Copyright TODAY
Nicole Colley was so focused on the start of her softball game that she failed to notice her boyfriend down on one knee. The 25-year-old Ohio native started dating her now-fiancé, Jacob Lear, a little over two years ago. Colley, a forklift driver, and Lear, a masonry worker, met fresh out of high school through a slow pitch softball league. “We were friends for four or five years before I finally gave him a chance,” Colley tells TODAY.com. This past September, Lear’s months of proposal planning paid off. He and Colley got engaged at Berliner Sports Park, in Columbus, Ohio, the same spot where Lear once asked Colley to be his girlfriend. However, the engagement didn’t go as planned — Colley walked right past him at first! Their friends and family caught the funny moment on video, which eventually went viral on TikTok. Speaking to TODAY.com, Colley explains her side of the story. The couple was on the ball field when Colley’s coach asked her to take the coin flip before the game. She didn’t think much of her family and friends in the stands or the softball tournament director taking pictures nearby. “Then I figured, everybody's standing around, let’s play ball,” Colley says — which is why she shouted, “Play ball!” as she walked by Lear. “And that’s when everybody was yelling at me, ‘Turn around, Nicole, turn around!’’’ She looked back to see Lear down on one knee, holding a hand-made softball case housing an engagement ring. “And I was just complete shock,” Colley says. “I started crying. And then the excitement just took over, like, holy crap, this is happening.” Colley says Lear was shocked, thinking, “Did she really just walk past me?” The friends, family and teammates were also stunned to see Colley walk right past Lear. “And everybody was like, ‘Oh my god,’ their jaws dropped,” Colley shares. “They’re like, ‘You dummy, you’re blind.’ I feel like every single day somebody yells ‘Play ball’ to me at least once a day.” At one point, Colley even considered maybe this proposal was not real. “I honestly I thought he was joking at first, because we have a very funny, joking relationship, and I thought he was joking at first. And then I saw the ring,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’’’ Colley says she can tell when Lear is nervous, so she was expecting the proposal to be obvious. “Two years ago, he threw a surprise birthday party for me and he was so nervous that he was throwing up in the backyard,”Colley explains. “I told him from that day, if he was just throwing up randomly, I’m going to know (about the proposal).” The night before the proposal Lear did throw up, but Colley thought it was because of alcohol. “Nope, it’s because he was nervous. Very good cover up,” she says, laughing. Colley explains that she didn’t know Lear would propose, or at least not this soon. The night before the proposal and the tournament, the couple stayed at an Airbnb with friends. Colley and Lear were hanging out on the back porch when one of their friends asked Lear a pointed question. “She’s like, ‘Why or why haven’t you proposed? And he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m waiting for two more years. Because I feel like that’s like, the moment that you know when you really want to be with someone,’’’ Colley recalls Lear saying. After hearing this, Colley say she got up from the table because she did not want to have this conversation. After Colley walked away, Lear spilled his proposal plan. “I had no idea all this time. For literally months on end, he has been telling me, ‘Two more years,’ and I had no hint, no clue,” Colley says. “Everybody kept their mouth shut and I couldn’t believe it.” Colley and Lear’s friends have joked about the two getting married on the softball field — but that's not part of their plan. The couple is taking their time in their engaged era, with hopes of walking down the aisle in fall 2027.
