To celebrate the release of Lauren Gibaldi’s debut YA book, THE NIGHT WE SAID YES, I’m sharing about a night where I said YES. So here’s my story that began as a nightmare, but turned into a fairytale.

It was Valentine’s Day weekend and I had flown up to Georgia to visit Doug, my boyfriend. He had a full day of hiking in the mountains planned so we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out for a day of fun.

When we arrived at Looking Glass Mountain in Pisgah National Forest and started up the trail, we discovered a cute, but very lost dog.

We decided to take the dog back to the parking lot and see if anyone wanted to claim him. But when we got to the parking lot, we realized we had locked ourselves out of the car!

And to make matters worse, the parking lot was deserted. A snow storm was blowing in and everyone was high-tailing it out of the park.

There were only two options:

1. Sit out in the cold and wait for someone to find us.

2. Start heading for town.

We chose option #2. Luckily after a few hours of trekking back toward town in the freezing cold and snow, an elderly couple driving by kindly picked us up (we still call them our angels!). They took us and the dog to their house where we were able to call my boyfriend’s parents.

Thankfully, Doug’s parents braved the snowstorm and picked us up, bringing the spare car key. It was after two a.m., exhausted, hungry, and cold that we arrived safely back at my boyfriend’s house.

After drinking a cup of hot chocolate, Doug and I snuggled under a warm blanket to watch the snow falling outside. My eyes were closing shut when he turned to me and said, “I was supposed to ask this at the top of the mountain, but I can’t wait any longer.”

Then he pulled out a small box from his pocket. He knelt down, opening the box to reveal a gorgeous diamond inside and said, “Will you marry me?”

And I said, “YES.”

I’m happy to say we kissed, married, and are living our happily-ever-after.

Do you have a night where you said YES? Share your memories in the comments!

Buy a copy of Lauren’s book here and stalk her on Twitter at @laurengibaldi!