Two Years Later
TWO YEARS LATER
SAGE
“ T ess, I swear this is totally unnecessary and honestly terrifying!” Sage screamed into the headset.
Tess looked at ease in the helicopter, like she was ready to start driving (flying!) with her knees. She shrugged. “Leo asked if I could pick you up!”
“In a car! I am pretty sure he meant in a car!”
The last two years had been a whirlwind. Essentially the agency offered to pay for Leo to go to school and get a degree in cybersecurity. He fast-tracked the program and was on a contract with the agency heading up the new cybersecurity side of things It was a big decision, but Leo ran for hours, clearing his head and making a list of pros and cons. In the end, he’d said it was an easy decision. Sage felt like home. And this job allowed him to be home .
And now Sage was en route to watch him walk across the stage.
Tess laughed. “We’ll just land in the overflow parking lot.”
“How is this legal?” Sage squealed, staring at the treetops below her. She was flying in a glass bubble with just metal blades and physics holding her up.
“I got permission!” Tess said. “I know a guy who can pull some serious strings for almost everything.”
“Sounds like a famous?—”
“Ah, ah, ah!” Tess smirked. “No questions. I signed an NDA anyway.”
Sage’s heart jumped into her throat. “Just park this thing before I puke.”
“We call it landing.”
The duo got several stares as they exited the helicopter and sort of jogged toward the bleachers of the university. They found their seats, both ignoring the gaping faces of those who had seen them land in the back parking lot.
“I can’t believe he did it!” Tess said, pulling out her phone to snap photos of the crowd. “My baby brother graduating!”
Sage cocked her head. “Wait, he always told me he was older.”
Tess shrugged. “We are ten minutes apart. But our parents never did say who was older. Afraid it was going to foster unhealthy competition. Little did they know that it would only fuel the flames of sibling rivalry. But I’m totally older. The golden child crown belongs to me.” She snorted. “That’s a lie but it’s fun to believe. ”
Tess fit into her life as perfectly as ice cream complimented apple pie. She was fun and full of life and her off time in Hollandsway was never long enough.
Leo bought her condo from her and she was happy to be the proud resident of the spare room in exchange for not having to pay a mortgage.
Plus Leo was secretly convinced Tess was dating some movie star and he didn’t want her name on a mortgage if there were some crazy fans out to get her or something. Can’t take the security agent out of Leo.
“I see him!” Tess stood and pointed, waving. “Yes! Go baby bro!”
She could practically feel his eye roll from where they sat.
“See, I’m totally the oldest. It’s the eldest’s job to embarrass the younger ones.”
They watched Leo walk across the stage, grab his paper, and sit back down. It was kind of anticlimactic (as Leo had warned her it would be). He wanted to skip the walking across the stage thing but she had convinced him to go, a physical representation of the change and exciting moves he was making in life.
And for the first time in a long time, Sage wasn’t so terrified of change.
LEO
Over the last two years, Leo had managed to buy the condo from his sister, run two marathons, kiss Sage five million times, take her golfing (it was a beautiful disaster), take Sage hiking (also a disaster), and live life lighter and happier than he had ever thought possible.
Oh, and he walked across the dumb stage and got the dumb paper that only said, “Your actual diploma will be mailed to you” and all of that jazz. When Sage had been pretty insistent on him walking for graduation, he took the opportunity to have his own little surprise planned.
After the shenanigans were over, he finally found the pair he was looking for (quite the challenge in the sea of people). He hugged his sister and kissed Sage, immediately shedding the stupid cap and gown.
“Ready?” Leo asked.
“Your chariot awaits,” Tess said, a maniacal gleam in her eye. Sage looked clueless, which was a good sign. At least Tess could keep a secret after all.
They wandered through the crowd and made it back to the helicopter, which had a small group of people staring at it.
“Good grief,” Tess said. “I thought we’d landed far enough away for people to overlook the whole helicopter in a parking lot situation.”
Sage snorted. “Good thing I skipped lunch.”
She was looking a little green. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. Leo pushed the thoughts away. He’d gotten the wise counsel of Roz and Tavy. This was a good plan.
They hopped into the helicopter and Leo couldn’t help feeling a little smug. He wondered how long it would take Sage to realize they were not heading home.
About half an hour, actually.
“Wait, is that the beach?” Sage asked .
Tess nodded and began to take the helicopter down, landing softly on the sand ten minutes later.
“Where are we?” Sage asked, laughing as Leo helped her out.
Tess waited in the cockpit, a goofy grin on her face. He probably looked just as giddy. He couldn’t help it. He was going to freaking sweep Sage off her feet like the romantic guy he was. A little smugness was allowed.
The June air was crisp and the sun was perfectly above the horizon. Sunset was another two hours away but that golden hour was fast approaching.
Sage must have had some sort of inkling where this was going. She allowed herself to be pulled toward the water with Leo and then they did one of their favorite things.
They walked and talked.
“What are we doing here?” Sage asked, holding his hand and leaning into him as they walked along the hard sand.
“Watching the water,” Leo said.
“Mhm, right.” He could hear the smile in Sage’s voice. She allowed him to yammer on about life. How grateful he was to have been given the opportunity to go to school and have a clear direction in life. How excited he was to help people. How he already tracked down a scammer that tried to swindle his other Aunt Betty out of ten grand. About how much he was excited to finally replace the roof on Sage’s home this summer. How pleased he was that the stain they’d used on the porch held up over last winter.
And when he was done rambling and found his courage again (not that he ever lost it, it had simply taking a quick vacation in the clouds or something) he turned her so she faced the sun and water.
She was stunning. Her dark hair was in a messy low bun. She wore a long skirt with a slit in it and a simple t-shirt and it was gorgeous.
It was Sage. She was a mystery to him still yet he felt like he knew her better than anyone else in the world. There wasn’t enough time in this lifetime to uncover all her little quirks and hopes and dreams and everything that made her so uniquely Sage.
Was he rambling in his head? Why was she staring at him like this? He was supposed to be telling her all of this and speaking his thoughts aloud.
“I love you,” he choked. So much for romance . May as well lean into the whole middle school declaration of love type of thing then. “I think it started here. On the beach. At Thor’s Well. I feel like I got to see a secret part of you that no one else does and I haven’t been able to get enough since.”
“I love you too,” she said through a smile. It wasn’t new.
They had told each other before. But only in serious and quiet moments. They were more precise with their words, saving the I love you’s for precious moments.
Except for Squash. Sage had no problem pouring the declaration over the animal and Leo had vowed never to be jealous of the attention the rodent got.
Well, now or never. The waves crashed behind him. The sun made her glow. The breeze fluttered around them. He got to one knee. “Will you let me love you for the rest of your life?”
Her face was a mix of elation and joy. She bent and kissed him. She kissed him slow and then fast and she grabbed his face with her hands and then he tackled her.
Tackled was an intense term but it was the most accurate way to describe how he swept her legs out from under her and she crashed onto him. There really was no other word to describe being bowled over by a sneaker wave and the force of which pushed one into their fiancé (Leo decided that was going to be his new favorite word).
Sage coughed and sputtered as the sneaker wave retreated back to the sea just as quickly as it came.
“Ah!” Leo shouted in a manly way and not at all like a surprised pipsqueak screech that was still echoing off he trees behind them.
“The ring!”
She wiped sand from the side of her temple and managed to avoid a total faceplant because Leo had graciously broken her fall with his body.
They stood and sort of coughed.
“Your face!” she snorted. “It’s bleeding.”
Leo pinched his nose. “Must have been when you kicked me. I think your foot is still in my spleen.”
Sage laughed again, untying her elegant bun and tying her hair up into a sandy knot on her head. “Must have been when you decided to headbutt my knee!”
He reached out and brushed some sand from her eyebrow. “I love you.”
“That was a terrible apology. I love you too. ”
He pulled out the ring and slipped the band over her finger.
“It’s beautiful,” Sage said. She leaned into him. He wrapped the free hand not pinching his bloody nose around her. “Can Squash be a flower girl?”
“Anything for my girls.”
After the bleeding stopped and they had sort of cleaned themselves up (okay fine, they got cold) they meandered back to the helicopter where Tess sat waiting. She squealed when she saw them and gushed over Sage and the ring.
“I finally have a sister!” she cried. Then she took in the state of the pair. “Is that blood?”
Leo rolled his eyes but wiped the remaining evidence away with his sleeve. “I fought a bear and won and now we have a wedding to plan.”
Tess screeched again and hugged him. “I can’t wait!”
The three got in their seats and just as Tess was lifting off the ground she said, “I called Mo’s they said I could land in the field next door. Anyone care for a bowl of clam chowder?”