Page 109 of Together Is Where We Belong

We laid there in silence; crickets chirped in the distance, and I moved to sit up in the back of the truck bed. As much as I wanted to lay out here all night, we should probably head inside and check on Luke.

Leo looked up at me and whispered, “Stay.”

My lips trembled at his plea as I laid back down. He felt around the back of the truck beside me and pulled the blanket he’d laid there that I hadn’t noticed, and covered the both of us.

I laid there all night long, wrapped in his arms, and stayed.

thirty

Leo

After that night in the bed of my truck, I felt like I was on top of the world. Carolina and I had settled into a routine. I hated leaving her and Luke every night, but we agreed that we should take things slow. We hadn’t told anyone we were back together, not that it was a secret since most people had their assumptions, but we wanted to keep it to ourselves for just a little bit.

As the summer neared an end, my parents thought it’d be a good idea to turn our usual Sunday dinners into a cookout by the pool. Carolina had invited a couple of girls she’d befriended at the coffee shop and Brooks invited Callie Jo, one of the bartenders from Whiskey on the Rocks. It’d just be close friends and family there. Luke was excited to enjoy the pool as he ran around the house in blue swim trunks that had sharks on them.

“Slow down, bud,” I warned as he raced past me with a water gun in his hand that he’d wanted to put in the bag Carolina had packed.

She rounded the corner after him, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth. She had on a pale pink cover up with the straps of her bikini top peeking out. She was the most beautiful woman I’d even seen, and I tried to tell her that on a daily basis.

“You ready to go?” I asked as she checked the bag wrapped on her shoulder.

“Yeah, just wanted to make sure I had everything,” she said as she rummaged through it and looked up at me with a smile.

We piled in her SUV and headed off to the ranch, my hand in hers the entire drive.

I parked on the side of the house, and got out of the vehicle and helped Luke out before I opened Carolina’s door and held out my hand.

“Mi lady,” I said, causing her to laugh, and she placed her hand in mine.

Once she was standing, she turned around and grabbed the beach bag that she’d placed between her feet. She threw the strap of the bag over her shoulder, and I grabbed her hand, linking our fingers together.

I felt her questioning gaze on the side of my head as we walked hand in hand around the back of the house, Luke running ahead of us.

We walked down the slight hill, and Carolina stopped and pulled my arm to halt my steps.

“What’s wrong?” I turned around and asked her.

She looked down at our linked fingers then back up at me, but I feigned ignorance and gave her a questioning gaze as I waited for her to explain.

“We haven’t told anyone yet,” she whispered, as if the people down below could hear her over their laughter and the splashing water in the pool.

“Don’t you think it’s about time we do?” I asked her as I stepped into her space to crowd her.

She looked up at me and gulped before she gave a nod.

“Don’t worry about anything. We’ve been here before. They’ll be happy for us. And if they aren’t, who cares. Are you happy?”

She looked up at me and smiled.

“Yeah, I am,” she replied breathlessly.

“Me too. That’s all that matters,” I said as I leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose.

“Now let’s go have some fun,” I said as I pulled on her hand.

We walked down to the pool and joined the cookout. Everyone that was invited was already here.

“It’s about dang time,” Holden shouted and started to clap, causing everyone to turn their heads in our direction.