Unexpected Love

After Colin had finally fallen asleep Eden got up to book her flight and to call her dad letting him know of her plans. She picked up her phone and noticed her contacts pulled up. She didn’t remember calling anyone. She shrugged it off as nothing.
She booked her flight for the next day. She wanted to get everything done as soon as possible and come back and start her life with Colin.
Next she called her dad and Catherine to tell them she was moving back to California and to see if they could start putting some of her stuff in boxes. She didn’t have much except for pictures and clothes. After a few more minutes of casual conversation they said goodbye and hung up.
She decided to put her ear buds in and listen to music while she was looking online at some tattoos and didn’t notice someone behind her.
“Why are you up?” They said as they touched her shoulder.
She screamed at the top of her lungs and turned around to see Colin holding his ears.
“Don’t do that!” she yelled at him smacking him in the arm.
“I’m sorry. Are you ok?” He said rubbing his arm.
She was taking deep breaths trying to calm her heart down and nodded at him.
“You have pair of lungs on you. I don’t think I can hear out of my right ear anymore.” He joked.
“Sorry. I don’t like to be snuck up on.”
“I won’t do it again. So what are you doing up?”
“I was booking my flight and talking to my dad.”
“When do you leave?” he asked a little sad.
“Tomorrow evening. I’ll be back by Friday. If not sooner.”
“That’s good. The sooner the better.”
Colin looked at the computer to see she had a page up of tattoos.
“Hmm what do we have here? Tattoos? Let’s see what Eden’s getting!”
Before he could look she shut the browser off and closed her laptop.
“No peeking. It’s a surprise.” She warned.
He pouted and tried giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
“No! That’s not going to work. Now quit.” She said trying not to look at him. She knew as soon as she did she would give in and she really didn’t want him to know about her tattoo.
“Fine I’m going back to bed.” He huffed. He figured he would look when she went back to sleep.
“I’ll be behind you in a minute.” She said. She opened her laptop back up and deleted her browsing history. She knew as soon as she went to sleep Colin would snoop around.
She smiled to herself. After she fell asleep Colin snuck his way over to her laptop and turned it on. He clicked on the internet browser and went into history only to find nothing there. She knew him just a little too well. He saw that she left a word document up and clicked on it. He saw a message to him.
“Curiosity killed the cat. Love you!”
He typed back.
“Love you more.”
He smiled and went back to their bed and climbed in next to Eden. He loved watching her sleep sometimes. She always looked so peaceful. He kissed her head and pulled her against his chest. He hoped tomorrow went smoothly.
He woke up feeling something going across his stomach. He saw Eden with a sharpie drawing something on his abs.
“What are you doing?”
Eden let out a yelp and fell off the bed.
“I told you not to do that. Go back to sleep!”
“What is this?”
He looked down to see each of his abs had something wrote on them.
“I LOVE U 2 INFINITY AND BEY.” He read.
“Yea let me finish that.” she climbed back on the bed and straddled his waist and began to finish her work.
“Done!” she yelled after 20 minutes
“I LOVE U 2 INFINITY AND BEYOND!” he read again but this time there were hearts added to it.
“Since you left me such a sweet message on my laptop last night I wanted to show you just how much I love you more. So now you have a tattoo to always remind you. Hey I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!” she laughed.
“You’re in a really good mood today.” He smiled.
“I am. I woke up that way. I guess it has to do with a certain guy.”
“Go on about this guy.” He said.
“Well he’s really tall, great body, super smart, athletic, great kisser, awesome cuddle buddy… knows how to make a girl feel special. He has these gorgeous eyes I could stare into all day…”
“He sounds like he’s pretty amazing.” He said smiling.
“Oh he’s much more.” Eden said giving Colin a kiss.
“As much as I would love to stay in bed all day with you again. I have a meeting I have to be at in a hour.” he said in between kisses.
“Fine. I have to pack anyway. Will you be back in time before I leave?”
“I should be. If not I will text you. I need to get a shower.”
“You better not wash that off! I worked very hard on that.” she said referring to her sharpie tattoo.
“Well it’s going to come off a little.”
“Wait a minute.” She ran out of the bedroom. Colin could hear cupboards banging open and shut. Then he could hear her running back upstairs.
“I found saran wrap I can put around you so it won’t come off.” she said happily. She was already taking pieces off the roll and walking towards Colin.
“I’m not wearing that Eden. I promise I won’t wash it off. Now put the saran, cling wrap stuff down.” He said backing away from her.
“Fine. You’re such a party pooper.” She said sitting on the bed crossing her arms.
“I’m sorry.” he said walking over and kissing her on the forehead.
“You’re forgiven. I’ll just have it tattooed on you permanently.” She said darkly.
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m kidding. Gosh you’re so tense this morning.”
“I’m just nervous about this meeting.”
“What’s it for if you don’t mind my asking.”
“It’s about possibly expanding my name into another person.”
“Sounds confusing. Have fun with that.” she said patting him on the back.
As she went to pack, Colin got in the shower. And as he promised he didn’t wash off her ‘artwork’.
He kissed Eden bye and drove towards a small restaurant to meet the mystery person.
He saw someone approach him and stood to greet them.
“Are you Colin?”
“Yes. You must be Mr. McGarrett.” Colin said reaching out to shake the man’s hand.
“I am. I heard you and Eden are back together. I heard you gave her a ring of some sorts.”
“I did but it’s a promise ring. I wanted to officially meet you without Eden knowing because I wanted to ask you something.”
“I think I have a feeling as to where this is going but go ahead.”
“I want to ask for your daughters hand in marriage. I don’t want to propose right now but when the times right I want to ask her.”
Steve sat for a while processing what Colin had said.
“I like you Colin. But to me no one’s ever going to be good enough for my baby. You hurt her once, who’s to say you won’t do it again. Now I know you’re not the only one at fault with all that. Eden has always been one to run from her problems and she’s stubborn as hell. I think she gets that from me. Her mom sent me the video of the wedding and what not and I can tell you deeply care for her. But do you really love her. Is she going to be all you want and need for the rest of your life? If I let you marry my daughter you’re going to treat her with respect and you’re not going to run around on her. I may not be around much for her but she’s my pride and joy and my world. If you hurt her, I will hurt you.”
“I understand sir. I do love her. I know I messed up before and I can admit to that. I mean I don’t know how else to show or tell you how much I love her. I need her. I don’t make sense without her. I can’t promise our relationship will be perfect but I can promise you she will never want for anything. I will always show her respect. I will take care of her like she takes care of me. Your daughter is an amazing person. And as for running around on her I would never do that. I may be stupid and not act my age at times but I would never do anything to jeopardize what me and Eden have. She’s my best friend, she knows me better than I know myself. She’s everything to me.”
“I see. I guess I only have one more thing to say.”
Colin sat nervously waiting to Steve to speak.
Steve held out his hand for Colin to shake and said “Welcome to the family.”
Colin breathed a sigh of relief and shook Steve’s hand.
“Are you serious?”
“I am. I want her to be happy and she’s happiest when she’s with you.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for loving my daughter.”
“It was nice meeting you.”
“You too. I better call Eden and let her know I’m in town. I’ll just tell her I didn’t want her to ride on the plane by herself. Take care Colin.” Steve said walking away.
Colin had one more place to go before he went home.
“Jeremy I need you and Tanya to meet me somewhere.”
“Where’s that?” Jeremy said on the other end of the line.
“The jeweler. I want to pick out Eden’s ring and I need your guys’ help.”
“Dude you just got her one! You keep buying her stuff she’s going to get mad. She doesn’t like to be spoiled. Her dad tried to do it all the time and she would get pissed.”
“It’s her engagement ring. I’m not proposing yet but I want to have for when the time’s right.”
“We’ll meet you there. The same one where you got her other ring?” Tanya said cutting in.
“Yea thanks guys, see you there.”
Colin was looking at the rings on display when Tanya and Jeremy arrived.
“Hey guys. How’s it going?”
“It’s going. Our honeymoon got cancelled, something about a tropical storm or something so we’re stuck here.” Tanya said.
“That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. I really appreciate you guys coming especially when you should be celebrating being married.. I know it may seem soon but I really want to do this. I have these picked out so far.”
Jeremy and Tanya looked at the display of about 10 rings Colin had picked out.
“First off half of these are too big. She will never wear it if it weighs more than her finger. Second she doesn’t like a lot of bling but she does like sparkle. So these two need to go.” Jeremy said.
“That was all of them!” Colin exclaimed.
“Hey guys come here I think I found it.” Tanya said.
The boys walked over and as soon as Colin laid his eyes on it he knew that was the one.
“This is it.” he said.