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“Yes!” I cheered, lifting my hands in triumph and spinning to face the others, finding Bella groaning in defeat on the floor and Fox shouting his congratulations before trotting after the ball to fetch it.
“She's awesome,” Gracen sang.
I whirled toward him and rolled my eyes. “Quoting The Croods again, huh?”
“I know, right?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “And we're not even in bed together this time.”
His sister made a surprised sound in the middle of pushing back to her feet, and she glanced quizzically between us. Then she shook her head as if she didn't want to know what that meant and announced, “You two are so strange.”
We really were, weren't we? But I loved it.
Appreciating life in general, I threw my head back and laughed. “Isn’t it great?” I told her.
Gracen paused to watch me. He looked so taken with the scene he saw that my chuckle settled into an embarrassed flush until I was tilting my head curiously, silently asking him what he was thinking.
A grin broke across his face. “I…” he called, lifting his voice with each word. “Am...a…cave...man.”
And he charged, coming straight for me until he caught me around the middle with one arm and lifted me off my feet, making me screech in protest and cling to him with a clap of laughter.
As he spun us in a circle, trying to imitate a caveman, I guess, Fox stopped next to Bella and rested the basketball against his hip with one arm as he watched us as well.
“You know, Lowe,” he said, his voice bland. “If you'd like some help, I know a person you could see about those acute cinephile tendencies you have.”
Gracen narrowed his eyes. “Big words make me angry,” he retorted, still quoting the movie. “Keep talking.”
“Ooh, that was a good one,” I praised, cupping his face in my hands to gaze into his eyes with adoration.
He winked. “I could do this all day,” he said, still quoting The Croods.
“Do it for the rest of my life,” I ordered and threw my arms around him, squeezing him tight and never wanting to let go.
He sighed against me and set his face on my shoulder, murmuring, “This is good. What do you call this?”
Stroking his hair, I finished the line, “I call it a hug.”
“My God,” Bella murmured, leaning against Fox as they continued to scrutinize us together. “You two are sickeningly sweet together.” Then she shook her head sadly and looked up at Fox. “I always knew he’d be happiest in one of those sickeningly sweet, everything-is-awesome relationships.”
“Wrong movie,” Gracen said, not even looking her way as he continued to hug me.
“‘Everything is awesome’ is from The Lego Movie, not The Croods,” I explained.
Parker and Bella glanced at each other. “Yeah, you called it,” he told her. “They’re the perfect, nerdy-sweet couple together.” He slung his free arm around her shoulders and clicked his tongue. “Now, are we going to get back to this game, so El and I can kick your asses, or are you twins forfeiting already?”
“Oh, whatever!” Bella spat back, elbowing him in the ribs to nudge him away. “It’s on, buddy. Prepare to bleed.”
“You know…” Gracen scowled at him as well. “I’ve wanted to throw you away ever since I met you.”
Parker furrowed his brow in confusion before glancing at me. “Please tell me that wasn't another line from the movie.”
Grinning, I bobbed my head. “It was. It totally was.”
“Lord.” Groaning, he rolled his eyes and then sent me a questioning glance. “And you claimed this immature dork was a twelve? Really?”
“Huh?” Gracen zipped his attention to me. “Wait. Is that what my Twelve nickname means? You told him I was a twelve? Out of ten?”
I bit my lip and felt a blush coming on. “Maybe.”
He grinned. “Definitely.” Then he pressed his brow to mine and told me, “But just for the record, I think you’re a twelve out of ten, too.” He rolled his brow lovingly against mine and sighed. “Damn, but if this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.”
