I shook my head and squeezed her to me tightly. This was how Cassie Phillips reacted when you said something she liked. Unexpected.
Bending at the neck, I kissed the top of her head and breathed in the scent of her shampoo. Normally, I’d have been searching to place the scent of a woman, but not her. I knew she used the pink kind of Herbal Essences, could picture the fucking bottle in my shower, and the thought of it made me smile. It didn’t feel like the mystery was gone or some other clichéd nonsense men told themselves they wanted to avoid. It felt good. Like we were starting to become familiar in the best kind of way.
Like I knew things about her that other men only wished they did.
“Ready?” I asked into her hair.
“I’m guessing I don’t have a choice,” she muttered, pulling her head from beneath my chin and looking up at me through her freakishly long lashes.
I didn’t answer with words. Instead, I touched my mouth to hers and pulled away, clasping her hand in mine. A smile tipped the ends of her lips up.
We walked across the parking lot in silence, the echo of crunching gravel the only sound in the early dawn light. When we stepped inside the hangar, she had to shield her eyes because of the sudden intrusion of light.
Our companions were waiting across the space, already suited up. Cassie noticed them at the same time I did.
“Claire? Frankie?” She turned briefly to me and then back to them. “What are you guys doing here?”
She didn’t realize she was the truly unexpected guest.
Claire stepped forward first, returning Cassie’s enthusiastic hug, and Frankie followed not far behind.
Cassie turned back to me when she noticed their attire, and her eyebrows pulled together, but she didn’t put it together yet. “Do you guys know what we’re doing?”
Claire’s face was a mask of trying to figure me the fuck out, but Frankie’s slightly annoyed gaze just came straight to me. “She doesn’t know what we’re doing?”
“It’s a surprise,” Cassie said in my defense.
“Oh,” Frankie mouthed. “Well, then, yes. We know what we’re doing.” He hesitated, glancing to me for direction. “It’s a yearly activity. We always do this on this day.”
I appreciated his attempt to cover for me, but I hadn’t gone into this with any plans to keep secrets. I’d brought her here because I wanted her to know. I wanted her to know everything about me, and more than that, I wanted her to be part of it. Every day I spent with her made me want her to be part of everything I did.
“Margo was Frankie’s little sister and Claire’s best friend. And today was her birthday,” I told her freely. “Me, Frankie, Claire—and now you—do this every year to celebrate her life.”
Her face softened, and goddamn, I fell right into her trap. So hard, so brash for the rest of the world. But in that moment, she didn’t think about herself and how awkward it might have been. She thought about me.
“That’s amazing. Are you guys sure you’re okay with me being here?” she asked, stepping back to include all three of us in her line of sight and questioning.
“Yes,” I answered conclusively with absolutely no hesitation.
Cassie nodded. “Okay.”
She smiled at me and then glanced back at Frankie and Claire. Her eyes moved from their faces to their bodies, taking in the protective suit and the harness. “Wait…why are they wearing that?”
I took her hand, pulled her toward the office to grab our gear, and ruined her happy place all in one moment. “Because we’re going skydiving.”
“If I make it to the ground alive,” Cassie yelled over the roar of the twin-engine jump plane, “I’m going to straight up murder you.”
My arms wrapped tight around her chest even though I knew she couldn’t get away from me if she tried. She was strapped to me because I was her jump buddy, and we were forty seconds away from our jump point.
“I look forward to it, honey,” I yelled over the noise, sneaking in a kiss to her cheek and earning a world-class glare and two middle fingers.
Frankie and Claire looked on with smiles on their faces from across the plane.
“I can’t believe you’re a part of this madness, Claire!” Cassie screamed as loud as she could. Frankie laughed, and Claire gave two thumbs up.
“You ready?” I asked, maneuvering the two of us toward the door as the pilot gave the fifteen-second signal.
“No, I’m not ready, you motherfucker. I can’t believe you got me up here!”
With a reach around her perfect body, I pulled open the door and scooted us toward the edge.
“Oh, sweet baby unicorns,” Cassie breathed.
“It’s okay, honey,” I soothed. “Just close your eyes and enjoy the ride.”
“Close my eyes? What’s with you and always making me close my goddamn eyes?” she shrieked.
“Only until you feel like you can open them,” I clarified with a laugh. “I promise I’ll take care of you.”
One hand on each side of the opening, I moved us to the very edge and watched for the pilot’s signal. As soon as the thumbs-up flashed in my peripheral vision, I started my countdown.
“Three, two—”
“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Cassie screamed.
“One!”
I shoved us out and cleared the plane. The wind immediately hit me hard enough to knock the scream right out of my lungs. Surrounded by no sound but the roar of our descent to earth, I knew the same had happened to Cassie. I would have wondered if she was conscious had she not assumed the position we’d spent time instructing her on.
Her outstretched hands found my forearms and locked on, and I smiled against the force of the wind so hard that my lips started to curl back.
The fall was exhilarating and the scenery unparalleled. But as many times as I’d made this jump before, and it was a whole hell of a lot, the company had never been better. The whole thing had never been better.
I reached for the parachute as we hit our mark on altitude and gave it a solid yank. Slowing down so quickly that it felt like we went back up, Cassie’s screams could definitely be heard this time. But they mingled in with manic laughter.
“You okay, honey?” I asked now that she could hear me, and all I got back was a squeal.
“Give me something other than Phil’s language, baby,” I said with a laugh.
“That. Was. Incredible. Holy fucking shit, I might throw up.”
I chuckled and wrapped one of my long legs around hers. “Do me a favor and wait until we’re on the ground, okay?”
“I’m not in control,” she told me honestly.
“Just look around and breathe, baby. We’ll be down soon.”
I looked up to see Claire and Frankie floating not too far above us. Claire gave another thumbs-up when she caught my gaze.
“Wave hi to Claire and Frankie,” I told Cassie. She looked up and let out a scream so loud I wished I’d been able to cover my ears. But it was happy.
And so was I.
The landing zone was coming up fast, so I started reminding Cassie of the important points. “Remember what I told you to do? Legs up in front of you like you’re gonna sit down, okay?”
“Got it!” she yelled in answer.
Down we went, me maneuvering the chute so that we moved slow enough and in the right direction. She did terrific on impact, executing my instructions exactly until we came completely to a stop.
“Wooo!” she screamed in excitement once more. I laughed as I unhooked her from my chest and tapped her on the shoulder to let her know I was done. Before I could move to get up, she turned and tackled me, taking me back to the ground, wrapping her arms around my neck, and pushing her lips to mine.
I had never experienced anything better than that moment.
She let me go and jumped up, hopping around from foot to foot in excitement. I watched her smile, and as the sun glinted off her hair, I just knew.
I never wanted to do this without her.
I didn’t want to do any of it without her anymore.
I was in love with her.
“Cassie,” I called, and her eyes came to me. Claire and Frankie were landing thirty feet away and her attention was split, so I called her name again. “Cassie.”
“What, Thatcher?” she asked. As soon as her eyes locked with mine, I dropped to one knee. We were still nearly the same height.
“What are you doing?” she asked through nervous laughter. I just shook my head and took her hips in my hands.
“Marry me.”
“What?” she yelled.
“I said…marry me.”
“Thatch,” she breathed, just slightly shaking her head in disbelief.
With a clench of my hands, I dug my fingertips into the cushion of her ass and laid down a challenge I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist. Because when it came to this, this truly selfish request to have her as mine for the rest of my life, I didn’t care why she said yes as long as she did.
“What’s the matter, honey? You scared?”
Her brows scrunched, and her eyes searched mine, deep and unrelenting.
And then, after what felt like an eternity, she said the one word that nearly knocked me on my ass and had my heart pounding so hard I thought it might jump out of my chest and into hers.
“Yes.”
“How much farther until we get to my soon-to-be in-laws’ house?”