In April 2021, Matt and I went on our first date. It was a classic night—dinner, a movie, and ice cream—but we both felt an instant connection. Then came the second date… and I lost my car keys. Not just misplaced them—I'm pretty sure I threw them into a giant dumpster.

Enter our hero: Matt. Without hesitation, he jumps into the dumpster and spends 30 minutes searching. No luck. We figure the night is over and start to call it quits. But then, as I close my car door, there they are—my keys, sitting right in the door. We laugh about it now, but in the moment, I seriously wondered if Matt would forever question my intelligence. I mean… who does that?

You’d think this would be the beginning of our fairytale ending—but nope. We actually broke up two weeks later.

Fast forward to July 2022. We’d kept in touch here and there. One day I mentioned I was out shopping, and he said he was at the local Target. We met up for lunch… and the rest is history.

Matt and I had been together for almost two years. We both knew a proposal was coming—we even picked out the ring together. And in true Kelli fashion, I spent weeks trying to guess every possible scenario. I guessed the location, the timing, the how—but he still managed to surprise me in the one way I never saw coming… and it was absolutely perfect.

To set the scene, I’m a voracious reader. Matt knows this well and has always supported my reading obsession. In fact, we turned it into a little game: he randomly picks a book from my TBR (to be read) jar, and I try to guess which one I’ll be reading next. In June 2024, I was moving through my books at a normal pace—until I hit one that was long and honestly kind of boring. For a couple of weeks, Matt kept asking if I’d finished it yet, how far along I was, what I thought of it. I didn’t think anything of it at the time—just figured he was making conversation.

Finally, I finished the book. As Matt was heading out the door for work, it was time to choose the next read. He picked from the jar and told me the title was just one word. I started guessing—scanning the titles I could see—and finally landed on Wildfire by Hannah Grace.

As usual, I turned around to tell him about the book—but knowing he was in a rush, I offered to do our little tradition later. He insisted: “Nope, we have to do it now.” A little confused, I opened the book to check the page count and get the summary. That’s when I noticed something strange—cut paper. There was a secret pocket cut into the book… with the ring tucked inside.

I turned around—and there he was, down on one knee.

Now, I’m the kind of person who laughs when I get nervous, so naturally, I burst into laughter as he asked the magical question: “Will you marry me?” Somewhere between giggles, I managed to say yes. And the very first thing I said afterward?

“Is there another copy of the book?”

Of course, being the perfect guy for me, he had another uncut copy waiting—because he knows I had to read it.

(By the way, the book was great.)