He opens the camera and holds out his arm and flips the screen to selfie mode. “Oh my god,” I say, holding up my hand. “I look like a drowned rat.”
“You look gorgeous,” he says, using his other hand to contain my arms. I’m pressed against his chest, squirming to get away while he laughs and kisses my neck. “Summer, it’s just a picture.”
“I know,” I say trying to settle down and push past the anxiety. A photo tying us together makes this real—us real. “Iguess I’m still not used to this. The whole time I was with Mason it was such a secret, and then even with you guys…it’s hard to explain, ‘I’ve got four boyfriends,’ to people. Having concrete evidence feels weird.”
“I can understand that,” he says. “I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t tell my teammates or friends about you at school. Not specifically. I think they all thought I had some online catfish situation going on.”
“What? That’s crazy?”
“We texted and called and I had a few photos, but not much. They wanted to see you.”
“I came to your game, but I know that wasn’t enough.”
“It was. Shit, I was so busy at school I didn’t have time for a girlfriend. Just knowing you were out there meant a lot.” He kisses my jaw. “It may feel like a secret, but really it’s none of their damn business.”
He nuzzles my neck and I relax into him, overwhelmed by the butterflies in my stomach. With my guard dropped he snaps a picture, and I grab the camera to look at it. He caught me in a moment where there’s no panic, just a small smile at him being so close.
“Not bad, right?” he asks.
“How do you do that?”
“Practice.” He shrugs. “I may not be a genius like Pete or a businessman like Justin, but I’m patient and don’t mind taking the time to get something right.”
It’s a stunning statement and proves why he’s good at the things he does. Football, photography, and everything else. Nick was the one that talked me into coming back here and giving the guys a chance.
“They say patience is a virtue.”
His eyes flick to my lips and the boat rocks on the waves of the waterway. He kisses me long and sweet before asking, “Can you be patient while I take these photos?”
I nod. “And if I am?”
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
The promise sends a shiver of anticipation down my spine, but I have no problem waiting on him. I love watching him work, listening to him explain what he’s doing. An idea bubbles in my mind for me to tell Anita.
But it can wait, I think, as the sky turns orange and pink in the distance, because I have other things to do before then.
32
Summer
“I hadan idea about the party for Mom when she gets back,” I say the next morning on the drive to the store. “I think we should let Nick show his photography from the book. We could frame them and hang them on the walls.”
“I love it!” Anita exclaims from the passenger seat. “We can clear the wall by the entrance and hang everything there. This is going to be so amazing.”
“I haven’t told my mom about it yet, I’ll call her today. I think she’ll like the photography concept, too.”
“Good idea.”
I pull into the parking lot. “She and I also have this interview coming up—some mother-daughter thing about us working on the book together and the whole family aspect.”
“It’s so weird having all of this in my life now. Before you guys showed up, it was just me and Bobby and Sibley hanging out in this little town, but now it’s so much more. I have a job and another baby on the way?—”
“I don’t think we had much to do with the baby.”
Her eyes brighten. “In a way, you did. This job gives me the extra money we need to have another baby—which we’ve always wanted. And the flexibility that working at a tourist trap wouldn’t give me.” She looks over at me. “You guys have changed our lives, Summer. I can’t tell you how much it means to us.”
Her honestly slams me in the feels and I blink back a few tears. “You know it’s the same for me. I never had family other than my mom, and now I have so much more. You introduced me to the guys and this whole little corner of the world. I love it so much.” I want to tell her how much I love it—so much I don’t want to go back to Tennessee—but that’s stupid and I’m not a stupid girl that gives up my dreams for a man. Or men. Not anymore. I did that once and it wrecked me.
