A few months into quarantine, she reached out to me after we had drifted apart after high school. Both of us had been working on our degrees and succeeding in our career goals, but both of us were missing something, turns out that something was each other. We set up a time and place to meet up and catch up on life. I think we spent about four hours in the car just laughing and reminiscing. It wasn’t long after that we started dating. Flash forward to Monday, November 23rd, 2020: It was a chilly morning in Asheville, NC and we had tickets to go see and tour the Biltmore Estate. Usually, the Biltmore grounds are teeming with people, but the crowds were significantly smaller. My stress levels were high, everything was going great, except for the fact that I was running out of options of things for us to do! This time of year, the Biltmore is decorated for Christmas, which is our favorite holiday. Our candlelight tour didn’t start until 6:45 pm and our dinner reservations were at 5. We finally got to our dinner reservation and I got super nervous. Around 6:20, we finished dinner and walked to the giant Christmas tree out in front of the Biltmore. I told her I wanted to get a really nice picture of us before we went inside for our tour. We found a small little spot beside the tree and I commented on how pretty the lights were. (You see, a few months ago when we planned this trip, I started working on the plan. I knew almost from our first, official date that Kyley was the one woman with who I wanted to spend the rest of my life. She was the other half of my heart and the part of my life that I had been missing. I was going to ask her to marry me.) I put her hand in my jacket pocket to pass off the small box I had been holding on to all day. I got down on one knee and asked her the most important question I will most likely ever ask. On Monday, November 23rd, 2020, at the Biltmore House Estate in Asheville, NC, Kyley Barton said yes to being with me forever as my wife.