Graham’s arm slid from my waist, and I felt his weight shift behind me.
His bare feet padded softly across the floor, and I heard the slide of his dresser drawer opening, the rustle of clothing, then the drawer closing. His door cracked open, and a minute later, the shower kicked on.
I opened my eyes just long enough to register the dim blue sky through the window before drifting back to sleep.
When I stirred again, Graham was pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“Graham?” I mumbled.
“Sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, lifting the blanket higher over my shoulders.
“Are you leaving?”
“I’m needed on-site today,” he whispered. “I’ll be back in the afternoon.”
“Mmkay,” I said.
He planted another kiss to my forehead, and I was asleep again before he left the room.
I turned, reaching across the bed for Graham, but my hand found cool sheets instead.
My brows furrowed and my eyes drifted open.
Oh yeah. He’d already left.
Sunlight stretched into the room, falling across the empty spot beside me. He must’ve been gone for a few hours already.
I climbed out of bed and wandered into the kitchen. There was a notecard propped against the coffee machine.
“Coffee’s prepped and ready to go. Love you. G.” I read aloud.
God, this man might actually be pure perfection.
I hit the start icon on the machine, then moved to the small window above the sink and drew open the curtains.
Some small patches of snow still lingered, but more of the yard was visible now than it had been a few days ago. For the first time in weeks, the heavy gray clouds were gone, replaced by puffy white ones and a clear blue sky. It seemed like spring was finally on its way.
I turned away from the window and sat at the kitchen table while I waited for the coffee to brew.
My notebook was still on the table where I’d left it yesterday. I slid it in front of me, but something sticking out from between the pages caught my attention.
I pulled it from my notebook.
“Another card?”
I knew this is where you’d end up. Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself. Anyway, I have something for you. You’ll have to find Bear first. He holds the key.
Coffee forgotten, I set the notecard down and went looking for Bear. I checked the living room first, remembering Graham setting him on the couch when we’d gotten back from the apartment. But Bear wasn’t there. I scanned the living room. There were only so many places he could be. He wasn’t on the coffee table or a bookshelf, nor was he sitting by the fireplace.
Where the hell did he go?
I headed down the hall to check Graham’s room, since that’s where we’d been spending our nights together lately, but quickly discarded the idea. I would have noticed Bear in there when I’d woken up.
That’s when I noticed my bedroom door was shut. I never shut my door.
I opened the door, and there he was. Bear was propped up against the pillows on my bed, and tucked in his lap was another notecard.
I picked up the notecard first, then Bear. Just as I was about to read the notecard, something hit the floor with a clink.
It was a small key.
I grabbed it from the floor and turned it over in my fingers. I didn’t recognize it. It was too small to be a house key, and it wasn’t like I needed one of those anyway.
I turned my attention back to the notecard.
You dropped the key, didn’t you?
“No,” I said, scowling at the card.
I set Bear back on the bed and gave him a serious look. “Do not tell him I just did that. This stays between you and me.”
I continued reading Graham’s note.
Now that you have the key (that you’ll swear you didn’t drop), you’ll find what it belongs to in the place I once found you.
My brows scrunched together. “The place I once found you? What the hell does that mean?”
The apartment? No, it couldn’t be. I didn’t have a way to get there. The shed in the woods I’d gotten stuck in during the blizzard? I shook my head. Hell no. He wouldn’t risk me going out there. Assuming I could even find it again.
Where the hell could he be talking about?
I left my room and headed back toward the living room. Then it hit me. His office! The day I’d found my old notebook!
His office door was shut. There was keyhole, but it looked too large for the one in my hand.
I turned the knob, and it gave way. “So, not the door then.”
I stepped inside his office and looked around but saw nothing that the key might fit into. No box, no chest, nothing. Maybe it was for one of the drawers in his desk? But I’d already looked through them before and didn’t remember seeing any keyholes.
It was worth a shot to check again, though, so I walked around his desk and sat in his chair. In the middle of the desk, right above my knees, there was a long, narrow drawer. And in the center, a keyhole.
I slid the key inside. It was a perfect fit.
I unlocked the drawer and pulled it open.
A bright pink bow sat on top of a piece of white tissue paper. I pulled the bow and tissue paper away, and my breath caught.
It was a brand-new sketchbook. It had a tan leather cover, engraved with my name—Bambi, this time. Not Hazel, like on the notebook. I undid the tie that held the sketchbook closed and opened to the first page.
I hope you love it and get great use out of it. Thought you deserved something better than a beat-up old notebook.
I love you, Bambi.
Graham.
Tears filled my eyes. He really was perfection.
I lifted the sketchbook from the drawer and noticed something else underneath it.
There were four smaller packages wrapped in white tissue paper. I pulled the first one out and tore the paper away. It was a pack of sketching pencils. The second one was pens. As I started to unwrap the third, a loud ringing interrupted me.
I looked around, confused as to where the ringing was coming from. For a split second, I thought it might be Graham’s phone, that he’d come home without me realizing because I’d been so absorbed in unwrapping my gifts. But then I noticed that the ringing was coming from the drawer.
I quickly tore off the paper from the fourth package. Tucked inside the box was an iPhone, its screen flashing with Graham’s name and a photo of him.
I pulled the phone from the box and swiped across the screen, answering the FaceTime call.
His face came into view.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, grinning like a fucking madman. “I see you found my gifts.”
I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “I can’t believe you sent me on a scavenger hunt before I’ve even had my coffee. You’re diabolical, Graham.”
“The first notecard was literally set against the coffee machine, Bambi.”
“Yeah, I know. But I found the second one while I was waiting for the coffee. I couldn’t not go looking for Bear.”
“Of course not.” Graham chuckled and shook his head. “Well? Do you like your gifts?”
“I love them,” I told him, tears welling in my eyes all over again. “Thank you, Graham.”
“You’re welcome, baby,” he said, a strange echo following his words.
I squinted at my phone, trying to get a look at the background. Something about it seemed familiar.
“Where are you?” I asked.
I heard the front door shut, and a moment later, Graham appeared in the doorway.
“Home,” he said, looking at me.
I set my phone on the desk and ran into his arms. He hugged me tightly, lifting me from the ground and spinning us in a circle.
“I love you so much. Thank you for everything, Graham. Thank you!”
I pressed kiss after kiss to his cheek until he was laughing so hard that I was shaking against him.
“Anytime,” he said, setting me back down. “Anything to see that smile of yours.”
“God,” I said, sucking in a sharp breath. “Stop being so cute. You’re going to—” I hiccupped. “Make me cry—” Another hiccup. “Again.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He wrapped me in his arms and kissed the top of my head.
“I thought you were at work,” I said, looking up at him. “How did you even pull this off?”
“I was. I’d been putting it all together for a while, but I set it all up before I left this morning.”
He released me and headed for the kitchen. “You’re a damn heavy sleeper, you know that.”
Huh. I didn’t use to be. But now that I thought about it, ever since I’d started sleeping in Graham’s room, I’d been sleeping better than ever.
“Oh. That reminds me,” I said, following after him. “I thought you worked from home?”
“I usually do. I’m occasionally needed on site, but it doesn’t happen that often.”
Graham started setting things out on the counter.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Celebratory PB&J’s.” He held up the jar of peanut butter in one hand and the jelly in the other. “Duh.”
There was something so endearing about him standing there with a goofy grin on his face, peanut butter and jelly in his hands, that all I wanted was to freeze this moment in time.
“Don’t move!” I shouted at him, before hurrying back to his office to grab my phone. “I mean it! Not a muscle!”
I snatched it up from the desk, opened the camera, and ran back to the kitchen to snap a photo.
“Perfect,” I said, grinning at the picture. “I love it.”
“I’m glad,” he said, turning back to make our sandwiches.
“Can I just ask? Why the phone? The art supplies I get, but I’ve gotten so used to being without a phone that it almost feels weird having one again.”
Graham set our PB&J’s on the kitchen table, then pulled out a chair for me.
“You needed one,” he said, taking his seat. “If something happens while I’m out, I want you to be able to reach me. And vice versa.”
“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I never really thought about it that way.”
“Exactly. I’m not required to be on site very often, but there are times, like today, where I am. Most job sites are pretty safe, but accidents can happen.”
“Was your job site today safe?”
“Definitely. Probably the safest one I’ve been to yet. It’s a summer camp about an hour from here. Camp Green Cay. The owner, Dane, and his girlfriend Kylee are renovating the main lodge. If anything, Kylee is the only dangerous thing on the site. She’s a spitfire, that one. Not hard to tell that she’s the one who actually runs the show.”
I took a bite of my sandwich. “I like her already.”
“I’m sure you do.” He laughed. “Lord help us the day you two meet.”
“Can’t wait.” I smirked.
“I’ve actually gotta head back in a few days. I can give her your number.”
“That would be great,” I said.
After we finished eating, we headed back into Graham’s office to collect my new things and bring them into the living room.
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch, talking about what I might draw first in my sketchbook. Graham listened to me gush over my new pens and pencils. He let me take way too many photos of him and an embarrassing number of selfies of us without a single complaint. I, of course, set the goofiest photo of him as his new caller ID.
By the time we settled into bed that night, I realized what I wanted to put on the first page of my sketchbook.
“I know what I’m going to draw,” I told Graham.
“What is it?”
“The cottage.”
“The cottage? Why?”
“I don’t know how to explain it,” I said. “It’s just… this feeling I have. I want the cottage to be the first thing I draw.”
There were a million different feelings wrapped up in that little cottage, most of which I didn’t have names for. It just felt… right.
Graham pulled me against him, and I rested my head on his chest. “I think that’s a great idea,” he said.
“Yeah. Me too.”
Chapter Seventeen →
The Feral Bookster 