The Prospect (Crawfield Football Club #3)

Epilogue

HAZEL

3 YEARS LATER - Age 24

“Keep your eyes closed!” Green instructs, guiding me forward one step at a time, gently clutching my hands with a heightened sense of caution.

We’ve been walking like this for so long that I think I’ve lost all concept of time. That, and just how many times Green’s repeated the same instruction.

“They’re closed, Green. I swear!” I’m careful with my footing and slow with my pace. “Besides…” I remark with a shrug of my shoulders. “I’ve got a blindfold on. I can't see a thing even if I wanted to!”

It was a “safety measure” Green insisted on before we set off on our mysterious trip. A way to conceal the secret he’s meticulously planned out for me today.

Usually, I’m reluctant to “go with the flow”, but I agreed only because Green flashed me the most convincing puppy dog eyes known to man, combined with a kiss and the words, “I love you, Hazel. Trust me ,” before he slipped the silk over my eyes, and stuck his keys into the ignition.

It’s been three years and still, Green knows the way to my heart…the way to make me fold at his fingertips.

Every. Single. Time.

“Just making sure.” Green half laughs, inching me just that bit further.

The ground beneath my feet feels uneven like I’m walking on cobblestones. It’s almost familiar, yet I know better than to waste time guessing, even though guessing where we are is the only thing I can’t seem to shake away from my mind.

This anticipation is slowly killing me—no, it is killing me. I hate not being in the know. I hate it even more when Green seems to bask in the joy of it.

“Can I please take this off now?” Impatiently, I attempt to slip the silk away from my eyes, but before I can lift it even a millimeter, Green's hands bring me to a stop.

“ No! Not yet!” Not only is Green’s voice audibly flustered, but so are his movements as he removes his clammy hands from over mine and instructs me to stop. “Wait right here, okay, Haze ?”

I sigh, fed up beyond belief, yet nod agreeably as I hear him jog off ahead.

Eighteen years, I’ve known the man that is Daniel Green, and out of the 936 weeks we’ve spent together, this one has, hands down, been the strangest he’s ever acted.

I’ve probed him about it— relentlessly —in an attempt to get to the bottom of his altered behavior, yet despite my persistence, he hasn’t budged.

Not in the slightest.

“Is everything okay?” I dare ask as I hear Green rustling about with his jacket, cursing quietly under his breath before suddenly, he settles and clears his throat.

“No…I mean, yes!” He quickly shifts his answer. “I’m, uh…almost ready for you to take off the blindfold. Just give me another minute, bug.”

My hands dampen in suspense. I twiddle my thumbs ever so softly to help appease it, but it hardly makes a difference. I’m already a nervous person at heart, and knowing that Green’s nervous only makes me more nervous.

What is going on?

“You know I hate surprises, Green,” I remind him of the simple fact I know he knows. “Why do you insist on doing this?”

I can hear him smiling this time as he speaks. “I think this one, Haze…you’ll like. Now, on the count of three, I want you to take off the blindfold. Okay?”

I gulp away my anxieties and shake away the butterflies in my stomach.“Okay,” I murmur. “I’m ready.”

He exhales a short breath as he shuffles once more. “Here goes nothing.” He sucks one in. “Three…two… one ? — ”

Excitement gets the best of me, and before Green can finish ironing out the last syllable of the word “one”, I pull at my blindfold.

In one swift motion, the silk is out of my hands and dismissed to the side, though my brain is not quite as quick, because the sight before me…is hardly comprehensible.

They say every little girl dreams about their wedding. I’d argue that isn’t always the case—Lennon, back in year two, would probably agree with me there, but for those that do, I’d always wondered what it was about their wedding that they thought about.

Was it the outfit they’d wear?

Was it the ring and design of the wedding cake?

Or did they think about the destination? Where the wedding would take place?

How might it feel to be getting married? Or to devote your life to one person for the rest of your eternity?

I’ll admit, I’d thought about it. All of it. But my thoughts have always gone beyond just that of being a little girl.

I’ve thought about it every day since the moment Green and I met, followed by the moment we kissed, and in every waking second since we finally became one .

But do you want to know what I’ve thought of way more than just the wedding itself?

The day that Daniel Green would finally ask me the question I’ve longed to give him an answer to, for far too long.

“Green...”

Somehow, saying his last name as I watch him bent down on one knee with a velvet box in his hand and four life-altering words at the tip of his tongue feels wrong.

No…saying anything but his nickname at this moment feels wrong.

“Greenie, I…” I bring my hands to cup my mouth, blissfully overwhelmed by the sight before me.

The bridge.

I’m on the bridge.

Our spot .

He’s lit an assortment of candles all along the edge of the brick walls. Scattered the walkway with rose petals, and placed himself right smack dab in the middle of it.

He’s dressed up. In a shirt, tie, and dress pants that I’ve insisted over the years are two inches too short, exposing his polka dot blue socks I know his mum gave him a few holidays back. He said he didn’t have the heart to throw them away…but I think deep down, he quite likes them.

My guy. He’s stubborn, goofy, and a complete people pleaser, but Christ, he’s the absolute love of my life.

“From the moment we met, to every second that’s passed since, to this very moment today, I’ve loved you, Hazel. I’ve loved every single part of you. You’re the greatest thing that has ever happened to me…and when I thought about how I wanted to ask you this question today, all I could think about was just how lucky I am…how lucky we are, to have what we have. ”

I sniffle.

I hadn’t realized I’d started to cry as soon as he’d opened his mouth, but I’ll be damned…it’s nearly impossible not to.

I can’t believe this is happening.

I can’t believe we’ve finally made it to this moment.

“Lucky?” I ask, brushing away my tears with the backside of my palm, yet I’m smiling so wide I can feel the apples of my cheeks start to cramp.

It’s the most pleasurable pain in existence.

Green stands, makes his way over to me, and brushes along my face with the soft of his thumb.

“That’s right. Lucky, baby. It’s not always in life that you get to grow up and grow old with someone, but with you, Hazel, extraordinary things suddenly become possible.”

He gets right back down on one knee and opens up the box in his hand to reveal a dazzling ring. One that exceeds any and all of my wildest imaginations.

“And so, Hazel Jane Collins. You’re already my best friend. My girl. My Haze , but will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Marry me?”

A puddle.

I’m a puddle of tears.

Drowning in the sea of emotions that take over my body until, like a wave, I crash into Green’s lips and lose myself in his current.

I can’t tell if I’ve said yes to his question or if I’m nodding my head erratically at this moment to agree.

All I know is that whatever I’m doing, Green’s response has been to wrap my legs around his waist, kiss me back with passion, and slip the ring carefully onto my left finger.

Nothing has ever felt more right, except when he pulls me in closer and whispers, “Isn’t it crazy to think that once upon a time, we were ‘just friends’?”

I roll my tongue against my cheek, laughing softly as I fall against his forehead and stay there peacefully.

“I think we both always knew, Green, that we could never be ‘just friends.’”