Page 9 of Dear Handy Silver Fox
Epilogue
CAMMIE
I asked Sam to come home with me for the holidays. Work is slow this time of year for him, so he quickly said yes when I asked him.
"Wake up, beautiful," Sam whispers into my ear.
My eyelids flutter open. The sky outside my window is barely light out. The winter overcast is dreary but guaranteed to bring us that winter wonderland the weatherman predicting later today just in time to give us a white Christmas.
“What are you doing up so early?" I grumble. My voice is scratchy from disuse.
“I can’t sleep.”
“Well,” I sigh. “I can, and I was so—shhh.”
Sam chuckles, and I feel the bed dip behind me. His muscled arm loops around my body, and he pulls me close to him. He rests his cold cheek against mine, and I cringe from the extreme difference in temperature.
“Have you been outside?”
“I ran out to get the paper.”
I settle back against him. “If you get back under the covers, I can think of a few ways to warm you back up.”
“As extremely tempting as that is.” Sam chuckles in my ear. “I was hoping that you might want to get up and go for a walk with me.”
I turn my head towards him to check and see if the ludicrous suggestion is the real one. He smiles at me, and I know that he means it.
“I don’t want to leave this bed.”
“I bet you will when I tell you what I found.”
“I bet you I won’t but go for it anyway. I’d like to know what’s so important that you woke me up and expect me to leave this warm bed for the cold weather outside.”
“I found proof of the fairies in the woods.”
SAM
I love Cammie with all my heart, but she can drive me crazy sometimes when she fights me on something as simple as taking a walk with me. She doesn’t know what I have planned for her, but I know she will like it if only I can get her out of bed.
"I found proof of the fairies in the woods," I say, knowing that this will get her attention, and sure enough, she's up and dressed five minutes later.
The real snow isn't supposed to fall until later today, but patches of snowflakes start to fall as we walk hand and hand out towards the woods behind her parents' house. They are still asleep, which is why I woke Cammie up so early. I wanted this moment to be just us.
Cammie told me a lot about how her parents focused more on their work when she was growing up rather than on her. But now, it's like they are making up for the lost time and are eager to spend nearly every waking moment with her. I can't blame them for wanting her full attention.
Cammie has a way of making you feel seen when she’s looking at you. I like to chalk it up to the fact that she’s a writer. She’s always looking around and observing what’s happening around her and tucking it away for one of her novels. I'm still not used to reading one-liners I've said or similar experiences we've shared in her books. She warned me when I told her I loved her that I would have to be okay with being a bit of a muse to her and her boyfriend. A small price to pay to be with the woman of my dreams.
“So what’s this proof that you pulled me out of bed for?” she asks, pressing herself close to me as she holds onto my arm.
I look ahead to see where we are and then point to the tree with the knot in the trunk by the creek. The same one that Cammie told me about that first night we got together. The one that her grandmother would hide little trinkets in to convince Cammie that fairies were real.
Cammie stops and turns to me. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll have to go check the tree to find out.” I smile at her.
We start walking again, but she lets go of me once we reach the tree. I watch with a mix of eager anticipation and fear that she might not say yes.
Her eyes widen when she sees the small velvet box sitting snuggly in the hole. She starts to reach for it but pulls her hand back like she suddenly remembered that she's not allowed to touch it.
