Page 95 of Branded

Sawyer

“Keep your eyes closed, Sawyer. I swear, if you ruin this surprise...”

“I’m not peeking, I promise.” I reach out in front of me with one hand as I walk blindly, only being guided by his hand in mine.

“I have a question for you,” Isaac says. “There’s a step. Be careful.”

I carefully step up, noticing under my feet that we’ve gone from a soft, grassy surface to a hard, concrete one.

“I have an answer, hopefully.”

“Do you remember telling me the story of how Jason always wanted to go skydiving, but he was never able to?”

“Of course I do.” My heart constricts even now at the thought of it. “It’s all he ever talked about.”

“Okay, stop here,” he says, then releases my hands. “Keep your eyes closed.”

I can sense him moving to stand right in front of me. I can smell some kind of fuel. It smells kind of like a garage wherever we are. Not familiar at all.

“What’s going on?” I ask, eyes tightly shut.

“You still owe me another date, remember? You agreed to five and I don’t think we ever got those officially.”

“I’ve been on plenty of dates with you, Isaac.” I laugh. “Where are we?”

“I want to do right by Jason, even though I never met him. Open your eyes.”

I do as he asks and it takes me a moment to figure out where we are. It’s a large airplane hangar with a small, yellow plane being tended to by two men in flight suits. I spin around to look and take it all on.

“What? What’s happening?”

“Jason never got to experience something he wanted. He never got to fulfill this dream because other things clouded his mind. I want to give you the chance to close that loop for him, to do this for him, in his memory, in his honor… on his birthday.”

My lip begins to tremble and I cover my mouth with my hands. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what to say.

He pulls something from his pocket and walks around to stand behind me before clasping a necklace around my neck. It’s long and hangs just between my breasts. I reach down to look at the pendant, and it’s a locket. When I open it to see what’s inside, my knees nearly buckle.

My favorite picture of Jason, in his flight suit, and I waiting for his turn to go indoor skydiving.

“Now, he can go up with you.”

My heart feels like it’s going to pump out of my chest. The only thing I want to do is throw myself at him, and so I do. I jump into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist, burying my face in his neck.

“Where did you get this picture?”

“I had a little help from your mom. She was my accomplice.”

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” I sob. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

To some, it may be silly, but to me, it means the world.

“I love you, baby.” He cups the back of my neck and pulls my lips to his.

“I love you too,” I murmur against the kiss, but don’t dare break it. Honestly, I would probably let him have me right here on this cold concrete if we weren’t interrupted.

“Ahem.”

I break the kiss then uncoil myself from his body, turning to find a very cute strawberry blonde woman in a full flight suit and a pretty smile on her face.

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