Pretty Thing (Naughty Things 1)

It makes me sad that he never got to see us together. I think he would’ve loved the idea. And while I don’t need his date advice—at least not the way he intended it—I’m using it tonight for another reason.

“You’re seriously taking me into the dark woods in the middle of the night in December?” Kali says.

“I really am,” I say, giving her hand a squeeze.

“OK.” She sighs. “This better be good.”

I just smile. Pretty confident.

“OK,” I say, once we enter the woods. “Don’t let go of my hand. I wouldn’t want you to trip over the tree roots.”

“I can’t believe I’m letting you do this.”

“Just… come on,” I say. “We’re almost there.”

“Where? There’s nothing out here but—” She stops. Then gasps. “What did you do?”

“Come see,” I say, tugging her by the hand in the direction of the light.

“Aiden Edwards!” Kali giggles. “You built me a fort!”

“Hell, I don’t have skills like that anymore. I paid the local kids to help me.”

We stop in front of the fort and admire it. It’s more than a fort. It’s practically a twig cabin. “Took us two weeks to weave the walls together. Then it rained, so the roof took longer. But that was a good thing because it reminded me that we needed a floor. They helped me lay down mats and build the fire pit. It even has a chimney.”

“How in the world…”

“I told them they could play here after I was done with it. So they didn’t mind. We never had a fort this nice when we were kids, that’s for sure.”

“No,” she laughs. “We didn’t. We had a few logs and used our imaginations for the rest.”

“Yeah,” I say. A little wistfully. Thinking back on the great childhood we shared in these woods. They were good enough though. All we needed back then. Just a spark to ignite our imaginations and carry us away to the land of kids.

But tonight is special. I have a question to ask her and I want everything to be perfect. The only way it could’ve been better is if I’d waited until summer.

But I couldn’t wait that long. I need her to know that this thing between us is more than just a thing. It’s forever.

“Come inside,” I say, swiping away a curtain covering the front entrance.

“Oh, my God.” Kali laughs, crawling through. Then she gasps and pauses. “What have you done?”

“Keep going,” I say, getting on my knees behind her. We’re all bundled up in coats and gloves. But inside there’s no wind and there’s a bed of straw on the ground. She scrambles inside and moves out of the way so I can follow her in.

“Let me light the fire,” I say, crawling over to the fire pit and flicking my lighter to the kindling. “Then we can take our coats off and have a drink.”

She glances around and spies the bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket of ice. She hands it to me and hugs her knees to her chest, smile so big I can see all her teeth. “You’re incredible. And this is perfect.”

“Almost perfect,” I say, reaching for a wooden box where I have food waiting. “Can I make you a s’more?” I ask, unable to hide my laugh.

She laughs with me. “S’mores and champagne totally go together.”

I pop the cork on the bottle, pour us each a drink in a plastic champagne glass, and hand her one. “To us,” I say.

“To us.” She sighs.

We sip, then kiss a little and eat s’mores. And it really does feel like we’re kids again. Like life never happened. Like we’re on summer break looking forward to fifth grade. Like we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us and Kyle is still here.

But he is here. Because this was his idea.

“Aiden,” he said in that message. “Treat her like the pretty thing she was that day you met her. What would Kali, age eight, think was romantic? Then do that. Trust me, she’ll love it.”

“I have something to ask you,” I say, once we’re warm and settled. Our coats discarded in a pile in the corner. Our shoes off and our bodies pressed up against each other.

Kali sucks in a deep breath and looks at me.

She knows. She has to know.

I take out the little velvet box and open it up so the firelight can dance its way across the diamond ring inside.

“Will you marry me, pretty thing?”

And then I get a kiss. And a “Yes,” and more kisses.

I put the ring on her finger and we lie back. Relaxed and happy as we enjoy Kyle’s perfect date.

Ready for what comes next.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT – KALI

I knew I would miss my brother on our wedding day. I knew it would be a hard milestone.

But I found a message from Kyle a few days ago. Hidden deep in the secret system called Dead Notes. Triggered by… I have no clue. Just… triggered by Kyle, I guess. Watching over me. Always ready to help me when I start to get sad again.