Two days later, I joined all the Round Valley people on a trip back to Eagar. I drove up with Robin and Lindsey. I spent two nights there. Eric gave me a tour of the town. I met a lot of his friends from high school. We played pool at his house. He took me out to dinner. We went star gazing. Early Sunday morning, Eric drove me home to Mesa so I could teach my Relief Society lesson.
We were pretty inseparable that next week. School was out for the summer so every moment we weren't working was pretty much spent together.
Sunday night, June 1, we met some friends at the Mesa temple. We walked around with them for awhile, but then we went off by ourselves. We then had the talk that made us officially "together".
The next few weeks, we were together as much as we could be. We hiked, went to parties, hung out with my family, went wakeboarding, watched movies, shopped together, cleaned together, visited my grandparents, played games, went to a play, and went to church together. The longest we went without seeing each other was two days.
We mostly just hung out and did regular things with our friends and such, just always together. However, Eric did plan a romantic night out. It was June 12, the Valentine's day of Brazil. He took me to eat at a brazilian restaurant, a Churrascaria. We ended the night out at Fountain Hills-- a favorite spot of ours and a beautiful place to walk around.
About a week later, we were talking late one night and Eric told me he loved me. I didn't say it back at first (I will probably never live that down either). I was scared--those seemed like such strong words. I dd eventually tell him I love him, too. And I meant it.
On the 4th of July, I drove up to Eagar with Kiri and we spent the day with Tona and Eric and his family. I drove home late that night and left two hours later for my trip to the Dominican Republic.
I spent a week with my good friend Danielle serving at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. No contact with Eric, but a lot of time to reflect. I learned so much during that week, but I was excited to go home and see Eric.
Things didn't go as I imagined. I got home, and Eric was acting super distant. We saw each other a little, but he didn't sit by me at church and he didn't make an effort to see me on my 19th birthday. I was sad and hurt. I knew we needed to talk.
We went out to dinner the night after my birthday. After eating, we ended up at the Hole in the Rock and then Tempe Town lake. That's where we had a serious talk. We talked about taking a break and dating other people, or if there would be a point to that. We talked about if we were each ready to be married to someone. Eric was scared of where we were headed. We both were.
We didn't break up that night.
In fact, about a week later, after Robin's birthday party, we were up late talking and Eric whispered "I think I want to marry you . . ."
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