My Life Of Evasion

26. Sometimes, That Knight In Shining Armor Turns Out To Be A Dork In Tin Foil

Chapter 26

Sometimes, That Knight In Shining Armor Turns Out To Be A Dork In Tin Foil

 

 

We were in Egypt for a week before we headed home to Boston.  After finding the Fraternitatem Tempus treasure, we helped with bringing it all to the surface for the first time in a few millennia.  That was when we were able to get a better look at everything that had been down in the tomb. 

That first night when we went back to our hotel in Cairo, there were cameras and recorders shoved in our faces as we tried to get inside.  Everyone wanted more information and by the next morning, everyone had it.

The history of the Fraternitatem Tempus was brought to light and everyone was presenting their research on the secret society.  Everyone thought that we had more information, but we had just about as much as they did. 

As for Vince, the news about him spread about him, too.  He was back in Washington D.C., being held by the FBI in a nice prison cell.  He wouldn’t be out anytime soon.  At least, that’s what Agents Turner and Hudson said.  I had a feeling we wouldn’t be seeing much more of them now that the treasure had been found, but it would be nice to sometime in the future just to catch up, see if they had any other treasures they wanted us to find, risk our lives for it, that kind of thing. 

So after we got home, Ben, Drew, Max, and I all stumbled through the door since it was almost midnight and we had little sleep on the jet coming back over.  We’d stopped in London so we could drop off Sophie, who was eager to get back to her parents, especially her father.  She promised that she would meet us back in Cairo in a week’s time, since we were going back to do more work on the treasure. 

After saying goodnight to Ben and Drew, who had dragged themselves up to their rooms and were asleep, I’m sure, right when they landed on their beds. 

As Max and I headed for our room, he reached over and grabbed my hand, kissing the back of it. 

“Are you tired?” he asked, smiling over at me. 

I nodded, rubbing a hand over my face.  “Yeah, I am.  I’m going to change into one of your t-shirts and then go to sleep.”

Max laughed.  “Oh, really?”

“Really.”

And that’s what I did.  After going into the closet to get one of his t-shirts and a pair of my pajama pants, I walked to the bathroom and got ready for bed.  But when I went back into the bedroom, I stopped up short when I saw Max standing there in the same spot I’d left him. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked him. 

He smiled, shaking his head, and looked down at his hands.  That’s when I noticed that he was holding something. 

“Nothing,” he said. 

I nodded down to his hands, still playing with whatever he had there.  “Then what’s that?”

Laughing once, he looked up at me.  “I’ve had this for a few months now.  And when I planned on asking you, we kind of got interrupted by Sophie, so I couldn’t do it then.  I haven’t had another perfect time to ask you, but I think now is.  Because it’s just us two, in our home, and that’s how I think I’ve always wanted to ask you.”

My heart started pounding in my chest as he took a step toward me, standing in their in his t-shirt with my hair up in a messy bun and ready for bed.  When I looked down, that’s when I saw just what he was holding there between his fingers. 

It was a ring.

And when he stopped in front of me and got down on one knee, I swear I couldn’t breathe. 

“What are you…?” I started, but choked up.

Max’s smile was brilliant as he looked at me, his eyes shining with so much love that I thought he was going to burst.  Taking my left hand in his, he held onto it, holding up the sparkling diamond engagement ring in the other. 

“Calliope Penelope Landon, I really don’t think you know just how much I love you,” he started, smiling.

Tears burned in my eyes.  They were happy tears, though, not the ones that I’d cried just a week before.  “I’m beginning to think that I don’t either,” I said, laughing slightly. 

He shook his head, smile still in place.  “That first day that I met you, when you, your dad, and Brielle came to London, I knew that I’d met the girl that was going to change my life forever.  I knew in that moment that I locked eyes with you that first time that I wasn’t going to let you get away from me.”

He knew how to make a girl cry, didn’t he?  My tears weren’t just burning in my eyes anymore.  They were falling rapidly down my cheeks. 

“But then I got to know you, talked to you about everything in both of our lives, and I knew that you were perfect for me.  And that first time I kissed you, stole your first kiss right from you there in the dark alcove of that theater in D.C., I didn’t want to let you go.

“And I don’t plan on letting you go.  Ever.  Because I love you so much that it hurts me, but it’s a good hurt.  I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Callie.  We’ve already got the house, but I want the family in it, too.  I want to raise our kids here, watch them grow up and find some to love them just like I love you.”

“Two kids,” I said, laughing through my tears.  “Definitely a boy who looks and acts like his father.”

Max smiled up at me.  “And a beautiful baby girl who’s exactly like her mother.”

“But the boy first so that he can be the overprotective big brother, because you’ll make him.”

He laughed.  “Exactly,” he said, and then continued.  “I want to grow old with you, be the man who’s never going to leave your side.  And I plan on being that man…only I need you to answer one question.”

Max looked down at the ring in his hand once more before back up at me.  My heart was beating in my chest like it was going to come out at any moment. 

But that’s how it always was when I was around him, this man that I’d already planned on spending the rest of my life with.  

“So, Callie, the love of my life,” he said.  “Will you marry me?”

Maybe I should freak him out, wait a few long few moments before giving him an answer.  Maybe a few days?  Heck, he kept this a secret from me for months, why not make him wait?

One. 

Two.

Three.

Four…

Oh, whatever!

So, just when Max’s smile began to turn down, I grabbed his hand and pulled him up, wrapping an arm around his neck as I did. 

“Yes,” I said, right before I sealed it with a kiss. 

And as he slipped the ring on my finger, I knew that I’d found that guy that every girl wanted to find. 

The guy that you were going to spend the rest of your life with. 

The one that was going to be the father of your children.

The one that you would be proud to have your son be just like. 

The one who will be so tightly wrapped around your daughter’s little finger.

The one that you were going to get old and wrinkly with.

The one that you thought was worth more than any treasure or any amount of money.

And most importantly, the one that thought of you just the same. 

Too bad to the ladies who wanted him, because I’d already found Max and I was never going to let him go.