“It’s beyond fucking huge. After the way you kicked all kinds of ass the second half of the season, I knew they would offer to keep you here. I didn’t expect that number, though.” He took a pen out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. “Whenever you’re ready, bro. Sign away.”
I was facing the bookshelves in the far corner of his office with my hands still locked on top of my head.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
I spun around slowly to face him. “Kacie. I can’t wait to tell her. She’s gonna fucking flip.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Dude, you’ve had it bad for that girl for a year now. You gonna marry her or what?”
Nothing short of the building falling down around us at that very moment would have stopped the grin that slid across my face. “Funny you should mention that…”
“Did you guys have fun tonight?” I ran my fingers through the tiny blonde strands of Lucy’s hair that fell across her forehead.
She beamed and nodded excitedly.
“We’ve never been to that place before. It was fun, huh?” I said to them, looking over at Brody who was sitting on a chair on the other side of their bed. They had their own beds but insisted on sleeping together still.
“It was really fun,” Lucy said. “Can we go back again?”
“Sure,” I answered.
“Tomorrow?” she asked.
“I don’t know about tomorrow.” I laughed. “But we’ll definitely have dinner there again soon, okay?”
“I liked it when they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to you and made you wear a cowboy hat.” Piper giggled.
“And then they made you ride that stick horse,” Lucy yelled, hopping out of bed and galloping around the room.
“That was my favorite part too.” Brody held his hand up and high-fived her as she skipped by him. Then he looked at me and winked. “I never wanted to be a stick horse so bad in my whole life.”
I raised my eyebrows and gave him the warning look, trying not to laugh. “Come on, Lucy, back in bed. It’s late.”
Lucy climbed back into bed and snuggled up as close as she could to Piper.
“How much do I love you guys?” I followed Brody to the door.
“More than all the stars in the sky and the waves in the sea,” they sang together.
“And how much do I love you?” Brody asked them before leaning in close to me and whispering, “Listen to this.”
“More than all the zeros in your new contract.” Piper giggled.
I smacked him on the arm. “You’re terrible.”
“I taught it to them at dinner when you were talking to your mom. Pretty awesome, huh?”
“Go.” I pushed him down the hall. “Good night, girls.”
“Night, Twinkies!” he called over me.
“Night, Mom! Night, Brody!”
“I’m exhausted,” I whined, collapsing onto the couch in the family room.
“No, no. You’re not gonna lay there and fall asleep.” Brody grabbed my hands and tried to pull me back up. “I still have to give you your present. Come on. Up.”
“Where are we going?”
“Outside.”
“Outside? Can’t you bring it here? I’m tired.” I laughed.
“Who’s the pain in the ass now?” he teased, leading me toward the front door. “Let’s go.”
We walked out the front door and he grabbed my hand, pulling me down the stairs and to the right, around the side of the house.
“Uh, last time you led me this way, I lost a tank top.” I giggled, again trying not to step on anything.
He turned back to me. “Keep walking, birthday girl.”
We got to the back of the house and started our way down the hill when a light up ahead caught my eye. I squinted through the darkness and realized it wasn’t a light, but a row of lanterns on the pier.
Our pier.
“What did you do?” I squeezed his hand and grinned at him as we got to the edge of the sand.
“You’ll see.”
We stepped onto the creaky wood and I stopped walking for a minute, taking in how amazing it was. Little silver lanterns lined both sides of the pier, lighting the whole thing up just beautifully.
“Come on.” He gently pulled on my hand again.
As we got closer to the end of the pier, I finally noticed the white box with a perfectly tied red bow sitting at the end.
“What’s that?” I cooed.
He bent over and picked it up, handing it to me. “Happy birthday, Kacie.”
I tugged on one end of the bow and it unraveled smoothly. Wrapping my hand around it so it didn’t drop in the water, I lifted the lid of the box and moved the tissue paper to the side.