Bucky's Hope (A Bucky Barnes Love Story)

Chapter 73

Bucky's POV:

"Okay, this is it, it's now or never, come on, you can do this, she's not going to say no."

For weeks now I have been trying to come up with ways to propose but so far nothing I could think of has felt right.

"Do you have any ideas, Midnight?"

I turned to look at Midnight who was in his stall, currently, I've been hiding away in the barn trying to come up with a proposal idea, and now I'm asking him for help.

"Anything?" I ask Midnight again.

He just let out a soft snort and turned to look elsewhere.

"Thanks for the help," I muttered to Midnight.

"Hey, what are you doing in here, James?"

I quickly tucked the box into my coat pocket as I heard Hope walking over to Midnight's stall.

"Um, nothing just trying to coax this guy to come out with the other horses," I quickly said.

Hope laughed, "During this kind of weather, Midnight will not leave his warm stall for nothing, but now since we have the indoor training area, I think he might change his tune, especially if we put Winter in there too."

"Wow, you have spoiled him rotten," I told Hope.

"Oh no, I don't blame him for not wanting to leave the stall, the weather here in Kansas gets ridiculous, you've all experienced the late spring and summer, you have not seen anything yet," Hope said.

"Please, the winters in New York are brutal."

"James, we are not having a competition on which state has the worst weather, I'm just saying, quite literally here in Kansas, let alone the Midwest, if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes," Hope said.

I didn't respond, only because I was all too happy to just watch Hope being happy in her element. Which then made me realize that Hope would not care for an elaborate proposal, and finally the idea came to me.

"Say Hope?"

"Yes?"

"What do you say of you and me going on a ride later tonight, just the two of us, you take Winter, and I, Midnight."

She smiled happily, "I would love that, I don't think we've been on a lot of rides together recently."

"Yeah, sorry about that, just been busy."

"And distracted too," Hope added.

"I guess I have been lately, well tonight, it will just be the two of us."

Hope jumped up and hugged me, "Yay, I'm so excited for tonight."

"Me too."

LATER THAT EVENING:

"Okay, are you ready?" Hope asked.

"Ready when you are," I said.

Hope had Winter's reins and I had Midnight's, we led the horses out of the barn and quickly mounted them, then set off on our ride. Luckily, the evening was not too cold, thank God, I was not excited about the possibility of freezing my nuts off in this weather. On top of that, I didn't want to admit that Hope was right about the weather in the Midwest.

We rode in comfortable silence until Hope spoke.

"You know, we should look into getting you a horse of your own."

"What, why?"

Hope laughed, "Well, you can't keep using Winter and Midnight, they are my competition horses, remember," she gave me a look.

"You're right, just hadn't given it much thought, it just felt normal to me, using either of them, sorry"

"No need to apologize, James, I'm happy that you feel that way, that just shows that you are happy, and you've let your guard down so much, it's nice seeing you this comfortable, and I think the next big step really, is to get you your own horse."

"So, you're not opposed to making some big, maybe permanent decisions?" I asked Hope.

She was silent for a moment thinking, she gave me this big smile that just lit up her face, "If it means doing this together, then I'm all for it."

I smiled back, "Glad to hear that."

We continued riding for a little while longer until we reached the pond with the dock on. We stopped and dismounted, walking to the dock, stopping when we got to the end of it.

"Can't wait for it to completely freeze, when it does we like to come out here and ice skate."

"Sounds like fun," I said as I stood behind Hope, my arms wrapped around her waist, just holding her close to me. I rested my chin on her shoulder as we both looked over the pond and open prairie.

In this moment I knew that this was where I wanted to be for the rest of my days, next to this incredible woman, and soon with more kids running around.

"I love you."

Hope turned slightly to look up to me, "And I love you too."

She moved inched forward and I closed the gap between us and our lips touched. Hope turned in my arms, giving me the chance to deepen the kiss.

A moment later we pulled away so we could breathe, I looked into her eyes and I could see all the love she had for me and I prayed that she could that same love in my eyes too.

"Hope, I love you, with all of my heart, soul, and body. Being with you and Emma on this farm, I feel more at peace and home than I have ever felt before. You have truly saved me from my inner demons, you have shown me that I do not need to shoulder everything on my own, that I can lean on you and you will be there to help shoulder the burden with me. So now I want to ask a very important question."

I grabbed the box from my pocket and opened it as I got down on one knee.

"Hope Maria Stark, will you do me the honor of being my wife, will you marry me?"

Hope had tears running down her cheeks but she was smiling.

"Yes, of course I'll marry you."

She threw herself at me, wrapping me in a hug, and kissed me, once she pulled away I took the ring and placed it on her ring finger.

"Perfect fit."

"Oh James, it's beautiful, but also, it looks familiar to me."

I smiled as I responded,  "That's because this was your grandmother's ring, your dad gave it to me, he said that you'd had always loved this ring and she had promised it to you, so now, it's yours."

"I love it and I love you."

"I. Love. You. Too," I said between kisses.

Once I got up I wrapped Hope in a hug and spun her around.

"Stop, you're going to make me dizzy," she shrieked with a happy laugh.

I finally set her down, "Shall we head back?"

"Yeah."

Hand in hand, we walked back to the horses, got back on, and headed back to the ranch.

A/N: OMG YES!!! Finally, at last, boy was this chapter fighting me for so long. I'm sorry how long it took, but I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it.