Page 74 of Jake and Conner
I found it only when we had nearly rounded the lake once. Conner had put this envelope on a large rock, weighing it down with a smaller one.
You let me hide away from the world with you,was the message inside.
A smile formed on my lips. There was really only one place where we went to hide away, and it wasn't far from here. Conner had orchestrated this well.
And he must have gotten the key to the cabin from my parents, which meant they were in on it. My cheeks burned, but only for a second, then I stopped caring. I was an alpha on a mission, after all. And my omega wanted me at my parents' cabin.
I wasn't sure how I knew that Conner was waiting there for me, but I just did. It was the sort of thing he would do.
Not that he normally skippedwork, but this scavenger hunt he had plotted seemed important enough for Conner to do something unusual.
Bailey ran up to the door of the cabin as soon as I let her out of the car. It was one of those times my dog acted exactly the way I felt. I didn't run to the cabin, but it would be a lie to say I didn't want to. "Calm down, girl," I said instead, following my dog at a slower pace and with a smile on my face.
The door was unlocked when I tried it, confirming my suspicions. Conner had to be here. He wouldn't have left the door unlocked otherwise.
My heart beat faster as I stepped inside. It was silly because I had no reason to be nervous--but it wasn't that I was nervous. I wasexcited.I was going to see Conner! And it didn't matter that we'd been a couple for years, that I had kissed him a million times and that we knew each other's bodies as well as our own. I was always going to be excited to see Conner, just as if I was still a young boy going on his first date.
And I liked it that way.
Just as I had predicted, my red-haired boyfriend was waiting for me inside of the cabin, standing up from the couch as soon as I stepped inside. He greeted me with a grin--and Bailey with a hug when she stormed up to him. "You made it!" he said. "Not that I had any doubts."
"Of course I did. It was almost kind of fun." I walked over to my love with long strides and dropped a kiss on his lips, resting my hands on his hips. It was so good to touch him, feel the solid warmth of his body underneath my fingertips, even if it was only through the fabric. "Tell me why?" I asked.
"Why what?" Conner returned with a mischievous smile. "You mean I need a reason to make you hunt for strips of paper?"
"You know I'd hunt anything you told me to, but you usually have a reason for the things you do—especially if you take a day off from work for it."
"You're right." Conner's smile softened. "I just... I thought about the things you said, and though I don't appreciate the way you said it, you were probably right. So I've talked to my boss, and I'm only working four days a week now, which will make it easier for me to catch up on sleep and make time for other things, and I orchestrated all this because I wanted to make sure that you know how much I love you."
"I do know!" I insisted, kissing him again. His scent caught in my nose as I did, sending a shiver of delicious need down my spine. “I'm proud of you.”
"I'm glad." Conner stayed close to me, even as our lips parted. His eyes locked on mine. "You don't want your reward?"
I had no idea what he was talking about until he cocked his head at a box that sat on the small table in front of the couch. A box with a keyhole. "Of course I want my reward." I loved surprises. Grinning, I fished the key out of my pocket and approached the box with it.
Conner stayed behind, watching me with a mix of excitement and apprehension on his face. I had no idea what that was all about, but I was going to find out. Without losing another second, I turned the key in the lock and the box clicked open.
Inside of it, I found the scrapbook.
I turned to Conner with a puzzled look on my face. Was he giving my gift to him back to me?
Why?
"There was a blank page near the end," he explained. "So I added something to it." He smiled and he said it as if it was the most logical course of action, but there was still a hint of something else in his gaze. As if he was nervous for some reason.
Intrigued, I opened the scrapbook and flipped to the end. My eyes bulged. Just as Conner had said, there was a formerly blank page that wasn't blank anymore.
Conner had written a single question across it in large and colorful letters.
Will you marry me?
I turned to Conner, my mouth hanging open. I probably looked pretty silly staring at the omega before me, but I didn't care. Because he'd justasked me to marry him!
This was officially the best day of my life!
Or maybe our wedding would be.
Or the day our child was born.
