#Jerk (31 page)

“Have I told you how much I love what you’ve done with our yard?” She beams.

I lean across to kiss the side of her neck. “Yes. But you can tell me again.”

She gently swats my arm as I walk her along the pebbled path to Masen’s swing set.

“Stay right here. Actually…close your eyes.”

“Okay,” she says with a curious smile, sitting down on the swing.

Around the back corner, I have hidden the two surprises that terrify me to the point that I’m going to have an anxiety attack. I grab the small one first and walk back towards her, placing the box in her hands.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

She cautiously unties the pink bow and lifts the lid of the box. With a loud gasp, she says, “It’s my Peaches ‘n Cream Barbie! How did you get this?”

Her beautiful eyes light up as she admires this precious childhood memory. “Your mom sent it to me. Now that you have a proper home, she thought you needed something that means a lot to you.”

“It does mean a lot. My god…she was everything I wanted to be.” She hugs the box and closes her eyes for a moment. Seeing how happy she is gives me the confidence to move forward with the next part of my plan.

“I was more of a GI Joe dude, but I’ll take your word for it.” I smirk. “I’ve got one more surprise for you if you sit here and behave, eyes closed.”

“I’m on my best behavior.” She salutes.

This time, I nervously walk behind the large oak tree. Taking deep breaths, I bend down, lift the surprise up, and walk back towards the swing. Placing it on the ground before her, I position it carefully and then ask her to open her eyes.

The look on her face is priceless. Shocked, she falls to her knees.

“How on earth did you get this here?”

“I have my ways.” I grin.

Barely able to speak, she places her hand inside and touches all the small furniture. “This was my dream house. I played with this every day when I was kid,” she tells me. “I spent hours in my room pretending that when I grew up, I would live happily ever after in this house. With my Ken.”

I’m beginning to sweat. I didn’t fucking look like Ken? Who the hell is Ken anyway? Shit, it’ll only take a few seconds till—

“What’s this?” She leans into the bedroom of the house and pulls out a tiny black box. Even in the dark, I can see her hands shaking. Her eyes move towards mine and all I can see is the girl I love, the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with.

“I love you, Presley Malone. I know I’m not perfect and I know I can be a jerk sometimes… okay, a lot of the time. I may not be able to give you a dream house exactly like this, but I can give you all of this.” I wave my hand around to show our house. “It’s not pink, nor is it grand like your perfect home. But it’s ours. And it will forever be the house where all our memories with our son began.”

My beautiful girl has tears streaming down her face. I choke back my emotions, never expecting this moment to be so intense.

“I’ve never imagined it would be you that I wanted this life with. But I do. I want this rundown bungalow with the crazy ghost lingering in the spare room. I want to work alongside you, building our business and following our dreams. I want our family to be complete. I want everything I never knew I wanted. I can’t promise you any more than to love you and Masen for the rest of my life.”

I take the box from her hand and get down on one knee. She is at my level now, and with my heart thumping loud and my voice cracking under the pressure, I open the box and say the words I’ve been aching to say since the moment I realized I was in love with her.

“You said you wanted more…” I say, barely above a whisper. “I want our crazy life, and I want it with you by my side as my wife. Presley Malone, would you do me the honor of giving me more and marrying me?”

Her panda eyes are clouded with tears and, choking back her sobs, she nods her head as her face beams with happiness.

“Yes,” she says with exuberance. “I want everything you just offered me. But most importantly…I want you, Haden.”

Now I’m shaking. This is the moment I’ve waited for, that I’ve doubted for so long and for no absolute fucking reason. She loves me. ME! End of fucking story.

I slide the ring onto her finger. It’s perfect. After all, it belonged to my mom. My dad had this made for her. I’d barely made any changes. I want the ring on her finger to be something that represents eternal love.

“Haden….this ring is…I have no words.” She continues to stare at it in awe.

“My dad gave it to my mom,” I say quietly.

She looks back up at me and wraps her arms around me, playing with my hair as she plants a soft kiss on my lips.

“You’ve made me so happy, Mr. Cooper.” She grins, then continues, “But ‘more’ doesn’t mean skydiving naked, does it?”

I shake my head and laugh at her. This is why I fucking love her.

“And when you said crazy ghost in the spare room, you were joking right?”

“Will you just shut up for a moment so I can kiss my soon-to-be wife?”

I kiss her deeply, not wanting to stop until the sun rises in the morning. But we’re talking about Miss—soon to be Mrs.—Chatterbox. “You’re still a jerk. You know that, right?”

“Hashtag jerk, hashtag cougar.”

I take her in my arms and lift her into the air, both of us laughing hysterically. She promised to be mine, sealed it with a fucking kiss. And it’s right at this moment that it finally hits me. I never had anything to worry about. She was always going to be my girl. It has been a long journey, but fate just had a fucked-up way of getting us to finally reach our destination.

Born and bred in Sydney, Australia, Kat T. Masen is a mother to three crazy boys and wife to one sane husband. Growing up in a generation where social media and fancy gadgets didn’t exist, she enjoyed reading from an early age and found herself immersed in these stories. After meeting friends on Twitter who loved to read as much as she did, her passion to write began and the friendships continued on despite the distance.

“I’m known to be crazy and humorous. Show me the most random picture of a dog in a wig and I’ll be laughing for days.”  

Where to find me:

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@authorkattmasen