Cayden's POV

Brooke was here? BROOKE WAS HERE!

That's the reason why she wasn't coming back on the day she said she was. Because she was already here.

    I immediately put the car in drive and quickly made my way to the football stadium on campus. Well, that's where I'm hoping she is. This note wasn't as specific as the last ones were.

    As quickly as the laws of the streets allowed me to, I made my way through traffic. If I was alone, I would have been flying through all these cars just to get to Brooke. But since Cayleigh's in here with me, I drove as safe and legal as possible. Even though everything in me wanted to floor this thing.

    We couldn't have gotten to the stadium in better time, though. Throughout the drive here, every light I passed was green, there were no pedestrians or bike riders in sight, and the daily 5:00 traffic jam was nonexistent.

    As soon as my car was parked, I quickly jumped out of my seat and rushed to the back door to unbuckle Cayleigh. "Daddy, what's happening? You're acting crazy!"

    "Sorry, Princess," I apologized. "I'm just really excited to see mommy's surprise. I think you're going to love it as well."

    "You know what it is?"

    "Kind of? I'm not a hundred percent sure yet."

    "Then how do you know I'll love it?" She stuck out her two hands with her palms turned up and gave me a questioning look.

    "Well, if it's what I think it is, then I know you're going to love it."

    "We'll see," she sang skeptically.

    We walked hand in hand into the stadium and down onto the field. As we stepped onto the turf, Cayleigh tugged on my arm. She lifted two of her arms up, asking me to carry her. Although the sky wasn't completely black yet, the field lights were off, so the area was still dark.

   Maybe this isn't where the clue was leading me to.

    As if someone was reading my thoughts, the stadium lights lit up around us. And right there, right in the center of the 50 yard line, stood the most beautiful woman my eyes have ever had the privilege to lay upon. Two bouquets of gold and white balloons, which probably represented our team colors, were placed on either side of her, swaying in the wind along with her long curled hair. She wore a pair of ripped skinny jeans, brown mid calf high boots, and most importantly, a replica of my white away jersey perfectly fit for her.

    I've seen tons of people wear my jersey throughout my three years on the team, and let me just say, no one has done it more justice than my woman is right now.

    Not even me!

    As soon as Cayleigh saw her, she wiggled around in my arms, eagerly begging to be let down. "Mommy," she yelled. "Daddy, look it's mommy. It's mommy." She pointed over and over in her direction until I safely put her down. The millisecond her little feet touched the ground, she took off towards Brooke.

    When she got within a foot of her, Cayleigh launched herself into Brooke's direction and tightly wrapped her arms around her neck. Never in her life have I seen Cayleigh so happy to see someone.

I stopped in my tracks and admired the two amazing females in my life. I should thank God everyday for placing Brooke in it. Not only in regards for myself of course, but for Cayleigh too. No other woman in this world would be able to love Cayleigh like how she does.

I continued on my path towards the two of them. Over Cayleigh's shoulder, my eyes connected to Brooke's. Cayleigh's body was blocking her lips, but I could just tell that she was smiling at me like I was at her. I could see it in her eyes.

As I stepped over the 30 yard line, Brooke placed Cayleigh gently back on the floor and picked up a poster paper that was laying on the ground faced down. Bringing the the paper up over her chest, I began to read it.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
You've found all the clues
and followed its signs.
Now just one more question,
WILL YOU BE MINE?
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

My subtle smile turned into a huge ass school boy grin. Pearly whites showing and everything. Only once have I ever been as truly happy as I am right now and that was the day my little girl was born. Finally. Finally, Brooke was willing to give us a shot. Finally, I was able to truthfully call her mine.

I ran towards them fast, as if I was six points down in a game and had no one open with no time left on the clock. Every part of my body felt like it needed to get to them.

That it needed me to get to my touchdowns.

When I was within arms reach to Brooke, I grabbed her by the hips and pulled her to my chest. With the poster lodged between the two of us and my nose touching hers, I confidently told her, "Always!" Then I slammed my lips against hers.

With my hands running through her hair, I latched onto the ends of it, forcing her face up giving me more access to her mouth. She bit onto my bottom lip, making me groan softly. As soon as her mouth was back on mine, I shove my tongue into it. Forcefully. Demandingly. Territorially.

She was mine. Finally, mine.

I was in a some kind of trance with Brooke's luscious lips resting against mine, that I lost notice of everything around me. It wasn't until I felt Cayleigh's arm wrap around my knees and her body leaned against our legs, that I remembered where I was. Brooke pulled her lips away first, making me immediately miss their warmth.

"You were real slick with that whole, 'I'm not coming home on New Year's Eve' stuff," I told her with our foreheads still touching.

"Yeah well, I didn't want you using your QB superpowers and figuring out my plan."

I tucked a few strains of her hair back behind her ear. "It definitely worked," I smiled. "I had no idea you were the hidden treasure that I was going to find at the end of this hunt." I then placed a chaste kiss on her lips. "And, Good God, what a great treasure it ended up being."

"Dahhh-aarn straight!" She laughed at herself. "Sorry. It's easy for me to turn off the swearing when I'm at work. Not so easy when I'm outside of it."

    "Don't worry about it. I had to get the hang of it, too." She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me in close so that our entire body's were completely touching with the exception of Cayleigh being trapped between us. "Not that I'm complaining or anything but what are you doing here?"

"I hated that I wasn't there to support you when you won your Heisman. So when your mom called me on Christmas, asking if I wanted to join them at this weeks game, I couldn't tell her yes any faster. Hopefully, we get the chance to support you at next weeks game, too."

Didn't I mention before how I have the world's greatest parents?

I kissed her on the forehead knowing how much she loved it. "Thank you, baby. That's means everything to me," I smiled at her.

"You mean everything to me." She took a small step back to look down at Cayleigh, who was smiling back up at her. "Both of you do."

The three of us casually walked back to my car. Brooke had Cayleigh in her arms, while Cayleigh talked her ear off a mile a minute. I held on to the two huge bouquet of balloons.

When we got to the car, I looked at the amount of balloons I had in my hands, then at my car, and then back to the balloons. "Hey, babe," I called out to her as she was buckling Cayleigh into her seat. "How exactly are we are we gonna fit all these in the car?"

She got out of the backseat and confusingly stared at the balloons, too. "I didn't think about that," she responded slowly.

"How'd you get it here in the first place?"

"We bought a couple of helium tanks and blew them up here."

    Eventually, we agreed to pop them all instead of driving with them hanging out of the windows. But when an evil look formed on Brooke's face, I knew that was no longer the plan.

    "You know how I have a spare key to Jake's car because he's always misplacing the first set?"

    "Yeeaah," I dragged the word out, not knowing where she was going with this.

    Brooke grabbed her phone from her back pocket, dialed a number then placed it against her ear. "Hey. Are you guys busy right now?" The person on the other end started to talk. It sounded like a girl, so I assumed it was Mya. "Great! Do you think you guys can come to the stadium? I didn't think about how we were gonna transfer the balloons out of here."  She paused giving the person on the phone a chance to respond. "Yeah, I was gonna do that but I have an even better plan now. I wanna stuff them in Jake's car," she laughed. "Yeah. So if you guys could come here and help drive some balloons over to the frat, that'd be great. Are you guys at the dorm right now?" Pause. "Cool. Can you grab Jake's key hanging on the hook above my desk?" Pause. "Thanks, Mya. See you guys in a bit."

    "So what's this I hear about pranking Jake," I asked her as soon as she hung up.

    "Remember how I told you that Jake forced me to go down a slide at the water park when we were in Hawai'i? One that I was afraid to go on. And how he kept clucking at me, which made a group of little boys start doing the same? Well, yeah. I'm about to put these balloons to use instead of just popping them."

    "Go on."

    "Well, we both know that Jake loves his car more than anything else in the world. Including himself, which says a lot by the way. So, why don't we shove all of these balloons into it. Like pack it up so much that he wouldn't even be able to get in. I have 60 more balloons that aren't blown up," she proudly said.

    It was so cute how she thought that was a hard core prank. Yeah, Jake might be a little pissed that we touched his car without his permission. But other than that, I don't see how that would make the two of them even after what he did to her. Even if he didn't mean to embarrass her with those little kids.

    "That's it? Don't you think we should do something a little worse than just fill his car up with balloons?"

    She slouched against the car and groaned. "Ugh, that does seem a little weak doesn't it." She looked off into the distance while biting her bottom lip.  The face she was making was so adorable, I couldn't help but lean forward and kiss her cheek. "I got it," she shouted as my lips just left her face. "How about we make confetti balloons. And we can tie a string to each end of a balloon and then tie the other ends of the strings to his door handles. That way, when he opens a door, the balloon will pop and make a big mess everywhere. We can make like 10 of 'em."

    I raised my hand and gave her a high five. "Now that's what I'm talking about. Beauty and brains. Just exactly what I imagined my future wife having."

    When Mya and Theo arrived, the two girls got into the bed of his truck and held onto the balloons. Luckily the frat house wasn't that far away from the stadium so they didn't have to sit back there for long. Cayleigh and I went to a nearby store to buy some confetti and a ball of yarn. By the time we got back to them, the floor of Jake's car was already completely covered with balloons that they blew up by mouth.

    Brooke and Mya took the supplies and started creating the confetti balloons in the front seats of my car while Theo and I continued working on Jake's car. Theo had a funnel laying around in the back of his truck so they used that to get the confetti into the balloons.

    When the balloons filled up to just above the cup holders in the car, the four of us tied the confetti balloons to three of the doors, making it as tight as possible. Through the driver door, we placed the helium filled balloons into car, leaving four balloons leftover for Cayleigh. After that was complete, we tied the loose yarns to the handle of the driver door then shut it.

    "Damn, that was a lot of blowing we just did," I said to no one in particular. "I think I bruised my lungs."

    Theo immediately started laughing. "That's what she said," he yelled, making me laugh right along with him.

    "Real mature, guys," Mya deadpanned.

    What? It was funny.

    "What's Jake doing, anyways? Is he not here," Mya asked.

    "No, he's here," Brooke replied. "He's crashed, though."

    "Really," I said. "It's barely even 8:00. I know we have to meet up early tomorrow morning but still, it's pretty early."

    "Well, he was up early this morning so he could pick me up from the airport. Then he drove me around and helped me set all of this up."

    "Aww, B! You should be ashamed of yourself for what you're doing to poor little Jakey," Theo teased.

    "Hey! When he forces you to do something you're afraid of by getting a choir of rugrats to start teasing you, then you can make me feel guilty. Until then, hush!"

    The five of us parted, agreeing to meet up again the next morning to watch Jake's reaction. Cayleigh, Brooke and I drove over to Brooke's dorm. After putting the car in park, Brooke looked at me with a nervous expression then covered it up with a smile. If I didn't know any better, I would assume she wanted to say something. As if deciding not to saying anything at all, she turned her head and reached for the door handle.

    I placed my hand on her thigh, forcing her to stop. She looked down at my hand then up at my face. "What's wrong, beautiful," I asked her as she shyly peered at me.

    She shook her head, trying to convince me that there wasn't an ongoing argument going on in that head of hers. But I saw right through all of that. I glared at her, silently telling her I wasn't buying whatever she was trying to sell me.

    "Mommy, just tell daddy what's wrong. He's very good at fixing booboos," Cayleigh told her.

    I smiled back at Cayleigh then turned my attention back to Brooke. "Yeah, baby. I'm very good at fixing booboos."

    Brooke gleamed at me. "I was just going to ask you if I could sleep over your house," she whispered.

"Why are you whispering," I teasingly asked her by whispering at her back.

"Because," she continued to talk softly. "One of the reasons why I think you're a great dad is because you always put Cayleigh's wants before your own. But in this specific situation, I want you to decide based on what you want, not based on what Cayleigh wants."

Is she being serious? She's got to be messing with me right now.

I pulled her face to mine and passionately kissed the shit out of her. How could she even think that I wouldn't want her to sleep over, especially after the evening we just had? When the two of us separated, after making out with each other for the second time in front of our daughter, Brooke ran her fingers across her lips. Her lips must be tingling right now because I sure as hell know that mines are.

    "Did that tell you what I want?" She nodded her head. I placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. "Good! Now go upstairs and get your things."