‘One day, we’re probably going to be best friends.”

That was the first thing Jake Gainey said to Lynn Knopp when he saw her for the first time, sitting behind him in 11th grade biology.

He was right. Within months the two were dating and spending all their time together.

Both Knopp and Gainey spent their whole lives in Hubert, as did the generations of their families before them. They love the area, with its natural resources that give them so much to do outside. Looking back, it seems a little odd to Knopp that they didn’t meet sooner. But they’ve been making up for lost time every chance they get by going to fishing tournaments together, hunting and just being with each other in the fresh air. Their shared love for the nature is one of the things they love the most about each other.

Picture: formal dresses

“He’s my outdoorsman,” said Knopp.

Gainey also likes that she spent years falling in love with the same waterways he did — something that seems almost uncommon in a military community.

“She’s a small town southern girl, she’s one of a kind,” said Gainey.

So when it came time for Knopp to leave her small town to go off to N.C. State, she was scared. She wanted to stay close to her boyfriend, her family and the only place she had ever really known. Ultimately, it was Gainey who made the push for her to go, saying it was the right thing for her to do. Before she left to spend a few years in Raleigh, they adopted a puppy together from the local shelter. Cassie, now 2 years old, would be her guardian while Gainey was away.

Because of the relative closeness of her college, the two were able to visit a few weekends a month. They had talked about marriage while she was away, but Gainey didn’t want to propose until she was out of school so that she couldfocus on her education. Shortly after graduating and coming home, he knew it was time.

They took Gainey’s boat out to Sand Dollar Island one evening. It was a place Gainey had spent hours as a child finding sand dollars, a place where they would go out to watch the sunset together so often and the place where he had first told Knopp that he loved her.

On June 19, five years after he first asked her out, Gainey asked Knopp to be his wife. She said yes.

On Oct. 19 of this year, Knopp will take Gainey’s last name. It’s just one more item on a list of things they share together.