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Chapter 27

A few moments later, Nick walked out of the apartment to look for Cass. He was confused and hurt, and was trying to figure out why she had reacted the way she had. He had expected her to be happy about his offer, not angry.
He looked around, and didn’t see her at first. Then, he spotted her. She had walked down to the beach and was standing on the shore, her back to him, and her bare feet in the sand. Even from where he was standing, about a hundred feet away from her, she looked almost sad. Nick stood there for a few moments looking at her. She was still the most beautiful girl he had ever met, and the fact that she was as vulnerable as she appeared to be, made her almost mysterious in his eyes. He had never quite understood her, and he wasn’t sure he was ever going to.

Nick made his way down to the beach and walked up to stand next to her. They stood there for a few minutes, without saying anything. Nick could see in the corner of his eye that she had been crying. Suddenly, she cleared her throat and turned to face him.
“I’m sorry Nick…” She whispered.
Nick looked down at her, and the moment he looked into her eyes, he knew she meant it.
“I just don’t understand, Cass.” He was aware of the fact that his voice sounded a bit cold, but he couldn’t help it. As much as he cared about her, he was still upset.
Cass sighed and took his hand.
“I just didn’t know how to react. No one has ever done something like this to me before, Nick. All my life I’ve been let under the impression that everything is going to be ok, but it never turned out that way.”
“But I thought you trusted me…” He said, his voice a lot softer this time.
“I do trust you Nick. I trust you with my life, and that’s the part that scares me. You’ve changed my life so much, and I’ve never felt like this about anybody before. And the fact that you never tell me how you feel scares me, because I’m afraid that you don’t care the way that I do, and that I might lose you.” She looked down, tears rolling down her cheek.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Nick.” She whispered.
“God, Cass…” He pulled her into a hug and let her cry on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry…” She whispered again.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” He said when Cass had calmed down a little.
“Well… you never asked, and I was afraid to tell you, because I thought that the reason you didn’t ask, was because you didn’t care.”
Nick looked stunned, but at the same time, he knew she was right. He never did tell her how he felt, but only because he was afraid that he might scare her away.
“You know, I was gonna do this later today, but I think now is the perfect time.” He stepped a little closer to her and brought his hands up to touch her face. “You wanna know how I feel?” He asked.
Cass gulped, and slowly nodded her head.
Nick pushed away a strain of her dark hair, and looked deep into her eyes.
“I love you Cassidy.” He said softly.
A small smile erupted on Cass’ face. “You do?”
“More than anything.”
“Oh, Nick. I love you too!”
It was his turn to smile now. He leaned forward and gently brushed his lips against hers. Cass put her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. It was soft at first, but then it grew more passionate and after only a few seconds, they were completely lost in each other. As the kiss ended, Nick pulled out a small box from his pocket and gave it to her. “Here, I was gonna give it to you tonight, but I want you to have it now.”
Cass smiled. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
She slowly unwrapped the paper and opened the box. Once she saw what was inside, she gasped.
“Nick…it’s beautiful.”
He had bought her a small diamond necklace, shaped as a small anchor.
“You know what the anchor means?” He asked her.
Cass nodded. “Hope…”
“Hope never dies, Cass. When I leave in a week, I hope that you’ll still be here when I get back, and I hope that you’ll never give up on us. And it also means that I’ll always be here for you. I’ll never drift away.”
Cass could feel tears running down her cheek as she looked at Nick.
“It’s the most beautiful thing no one has ever gotten me. Thank you Nick.”
“You welcome. I love you.” He kissed her again.
“I love hearing you say that.” Cass smiled.
“I love you.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Cass giggled and kissed him.
“Come on, let’s get back to the car.” Nick grabbed her hand and started walking, but Cass stopped him.
“Wait. One question.” She walked closer to him. “When can I move in?”
Nick’s eyes lit up. “I thought you didn’t want to.”
“Of course I want to.” She smiled.
“We’ll move your stuff in the next couple of days. All of my things are being moved from LA tomorrow. We have one week to get everything ready.”
“Ok.” She gave him a small kiss.
Nick smiled down at her. “You know… sometimes, I really don’t get you Cass.”
“Sometimes I don’t get me either…”

Once they were back in the car, Nick pulled out something from a bag that he had brought.
“Close you eyes.” He told Cass.
“Nick…please.”
“No, close your eyes.”
Cass did as he told her, and seconds later, she could feel Nick covering her eyes with something.
“What? You’re blindfolding me?”
Nick laughed. “Yup!”
“Oh, god… this can’t be good.” Cass giggled.
Nick started the car, and drove away, spending the next half hour trying to convince Cass that they were not going that far.

Once they reached their destination, Nick parked the car, and helped Cass outside.
“Can I take it off now?” She asked, curious to know where they were.
“Nope. Not yet.”
He took her hand and led her up a few stairs and inside a building. Cass was certain that she heard voices as they entered, but seconds later, it was all quiet again, and she couldn’t hear a sound.
“Ok, I’ll count to three, and you can take off the blindfold, ok?”
Cass nodded, and got ready to remove it.
“One… two… three!”
“SURPRISE!!!!”
Cass removed her blindfold and found herself in Aj’s living room in the middle of a crowd consisting of Holly, Aj, Brian, Leighann, Baylee, Kevin, Kristin, Howie and of course Nick.
“Happy birthday!” They all shouted at once. Cass laughed.
“Aww… you guys.” She looked over at Nick, who flashed her a smile.
They all went over to Cass, giving her hugs and handing her presents.
“This is too much guys.” She said, almost embarrassed.
Just then, Nick started to laugh. He nodded towards the table where Cass had placed her presents. They all turned around, and saw Baylee unwrapping one of them.
“Baylee!” Leighann rushed over to him and lifted him up and away from the presents. “That’s Cass’ presents. You’ll get your own in a few months.” Baylee started crying at this statement.
“I want present.” He cried.
Cass smiled and stood up, and walked over to him. “Hey, you know what? Why you help me open them. You can sit on my lap.” She patted his hair, and Baylee smiled and nodded.
“You should be careful with that.” Nick said. “He might hit you.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “Nick, that was months ago. He doesn’t do that anymore.”
“Yea, yea…” Nick said.

Cass went to open up her presents together with Baylee. She was so happy with all the things they had gotten her. Holly had bought her a beautiful silver bracelet, from Howie and Aj she got an mp3 player, Kevin and Kristin had gotten her a cell phone (to keep in touch while they were on the road), and Brian and Leighann gave her a brand new watch from Gucci.
Cass was shocked on how much money they had spent on her, but they all insisted that she deserved it.

As the party came close to an end, Nick walked over to Cass after being away for a while.
“Hey, where were you?” She asked.
He smiled at her and put his arms around her. “Just talking care of something. You ready to leave?”
“Leave?”
“You didn’t think this was it, did you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I have one more thing planned for you.”
“Nick…”
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand, and led her outside.
“But… I have to say good bye to everybody.”
“Oh, they’ll be fine.” He walked her over to his car again and helped her inside.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see!” He smirked.
Cass just sighed. She was too tired to even argue with him. As he drove away, she closed her eyes, and moments later, she was fast asleep.

She woke up a little while later, feeling Nick’s lips on hers.
“We’re here.” He whispered stroking her hair.
Cass stirred, and opened her eyes. She looked outside, and found that they had returned to the house that Nick had just bought.
“Why are we here?”
“Well, aren’t we asking a lot of questions today.” He said. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
They walked inside, upstairs and stopped in front of the door leading to Nick’s room. Cass could feel herself starting to get a little nervous. Nick opened the door, and waited for Cass to enter. She walked inside the room, and gasped when she saw what was inside.
“Oh, Nick…” The room was covered with candles. In the middle of the room, there was a mattress that had been made, and covered in rose pedals. Nick came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. He could feel her shaking, and bend down to kiss her neck.
“You don’t have to be nervous Cass. I know what you’re thinking. I just wanna hold you tonight. Nothing more, ok?”
Cass nodded and turned around. “Ok.” She whispered.
“Happy birthday Cass.”