Page 121 of Ten Hammers

Max doesn’t answer, because Axel interrupts and says, “You’re forgetting something, bro.”

I watch as the blindfold exchanges hands.

“Can I…?” Max asks with hesitation in his voice and a tentativeness in his beautiful eyes.

I nod.

He covers my eyes with it and fastens it at the back of my head. Then he takes my hand again. Our fingers intertwined, he leads me outside.

“Did you hire one of those planes to skywrite your letter?” I ask.

“Nope, but damn if that isn’t a good idea.”

I can tell we’re in the backyard when he says, “Okay, turn around. I’m going to take the blindfold off but when I do, don’t look at anything but me, okay?”

I nod.

When I can see again, I’m confused. He’s positioned me facing him, facing the back of the reno house.

“Don’t turn around,” he says.

“Ahhh,” I get it. “What I’m not supposed to see yet is behind me.”

“Yep.”

“Are you aware of what’s behind you?” I ask, because it’s the nine others peeking out of various windows.

Max glances back. “Goofballs.” But he says it good-naturedly.

Then he takes a deep breath. “Did I completely destroy your trust in me forever?”

There’s a fear in his eyes I’ve never seen before. He’s bracing himself for me to say yes, yes he has.

“Max,” I gesture for him to come closer and when he does, I hold him tight. He squeezes my body against his. “One really, really, really boneheaded decision couldn’t possibly destroy something you’ve spent most of our lives building.”

Am I letting him off the hook too easy? Maybe. But I also probably didn’t give enough consideration to what hell it was for him, to watch me with the others, whole-heartedly believing I was going to choose one of them. How it felt for him. One minute I was telling him I wanted him to be my first, and then the next minute, I had nine other offers and everything we had just went away, like he’d been a mere placeholder.

“Okay. For my surprise. Turn around, princess, and behold the castle I built for you with my own two hands. Well, with some woodworking help from Cruz on the final details.”

I turn around and nearly inhale all the grass in the backyard with my gasp.

“It’s not finished back here so don’t judge the landscaping yet, but–”

“Max.” Fresh tears flood my eyes again, joyful tears, that blur the most magnificent treehouse I’ve ever seen in the huge old oak tree. “Holy shit.”

“Is that a good holy shit or a bad holy shit?”

“That’s… the best holy shit in the history of time.”

I turn around again, facing him again, and give him the biggest bear hug in the history of time. “Can we go up?”

“Of course. This is what we wanted to do for you when we were younger. Obviously we didn’t have the supplies or the tools or the skills, but…”

I go up, up, up the ladder first with him coming up behind me.

When I get to the top, I laugh and tease, “Max Hammer, you perv, when we were younger you wanted to build me a treehouse with a freaking bed in it?”

This is the most magical place in the world. The bedframe looks like it’s made of actual branches, that it just sprouted organically from the tree.

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