Page 109 of Code Name: Scorpio

“You? You built a computer sequence. You regularly can’t figure out how to turn on a computer.”

He fought back a grin. This woman. She was everything in the world to him. The nerves he had earlier disappeared.

“Cassie.” He held her eyes. “Just check my sequence.”

She studied him for a long moment, then sat back and folded her arms. “Fine. Go.”

“Okay. Now I’m not as good at this sequencing stuff as you, brainiac. So let me get all the way through it before you interrupt me and start telling me how things can be changed.”

She leaned forward, grabbing his hand. “Ryder, did you really work on a computer sequence? You know I would’ve helped you. Whatever it is, we could’ve worked on it together. If you want to learn, I’m happy to teach you.”

“This one, I needed to do myself. Humor me.”

“Okay.”

He put his hand on the salt shaker. “Step one. Fall in love with the woman who corrects my sequences at two in the morning.”

Cassandra froze, dropping her arms from her chest. She had clearly put the pieces together five words in, exactly as he expected she would.

Moving his fingers to the pepper shaker, he kept going. “Step two. Blow the whole thing up as spectacularly as possible.”

She let out a choked sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Ryder.”

“I’m running the sequence, Cass. You said you’d let me finish.” He touched the sugar caddy. “Step three. Get lucky enough that she doesn’t give up on me anyway.”

His hand slid to the first pink packet. “Step four. Tell Ian I’m not leaving. Zodiac, Rogue, whatever assignment he throws at me, just as long as I get to come home to her at night.”

He got to the fork. His hand hovered over it a beat too long.

“Step five. Quit waiting for her to walk away.” He touched the knife next to it. “Step six. Trust her when she says she is here to stay.”

Her eyes had gone bright. She didn’t look away from him once.

He reached into his pocket and set the ring at the end of the row, next to the knife.

It was simple, just a clean gold band holding a solitary diamond. After wasting three weeks rejecting dozens of overly ornate displays, he had finally spotted this piece. It didn’t look like an exhibit behind glass; it just looked like her.

“Step seven.” A sudden rasp caught in his throat. “The entire sequence is nonnegotiable.”

Cassandra locked her gaze on the gold band, completely frozen as her breath caught fully in her chest.

Then she looked back at him.

“You skipped a step,” she said.

He stared at her. “I did? What?”

Trust her to find a bug in the code. He really should have anticipated the critique before he even walked into the building.

“You didn’t actually ask me anything.”

That definitely was a bug in the code, but one he was going to rectify right now. He picked up the ring and got down on one knee in front of her. “Cassandra Leuenberger. Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She was already reaching to cup his jaw and kiss him. “Obviously yes, princess.”

He took her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. The metal caught briefly against her knuckle as their trembling fingers fought for coordination.

Raising her hand into the space between them, she angled her palm until the solitary stone caught the glare from the corner lamp. Her gaze drifted back down to the rigid line of salt shakers, forks, and the fresh gap left at the very end as he sat back down.