Jackson in a couple of hours. He's taking me to lunch." She walked around him and sat at the table. At the same time, her mother brought over two plates of french toast, followed by maple syrup.

"Eat up, darlings." Her mother smiled and went back to the stove to cook herself some.

"Thanks, mom."

"Where to lunch this time? Is he on some more of his recipe hunting missions?" Her father smirked as he said it and placed his newspaper on the table, then reaching for the syrup.

Naomi laughed as she stuck a piece of french toast in her mouth. "I think we're off to some French place over in Caster Falls. He knows the cook from somewhere, I'm not entirely sure. They're going to trade apparently."

"Anything else?"

"Uhm." Naomi thought for a moment, trying to remember her conversation with Jackson from the night before and nearly smiling as she remembered Jackson telling her he wanted to make love to her in their spot off in the woods by the small creek. "I don't think there was anything else specific."

Her father made a noncommittal sound and dug into his own breakfast.

It seemed like ages before Naomi heard Jackson's old truck come up the drive way. She'd put her hair back into a clip and had changed into a yellow summer dress with matching yellow flip flops. She hadn't worn the dress yet, but figured the day was perfect for it, especially since she liked how the dress hugged her hips just slightly. Enough to make him think and to wonder.

Hurrying out of the house, she said a quick goodbye to her parents and climbed into Jackson's truck.

"Hey." She said as she got comfortable in the truck and leaned over to kiss him.

"Hey yourself." He smiled as he looked at her. "Pretty."

"Thanks. It's new."

"It makes you glow."

Naomi almost felt herself blush. Jackson might not have been a poet, but he could say things in a way that would make her feel pretty to the core.

"What coupons are you trading with Josh?"

"I've got a garlic chicken recipe and a baked potato soup recipe that I think he'll like."

"For a French restaurant?"

Jackson chuckled. "These are for himself, as the ones he is giving me are for myself."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense." She adjusted herself in the seat and looked back at him. "Are you going to try them out on me?" She was curious what recipes Josh was giving him.

"Of course! Don't I always?"

"You are going to be amazing someday."

Jackson feigned a stricken look. "You mean I'm not amazing already?"

Naomi giggled and watched as the trees flew by. "I mean in the cooking world, silly. You're going to have your own place and everyone's going to want to eat there. There will be lines and you'll have your own talk show or something."

"That is a dream of mine. At least having my own restaurant. Someday, I hope to have it."

"You will. You're too good and creative a cook to not."

"What about you?"

"Hrm?"

"With your photography?" She watched as Jackson turned onto the highway and heard as his old truck kicked itself into gear and pushed itself faster.

"Oh, right." She'd been picturing Jackson as a chef, famous and with his own restaurant. It was so easy to put him there. "My dad is helping me set up a place down in the basement. It's the best spot right now. I'm hoping to maybe buy a place in town somewhere, set up my own studio. Though it's not really necessary, since I'm just doing weddings at the moment, so I just need space to edit, print, and package mostly."

Jackson laughed. "I know what you want to do now. What is your dream?"

"I'd love to have my own studio and concentrate on love and families. I don't want to do modeling of any kind, just pictures of weddings and family portraits. Maybe get creative and do something natural with the portraits instead of being all formal and posed. I think too on the side, I'd like to just take wonderful pictures of the area, maybe do some kind of photo album and give it to the town hall, where the history society is. Or..I could always sell some, I've had a few buyers knock on my door."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Mayor Carlson. There was a picture I took of the town from the top of Jefferson Hill and the angle was just perfect. It looked like something from TV almost, so I could see why he wanted it. I had no idea what to sell it for, but he offered two hundred dollars for it."

"Wow. I remember that picture."

"I sold it to him and I was able to buy a new lens for my camera." Then she smiled and looked at him. "And this dress."

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Lunch had been great and Jackson had still kept the recipes from her. It was a surprise, he said. She had rolled her eyes at him and didn't push it. If it was a surprise, it was a surprise. She'd get to taste whatever it was eventually.

Now, she was laying next to him at their spot. She heard the sound of the stream whispering by them and felt loving touch of the warm breeze. Whenever she was with Jackson, she always felt as if her life was perfect. Nothing could go wrong. She had just graduated college and her whole life lay in front of her. Sighing, she looked over at him and smiled when she saw him staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" She tried to look serious.

"You have beautiful skin, you know that right?" He leaned up on his elbow and looked down at her. They were both naked, laying on a blanket that he always kept in his truck. He touched her skin and smiled.

"You know what that does to me, Jackson. That's unfair." She broke out into a smile and purred when he leaned down to kiss a breast.

"I have a surprise." She looked up at him when he said it, a playful smirk crossing his face. "Close your eyes."

She did as she was told, though she wanted to peek. It was hard not to, since Jackson hardly ever did surprises. Not that he hated surprises, he could just never keep them to himself. He always ended up telling her everything. She loved it though. There were no words to define love, but she could see it in his eyes every day.

"Okay, open them."

She opened her eyes and her breath caught. She couldn't blink and suddenly forgot what to do with the breath still in her lungs. What was her name again?

Suddenly, everything came back and the breath gushed out in a huff and tears filled her eyes as she looked down at the gorgeous diamond nestled in a box of velvet. It wasn't a large stone, she was probably being generous at it being half a carat, but it was beautiful. It symbolized something she could never begin to explain to anyone else. It symbolized her heart. "Oh, Jackson."

"Naomi Leigh Bronson, you've not only shown me what love is, but you've taught me what love is. I never thought, before I met you, that I'd ever be with someone who I wanted to be with until I took my last breath, that I'd ever find someone who could put up with me. You made me a better man, Nay. Will you marry me? Will you make me the happiest man on this planet?"

He had bent to one knee, holding her left hand with his right and holding the ring in his left. She didn't know if she could speak. Her mind screamed at her, Yes! Say it!

She reached out and touched his face and nodded. "Yes, yes, yes." Her eyes filled and as he slid the ring onto her finger, he kissed her softly and wrapped his arms around her.

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She was excited to tell her parents. She knew they'd be just as excited as she was. Her parents loved Jackson, almost become a second son to them. Naomi looked down at her left hand and still couldn't believe what rested there. She was engaged, and not just to anyone, but to Jackson. Her heart swelled and she almost felt her eyes fill.

"We're here." Jackson smiled as he put his truck into park in her parents' driveway. "Are you ready to tell them?"

She swallowed. "Yes. Now that I can speak like a normal person." She smiled up at him. "They're going to be excited, you know. They love you."

Jackson's smile broke into a grin. "Then let's go surprise them then."

He hopped out of his truck and came around to help her down. He took her hand and together they walked up to the house. The excitement was building up in her chest, she was afraid her chest might just burst before she got to tell them the news.

The house was quiet as they entered. An eerie quiet. A shiver went up Naomi's spine as they walked through the main hall and into the living room. She lead them through the living room and stopped in the kitchen. Laying on the kitchen table were plates filled with a sandwich and some left over macaroni salad. Each plate had a half filled glass of iced tea.

Now, the excitement had dissipated and replaced with an uneasy feeling, borderline on fear. "Let's go upstairs." She let go of Jackson's hand and turned around. "Mom? Dad?"

She called for them but all that replied was silence. A silence that seemed to be getting heavier at each step. Jackson was behind her, soon a hand on her back as they walked through the hall upstairs. Stopping at her parents' bedroom, the door was slightly ajar. She pushed it open and the last thing she remembered was that their eyes were open.