Monday morning was bad. David had never seen Nathan so uptight as he was simply driving along the streets of Albany.

"All right, you know what?" David said at last. "If I have to deal with someone all day who's acting like a hormonal teenager, I think that I reserve the right to know what's made him that way."

"Tomorrow's her birthday." Nathan's answer was clipped.

"Yeah, so?" If Dylan had actually had the conversation with Nathan, David was going to let Nathan tell him all on his own.

"So. Do you remember the conversation we had on her last birthday?"

David searched his memory as snippets of the conversation that he figured Nathan was talking about came back to him. "Oh. Yeah."

"Yeah."

"So…"

"So I'm still waiting for him to ask."

"So, you're cranky because of what you think is coming?"

"I don't think. I know. We both do."

David shrugged and decided to take the chance. "True enough."

"Yeah. And do you know what that crazy kid put on the board today? It had to be him, I know it was. The song." He waited for David to nod before he continued his rant. "The song was 'Stealing Cinderella.'"

David arched his eyebrows. "As in "I came to see her daddy/For a sit down man to man/It wasn't any secret/I'd be asking for her hand.'?"

"Yep." Nathan answered hotly.

"Oh, boy."

"Yep."

David sent a quick text to Dylan. U alive? Stealing Cinderella was a dumb move.

The response came quickly. I no. Elope before he gets home?

U do, u r dead.

No that 2. Joking. Help?

David laughed mirthlessly. How?

U have daughter. Connect with him or something.

Not helping ur case. I'd kill that boy 2.

David! Please! Help! Need him in a good mood 2night.

2night?

The talk.

Didn't need to no that.

U asked.

U didn't have 2 answer.

David! Help!

I try.

Thx.

David put his phone away and turned back to Nathan, who was staring straight ahead.

Before he could even open his mouth, Nathan said, "I saw. Tonight here we come."

David nodded. "Yep."

Dylan was sitting on the front porch steps when Adam and Nathan pulled up after work. Adam looked at Nathan, giving him a look that said good luck. Nathan looked at Adam and took a deep breath, and got out of the truck. He looked at Dylan and nodded towards the patio table in the yard. Adam clapped Dylan on the shoulder, another silent good luck, and went inside. Dylan stood and sat back down at the table in the yard, choosing a seat facing away from the house.

Smart boy. Nathan sighed internally. Man.

Silence stretched between them before Dylan laughed dryly at himself. "I don't even know what to say. A year and a half in the making, and I don't even know what to say."

"Neither did I." Nathan confessed with a small smile, remembering that evening with William Barrett. "William was nice to me though."

"William Barrett?" Dylan asked incredulously.

"Yeah. He's Kayla's dad. You didn't know that?"

"No."

"The kids call him grandpa." Nathan pointed out.

"I thought that they meant because he was so close to you."

"Nope."

Dylan nodded. "Hm. So… what did he say to you?"

Nathan sat back in his chair, taking a deep breath. "He told me that he knew what I was there for, "so why don't I just save us both the trouble and give you my blessing?'"

Dylan's jaw dropped open. "He did that for you?"

Nathan laughed and nodded. "He did. I think he felt sorry for me."

Dylan nodded, his gaze finding his hands. "That makes sense. Listen, Nathan… I know that Jade's your daughter, and, maybe, in the smallest way, I get that, being around Isabel, Olivia, and Bethany. But she and I have been together so much, with the kids, and the house and everything else, that, on a certain level, I feel like she's… well, like she's my wife. I don't want a day without her anymore. Ever again. I… I want to marry her." He corrected himself. "I want your blessing on our marriage. We both do."

Nathan laced his hands behind his head. "Then you have it."

Nathan had no idea why Dylan looked so surprised. "I do? We do?"

Nathan nodded, letting the smile stretch across his face. "You do."

"We do. We do!"

"Aren't you going to go tell her?"

"Nope." Dylan sat back in his own chair.

"Well, why not?"

"I haven't asked her yet. That's on tomorrow's 'to do' list."

Dylan was awake early the next morning. He had work in a few hours, but until then, he went about his normal routine. He was dressed and getting out the ingredients for breakfast when Jade bounced into the kitchen.

"Good morning!" she greeted him with more cheer than morning usually gave her.

"Good morning to you too." Dylan returned the greeting with his back to her, head in the refrigerator. "Hey, your birthday present is on the table. Or did you forget this birthday too?"

Jade laughed. "Nope."

Dylan put the carton of eggs on the counter and turned to watch her unwrap the package. He noticed that she was wearing the yellow dress that Amanda had bought for her for the previous year's birthday present. Jade looked with interest at the four imprinted leather notebooks, red, yellow, green, and blue. Dylan had asked a family friend to put the designs on them. He absently wondered if she recognized her own doodles on the covers. He saw the moment that she did.

"Oh, wow… Dylan! I love them!"

He smiled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Open them."

She gave him a strange look, but complied. She opened the red one. The cover had on it a couple of well-known Scripture passages and a crown of thorns. She gasped when she saw that his hand-writing filled the pages.

"Dylan…" she whispered.

She moved onto the next one. Yellow – comedy - with a sunflower and a couple of snippets of poetry on the cover. It too was filled with his careful handwriting, the neatest he could muster.

The green one – he had looked for a long time to find one that was jade - had a pen and inkwell on it and a few more lines of poetry. This notebook was part inspirational, part Jade's writings. Her mouth dropped open as she flipped to the second half of the book and noticed that fact. His smile just widened.

And then she reached for the last one. Blue – romantic stuff. It had a picture of the back of a bride with her veil on, and a few quotes on the cover. He swallowed hard, shifting as she skimmed through the notebook. He knew that she always read the back of the book first, and since it was the back of the last book that he wanted her to see, it stood to reason that she'd see it any time now.

"Read me some of it?" He asked, sitting in the chair across from her at the table.

She smiled at him and asked, "These are a replacement for my "Treasury of the Familiar," aren't they?"

"Something like that. It was the first thing that you mentioned wanting after the fires."

Dylan bit his lip when she flipped, predictably, to the last page of the book. He sat quietly as she read a poem, and then perked up as she read:

"And the most necessary quote to a relationship:" She smiled at him reading that. "'Will you marry me?'" her voice got quieter and quieter as she read, "quote by Dylan Mitchell, August 13, 2013." She turned hopeful, tear-filled eyes back to him. "Dylan?" she whispered.

"Well," he asked. "Will you? Will you, marry me, Jade Hayes?"

She nodded, saying past her tears, "Yes."

He smiled. "Thank you."

She laughed and wiped her tears away. "Now what?"

"Now you switch the claddagh."

"Oh yeah."

She took the ring from her right hand, pointing inward – in a relationship – and put it on her left hand, the tip of the heart pointing outward – engaged.

"Now we wait and see when they notice."

This is the last story in my Dylan/Jade trilogy. Please review! Thanks! And thanks for sticking with me throughout this trilogy!This story is getting to the end.:)

EncouragingWord: I have Dylan's birthday in May, which means that he'd
be seventeen and three months older than Jade.