Authors: Joan Kilby
“No, don’t.” He grabbed her arm. “Take the fish, please.”
She took the bag. “Thank you.”
He’d thrown her with the fish. Aquatic life wasn’t one of her recommended presents, for either patching up or saying good-bye to a girlfriend. If he was branching out on his own, it was kind of a sweet gift. But if he was here to make sure she got the “you’re dumped” message in person, well, he was going to have to come right out and say it. She wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Not when she was fighting the urge to kiss him, to touch him, to throw him to the floor and jump on him. Willpower had never been her strong suit so she hoped he made a move—any kind of move—soon.
Scott shoved his hands in his jean pockets, looking everywhere but at her. “It’s not aggressive, so Rupert doesn’t need to worry. The guy at the fish store told me.”
“He, or she, is lovely.” She heard the huskiness in her voice and cleared her throat. “Er, how did you know about Rupert?”
“Facebook.”
“Oh, right.”
“The guy said you could bring the angelfish back.”
“That’s great. I, uh… We should put this one in the tank.” She lifted the aquarium lid and carefully lowered the opened bag onto the colored gravel next to the grotto. When the temperatures equalized, the fish would come out.
“What are you going to name him?” Scott asked. “I thought, Goldie.”
“Goldie is good. Not very imaginative but it suits.” He’d brought her a fish. She was still getting her head around that. It pleased her more than the diamonds, more than the trip to Rome. Maybe it wasn’t a brush-off gift after all. It was too thoughtful for that. Whether he wanted friendship or love, he was back in her life. If she had to suck up the pain and just take the friendship, she would, but she hoped, she prayed, he wanted more.
Scott cleared his throat. Whatever he wanted, he was having trouble saying it.
She waited, watching the new goldfish, silently urging Scott to say something. Anything. “Yes?” Friends encouraged friends, they didn’t let them hang.
“I’m sorry,” Scott said.
“What for?”
“For not listening. For not knowing what you want.”
She peeked at him. “Do you know now?”
“I think so. I hope so. I hope it’s the same as what I want.”
They were only inches away from each other. She could hear his breathing, could see the gold flecks in his green eyes, could almost feel the pounding of his heart. Fast, like hers. “What do you want, Scott?”
“I want you.” He swallowed. He took both her hands in his. “I want to marry you. For real. Everything I do, everything I am, is because of you. Because you befriended me that day by my lemonade stand. That moment formed my whole life. I was so afraid of losing you that I couldn’t try for more. But I have to take that risk. I…I love you. I want you to be my best friend but I also want you to be my lover, my wife, the mother of my children.”
“Oh, Scott.” Her eyes blurred and she couldn’t breathe. “I love you, too. I always have.”
He dropped to one knee and gazed up at her, proud and beseeching all at once. “Will you marry me?”
Her heart seemed to stop and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. “I…I’m going to Harvard. If I don’t get accepted there, I’ll go to another university.”
“That’s terrific. Wherever you are, we’ll work around it. It’s only a couple of years. Maybe you could study part-time and work for me part-time.” He reached for her hands. “Never mind that. We can figure it out later. The important thing is, will you be my wife?”
“Yes!” Cassy flung herself onto him and toppled them both to the floor, laughing and crying. “I will.”
Then he was kissing her and touching her and rolling her over to pin her beneath him. His hands slid up beneath her flannelette top and he shut his eyes as his fingers captured her breasts. “Do you have any idea of what these pajamas do to me?”
“I have an inkling.” She smiled as she watched him reach into his pocket. She liked that he came prepared.
But it wasn’t a condom he removed, it was the pink diamond ring. With trembling fingers, he pushed it onto her ring finger. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. His heart was laid bare before her. She could see it in his eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered, sending the love straight back at him. “For the ring, for the proposal, for being the most amazing man I’ve ever known. I’ve never been so happy.”
…
Scott had never seen Cassy look so beautiful. She was seated on a marble bench next to the Trevi Fountain. Water trickled and gushed, a musical backdrop to the sound of her laughter. Her elegant but sexy black dress set off the exquisite pink diamonds at her ears and circling her neck. The largest pink diamond of all sparkled on her ring finger.
They hadn’t waited until June to get married. They’d tied the knot in a simple ceremony in Bellingham, the only guests family and a few close friends. The geeks were invited, of course. They couldn’t leave them out. The next morning, Scott and Cassy had hopped on a plane and here they were in Rome.
Cassy leaned back her head, laughing at something he said. He hardly knew what he was saying, he was just talking to keep her smiling, to keep her attention on him. Because he could never get enough of her attention. In one hand, she held a glass of champagne, in the other a slice of pizza. He’d wanted to take her to a fancy restaurant but she had her funny ways and he loved to indulge her.
However, he
had
booked them into the fanciest hotel in Rome. She wasn’t getting a say in that. Tonight, he would have
his
way, pampering her and pleasuring her until she begged for mercy, or he collapsed. Whichever came first.
Cassy was his best friend forever. And now she was his wife forever, too. He still didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky.
“It’s great that your dad and Lorraine agreed to be coinvestors…“
He kissed her, stopping that line of conversation. “We’ve got forty-eight hours all to ourselves. Not for one minute are we going to talk shop.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cassy snuggled into his shoulder as his arm went around her. “I bet you can’t do it.”
“You’re on.” He tipped up her chin to kiss her lightly on the lips, a promise of things to come that night. “What do I get if I win?”
She grinned and her whole face glowed, her eyes sparkling brighter than her diamonds. “You’ll just have to wait and find out.”
Epilogue
One year later
Cassy peered out of Scott’s floor-to-ceiling windows at the sidewalk far below. Dusk painted shadows over the line of customers snaking around the block to get into Thornton Nanotectronics, Scott’s flagship store in a commercial area of Seattle two streets away. The Dreamcatcher had gone on sale for the first time that morning. Now it was nearly 9:00 p.m. The store would be closing soon, but the line showed no sign of diminishing.
“Can you believe this?” she said over her shoulder. Scott was on the couch, watching the news coverage of the national launch of the Dreamcatcher on TV. “People are bringing sleeping bags and deck chairs. They’re going to stay there all night.”
“It’s happening all over the city.” Scott shook his head in amazement at the scenes on TV. “All over the country. There was almost a riot in New York when the store ran out of nanite pods.”
“With the international launch in another few weeks, the Dreamcatcher frenzy will be all over the world.” Cassy walked over to the shelving unit to sprinkle fish flakes into the aquarium for Rupert and Goldie. Then she sat beside Scott on the couch and massaged the back of his neck and shoulders. She could still hardly believe that they were married. Becoming lovers, then husband and wife, had only deepened their already-amazing friendship. “Life’s been pretty intense lately. You must be tired.”
The past month had been back-to-back press conferences, talk show tours, and interviews to promote his invention. She was so proud of him. As well as getting the factory up and running, he’d worked at his public speaking and no one would ever guess that he’d ever had a problem. He’d even given a TED talk that had broken all viewing records for science and technology talks on the website.
Cassy, meanwhile, was busy working on her master’s in business administration and dividing her time between Boston and Seattle. Her thesis was a case study of Scott’s Dreamcatcher and a cost-benefit analysis of nanotechnology manufacturing in America. Scott’s business employed hundreds of people and was still expanding as the demand for his product outstripped their wildest expectations. Life was good for everyone connected to the Dreamcatcher, and it was only going to get better.
“I’m all right.” He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “But when things settle down a bit let’s take my father up on his offer to go salmon fishing up in Canada.”
“That would be awesome!” She squeezed the hand draped over her shoulder. Of all the wonderful things that had come about in the past twelve months, she was happiest about Scott’s reconciliation with Ian. The pair regularly got together for Mariners baseball games and Ian had even gone mountain biking with Scott a few times. Cassy had become close to Serena and the four of them had dinner together every Sunday. Lately, Ian and Serena had started hinting that they wouldn’t mind becoming grandparents. Cassy and Scott had let them know that it was definitely on the agenda, but not for a couple of years.
“Look, Leonard’s on TV!” Scott exclaimed as the news cut to an ad break. Sure enough, there was the geekster himself with his neat brown hair parted on the side, Coke-bottle glasses, and flushed cheeks.
“Oh my God!” Cassy giggled and put a hand over her open mouth as she watched one glamorous woman remove his glasses while another tugged his brown cardigan off his shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“Remember Jessica, the reporter from Tacoma?” Scott said. “During an interview with him she found out about some girl he’s been pining over since high school. After that, he was approached by a local producer with an idea for a reality show. They’re going to give Leonard a makeover, track down the girl on Facebook—apparently she’s still single—have a big reunion and then send them on a weeklong date someplace exotic.”
“And the girl is going along with this?” Cassy asked, eyes wide.
“I don’t think she knows about it yet.” Scott chuckled. “Should be an interesting reunion. Especially since they’re going to broadcast some of his dreams about her. Judiciously edited, of course.”
“I should hope so.” The news came back on and Cassy rose. “I’ll be right back.” She went to her home office and from the back of the closet took out a gift-wrapped package.
Today was their first wedding anniversary. So much had been happening lately, she didn’t really blame Scott for forgetting. In the past, he’d relied on her to advise him in the romance department. But now that she was his wife, any prompting on her part would take away the spontaneity. That was okay. She knew he loved her.
“This is for you.” She gave him a lingering kiss that promised more later, and handed him his present. Then she snuggled in at his side. “Go on. Open it. I hope you like it.”
Scott sent her a warm glance and tore the paper off a first edition by a famous naturalist titled
Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest
. He sucked in a breath. “This has been out of print for decades. Where did you find it?”
“Oh, I have my ways.” It had taken months of searching but she’d finally located a copy in a shop of rare and antique books.
Reverently, he opened the book to a random page and a hand-drawn botanical illustration of a foxglove painted in delicate watercolors. “This is wonderful. Thank you, sweetheart.” Setting the book on the coffee table, he took her in his arms. His kiss was warm and tender, then deepened as heat rose between them. She twined her arms around his neck, eager to get closer.
“Let’s go to bed,” she whispered against his lips.
“First, I want to give you your present.” He smiled at her raised eyebrows. “You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? As if I could forget the most important day of my life when my best friend became mine forever.”
He reached under the TV console for the metal cap used with the Dreamcatcher. “You need to wear this for the full effect.” He waited while she adjusted the cap, then flicked the TV onto AV and hit play. “The sequence is pretty short but… Well, you’ll see.”
Cassy edged forward on the couch. An image of a young girl of about fourteen came on the screen. She was sitting in a small boat that bobbed on a vast body of blue water set aglow by the setting sun. Her brown hair was escaping from a ponytail and her luminous amber eyes smiled straight at the viewer. There was something ineffably lovely about her as if her beauty shone from within.
“Oh, my God. This is a dream you had. Is that Chuckanut Bay?” Cassy turned to him. “But I don’t look that amazing. I never have.”
“You did to me. Still do.” His voice was very serious and utterly sincere. “I’ve had this dream a few times over the years. I think that evening was when I woke up to how I really felt about you but I couldn’t express it.”
“But where are you?” Cassy asked, leaning closer to the screen.
“You don’t see me because it’s from my point of view. You’re seeing directly into my subconscious.” His voice wavered a little. “Into my brain…and my heart.”