Epilogue
Adam
“You’ve got this,” I tell Jaeg.
He looks like he’s about to pass out. What happens when a six-foot-six, two-hundred-thirty-pound man falls in the forest? Does he make a sound?
Jaeg gulps and touches his tie. “You sure I don’t look like a tool?”
“Of course you do, but that’s the point. That’s why it’s called a grand gesture.”
Jaeg’s face turns white. “I think I’m going to puke.”
“Don’t puke. It will kill the romantic vibe. Pull it together, man.”
Loud yapping sounds come from behind, and we both turn. A little brown wiener dog defies gravity and his size and launches four feet toward Jaeg’s crotch. I flinch.
Jaeg catches the dog with crazy small-dog-catching agility. “Hey, Buddy,” he coos in the girly voice he uses when he’s talking to his and Cali’s dog-child. “How’s my little guy?”
“Jaeg. They’ll be here soon.”
Jaeger straightens and clears his throat. “Right. Here, take Buddy.” He hands me the dog, and the little guy nearly squirms out of my arms. “Hold him tight. Cali will kill me if anything happens to him.”
I roll my eyes. Jaeg would break my arm if anything happened to the dog. “They’re coming. Pull it together.”
Jaeg jogs in place, the light gray suit I helped him pick out straining at his he-man muscles.
“Simmer before you split a seam,” I tell him.
He shakes out his arms and takes a deep breath. “I’m ready. Go hide somewhere before she sees you.”
The plan is to get Cali into the middle of the forest where Jaeg had me and the other guys haul his one-thousand-pound manmade wood trellis.
I might have pulled a hammy—that son of a bitch was heavy.
Jaeg’s been working on the trellis for months, but he only just told Tyler and me and the other guys his plans for it.
“Buddy!” I hear Cali call. I make a run for it into the woods, holding the dog like a football.
I duck behind a boulder where Hayden and the rest of the gang are waiting and spying. Hayden kisses my cheek and coos quietly at Buddy. We watch as Cali walks up the path with Gen.
Cali’s jaw drops when she sees him. “Jaeger?”
Gen sneaks off toward us while Cali is distracted, taking in Jaeg and the trellis.
Jaeg gets down on one knee and Hayden squeezes the hell out of my arm, beaming beside me. “Oh my God,” she mouths.
“Cali,” we hear Jaeg’s deep, rumbly voice say. “You are the fire, the heart, the soul in my life. I didn’t know how deeply I could love someone until I met you. Will you be my wife?”
A man of few words, but it works.
Cali climbs on Jaeg’s lap, straddling him, and he braces a hand on the ground before they fall over. None of us can hear anything that’s being said, but I suspect it’s a bunch of lip-smacking sounds anyway.
Jaeg pulls out a box and flips the top. Cali stares inside, and this time they do go down. Jaeg is flat on his back in his Gucci three-piece suit, and Cali is kissing the hell out of him.
“Maybe we should give them some alone time,” I suggest.
Lewis, Tyler, Zach, and the girls all nod, and we sneak away with smiles on our faces.
We head down a separate path that offers glimpses of the lake, and I pull Hayden close, Buddy in my other arm as I stare out at the water.
Lake Tahoe is clear in the shallows but dark blue in the depths, and it brought all of us together.
Like the lake, there is more to this town than what you see on the surface.
Facets exist both good and bad, and I wouldn’t change any of it, because the challenges we’ve faced have made us who we are.
I look down at Hayden and kiss her, thankful every day that she gave me a chance—and looked beneath the surface.
Thank you so much for reading the Never Date series!