Page 103 of The Prospect

That single rose with one dainty stem and forty petals somehow managed to surmount an entire evening with Hart.

I should’ve accepted my fate then and there, alas the show went on.

“Step three, steal a kiss,” he carries on. “Now that one…” He blushes. “We jumped the gun on, given that we’d kissed many years before, but…you can’t debate that the timing of our second kiss didn’t perfectly fall in line with the steps, Hazel. I mean…how can you even deny that?”

“Green…” I’m too dumbfounded to say anything but his name. How long has he had this pieced together in his mind, and how hadn’t I known in the slightest?

“Step four.” He pulls me in tight, wrapping my legs around his waist so that I straddle his lap. I suck in a breath this time as he leans in to say, “Learn a secret about them. This one…” His lips are inches from mine. “Well…I didn’t quite hear from the horse's mouth.”

“Are you saying I’m a horse?” I joke before Green can say another word.

“Figure of speech.” He brushes aside my remark while I roll my eyes playfully. “But thank gosh Amira told me that secret, Hazel, because without it…” Suddenly, I’m flipped over—one with the mattress as Green hovers over top of me and murmurs into the nape of my neck. “You remember step five…right,bug?”

Seal the deal.

God…I think it would be a cardinal sin to have forgotten, though the way I forget how to breathe from his touch alone, suddenly it doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

“Care to remind me?” I tease, wrapping my arms around the back of his neck as he peers down into my eyes.

“Gladly. But first…” He pulls back faintly, brushing some hair away from my face. “Can you believe it,Hazel Collins? Believe that everything happened for a reason?”

I pull him toward my lips with a smile.

“I’ve always believed that,Daniel Green.”

EPILOGUE

H A Z E L

3 YEARS LATER - Age 24

“Keep your eyes closed!”Green instructs, guiding me forward one step at a time, gently clutching my hands with a heightened sense of caution.

We’ve been walking like this for so long that I think I’ve lost all concept of time. That, and just how many times Green’s repeated the same instruction.

“They’re closed, Green. I swear!” I’m careful with my footing and slow with my pace. “Besides…” I remark with a shrug of my shoulders. “I’ve got a blindfold on. I can't see a thing even if I wanted to!”

It was a “safety measure” Green insisted on before we set off on our mysterious trip. A way to conceal the secret he’s meticulously planned out for me today.

Usually, I’m reluctant to “go with the flow”, but I agreed only because Green flashed me the most convincing puppy dog eyes known to man, combined with a kiss and the words, “I love you, Hazel.Trust me,” before he slipped the silk over my eyes, and stuck his keys into the ignition.

It’s been three years and still, Green knows the way to my heart…the way to make me fold at his fingertips.

Every. Single. Time.

“Just making sure.” Green half laughs, inching me just that bit further.

The ground beneath my feet feels uneven like I’m walking on cobblestones. It’s almost familiar, yet I know better than to waste time guessing, even though guessing where we are is the only thing I can’t seem to shake away from my mind.

This anticipation is slowly killing me—no, itiskilling me. I hate not being in the know. I hate it even more when Green seems to bask in the joy of it.

“Can I please take this off now?” Impatiently, I attempt to slip the silk away from my eyes, but before I can lift it even a millimeter, Green's hands bring me to a stop.

“No!Not yet!” Not only is Green’s voice audibly flustered, but so are his movements as he removes his clammy hands from over mine and instructs me to stop. “Wait right here, okay,Haze?”

I sigh, fed up beyond belief, yet nod agreeably as I hear him jog off ahead.

Eighteen years, I’ve known the man that is Daniel Green, and out of the 936 weeks we’ve spent together, this one has, hands down, been the strangest he’s ever acted.

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