“It had to, didn’t it?” I replied, almost to myself.
We got out of the car, and Bree sidled up beside me and whispered, “Are you ready for your secret stuff for this weekend?”
“Yeah, Cher,” I replied, my eyes staying on my target as I hurriedly walked to the front door. “I’m ready.”
It swung open as I reached for the handle, and there he was.
Smiling. Whole.
Mine.
I walked him straight back to our—for now—bedroom and tasted his soft gasp as I took his beautiful face in my hands and kissed him soundly.
I was definitely going to be late for my meeting.
Liem
The Labor Day parade was in full swing, and it was sweltering. Sweat dripped down my face and spine, and the circulation provided by my expanded armholes hardly did a thing.
“Ti Bet,” Cody groaned as he greedily took in my exposed skin.
Ah. Except drive Cody wild. That was a thing they did.
“Yes, Dezi?” I inquired innocently as he pulled me through the rows of tents and vendors.
His beautiful hazel eyes narrowed on me as the crowd swarmed, and he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side. “Stay close,” he murmured in my ear.
Always.
I wasn’t sure where he was taking me, but this morning, he’d woken up more excited than I’d ever seen him.
We’d woken up early as we always did and had watched the sunrise from the houseboat’s deck. Then, in a move also very unlike him, he’d talked me through a schedule for the day. But he balanced the scales when he—in a moveverylike him—backed me against the wall, just out of sight of any neighbors, and kissed me senseless.
In multiple places.
Afterward, he’d reiterated how concerned he was about being downtown right at noon and had even set an alarm on his smartwatch to remind himself of it as we cleaned up. Then he had acted quite curiously when the alarm had gone off.
“Don’t tempt me, Ti Bet,” he’d said as he scrunched his eyes closed and covered the top half of his face with his tanned hand. “No talking, no touching. I don’t want to be late.”
And we hadn’t been, making it to the festival right at noon, but goodness, his keyed-up energy had not waned.
The cotton of his sleeveless shirt pressed against my bare sides as he guided me straight through the crowd and to Bay Hall. He positioned his hands on my hips then and guided me in front of him as we walked up the ramp—it still looked as fresh as it did on the day it was unveiled back on Memorial Day, and Cody low-key presented it to me and my entire family and?—
Ahh.I saw now what his energy reminded me of.
Memorial Day. That one day, at the end of May, when Cody had gotten both of our families together for a surprise birthday lunch for his dad and guided us afterward to Bay Hall for ice cream. I tugged him to a stop at the top of the ramp, smiling at the memory of Jeanne’s kids swarming Cody during the lunch and continuing to the entire way down the street.
His patience had never waned with them, and I suspected it wasn’t even tried. He was just like that with them by nature. Eyeing the man beside me, I suspected he was going to be such a wonderful father one day, and it was a dream I carried deep in my heart to be one alongside him.
Stepping up to him, I lightly pressed my toes to the top of his running shoes as I looked up at him. “What have you done, hmm?”
He smiled nervously but held my gaze, the greens of his hazel eyes bright and beautiful. I hadn’t a clue if he knew that his last grand gesture—joining the BTB committee and employing the power of public pressure to make the entirety of downtown Bay Springs accessible—was what had brought me back to life.
That it was the reason I’d finally reacquainted myself with charcoal, paper, and the ink-blue dawn.
“Baby,” he said quietly, almost vulnerably as he pulled on my braid. “Follow me inside?”
I laced my fingers through his, brought our hands to my mouth, and kissed his knuckles. “Yes,” I answered and then sealed it with one more kiss to the center of his hand. “Lead the way.”
