Page 151 of Left on Read
The last three years had been as busy as they’d been wonderful. Zane, Gray and I still worked for Quinn, and it was the best job we could have asked for. We got to hang out every day, and Quinn’s business had grown to the point where he had eight full crews and enough contracts to keep everyone busy.
Hayden was still teaching at the same school and was now the teacher advisor for the school newspaper, along with the social justice club. He worked long hours and put in tons of overtime, but he loved his job, and I loved seeing him so happy.
Our relationship was as strong as ever, and not a day went by where I didn’t thank whatever higher power might be out there for my harebrained idea to put an ad on Singles to replace those stolen tools.
Hayden was my everything, and it was time to make things official.
“So, I did a thing.” I turned to Hayden when everyone was settled in their seats.
“What did you do?” He glanced around, then focused on me.
“Well, now that Noah is tattooing people, I got some new ink.”
Hayden’s eyes lit up. He might not have any tattoos of his own, but he was a big fan of mine. “Can I see?”
“Yup.” I pulled my sleeve up and showed him my inner forearm. He peered at the clear wrapping around the new tattoo. “Is that…” He looked up at me in surprise.
“It is.”
Both Zane and I had full sleeves, but we’d left a void just under the inner elbows of our left arms. The spot was connected to our ring fingers by a long line that snaked through the rest of the sleeve.
The plan for the voids had always been to get tattoos representing the people who meant the most to us, our future partners.
Zane and I had both known for years that we wanted tattoos for Noah and Hayden, but we decided to wait until Noah finished his apprenticeship at the tattoo shop and could do them for us.
Zane had gotten his last week, and today had been my turn.
“Is that my signature?” He leaned closer to my arm. The cover made the image blurry, but the details were still visible.
I’d designed the tattoo using our signatures, linking the script together so they created an infinity symbol. I’d given Noah free rein to fill in the space around the symbol with whatever he wanted, and he’d created an incredible shadow effect that made the symbol look 3D, like every letter was resting on my skin. It made the tattoo pop and stand out from the rest of the ink on my arm. The same as the bright colors incorporated into Zane’s tattoo did for him.
They were the only things on our bodies that weren’t identical.
“And mine.”
“But that spot is for…”
“It’s for you. It’s been for you since before I met you.”
“Awwwww.” Nick sighed dreamily. “This is so sweet. I think I’m gonna get a toothache.”
Hayden snickered along with everyone else but only had eyes for me.
“I kinda did another thing,” I said, grateful for Nick’s interruption because it reminded me this was only part one of my surprise.
“What’s that?”
“I got you something.” Hoping like hell I wasn’t about to mess this up, I pulled a ring box out of my pocket and put it on the table in front of him.
Hayden’s eyes went wide, and the table went silent.
“I tried to write a speech telling you how much I love you and how happy you’ve made me these past three years, but every time I tried to put something down, it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.”
He gently gripped my thigh and squeezed, an understanding smile on his handsome face.
“So instead I thought I’d wing it. I love you, and I want to keep loving you for the rest of our lives. Hayden, baby. Will you marry me and make me the happiest man on earth?”
Hayden didn’t answer; he just threw himself into my arms.