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She sighs the sweetest sigh, which has my cock twitching in my shorts.
Carys moves away and presses her fingers to her soft lips. “You’re mine today?”
My hand runs up her bare leg and under the tee until it’s splayed against the soft skin of her back. “I’m yours, period.”
“But you won’t be here.” Her pointer finger runs along my lower lip as she bites down on her own.
“It doesn’t matter where we are. I’m yours, Carys. You were made for me.”
She leans her forehead against mine. “Really good answer, Coop.”
* * *
“Come on, future baby momma. Just sing something.” Fucking Axel. I kick his leg off the firepit in the backyard as everyone but me laughs. Trick strums the guitar he grabbed from his room earlier, hoping to coax Carys into singing.
We’ve been out here for hours. Ford’s wife, Jess, brought more food than even a SEAL team could eat. Some of the guys have surfed. There’s been a cornhole tournament and a lot of ragging on each other, like only brothers can get away with. But now, we’re all chillin’ in the yard. Relaxed. Carys is sitting next to me with her legs thrown across mine. Her head is tucked under my chin, and my arm is wrapped around her protectively. I don’t want to let her go.
Trick strums a familiar chord, and Carys glares at Emerson. “You told him my favorite song?”
Emerson giggles. “Maybe.”
She kisses my chin before taking a sip of her water and nodding toward Trick. And when she opens her mouth without ever lifting her head from my shoulder, so many memories come crashing down on me.
How could I have forgotten this song?
This woman sang this song in the car so many times in high school. Whenever Murphy was driving and she was with us, she was singing this old eighties song about living forever young, and damn, if it doesn’t make me nostalgic for home and the years before life got so fucking complicated.
The years before I started hiding something this big from my closest friends.
The years before I knew I was sacrificing one relationship at the altar of another.
But it only takes one look at my girl to know there’s nothing in the world more important than this.
Standingoff to the side while I watch Cooper’s teammates say goodbye is excruciating. My head has throbbed all day already. But between that and the emotions running rampant now, I’ve got nothing left. My heart feels like it’s going to break in two, and I don’t know how I’m going to survive.
Okay... I realize I’m being overdramatic, but I don’t care. This is awful.
Ford’s wife, Jessica, walks over to me and laces her fingers through mine before she squeezes. We’ve only met a few times, but the look on her face tells me everything I need to know before she says a single word.
“You’ll get through this. And if you need help, I’m here.”
I hold back the first tear that’s fighting to fall, knowing if I let it break free, there won’t be any stopping the rest for hours.
I refuse to cry until after he leaves.
No matter how much I want to.
Axel throws his arms around me in a big bear hug. “You call me if you need anything, baby momma.”
“Fuck off, Axe.” Rook shoves him off me, then blocks me from Axel’s view. “You need anything, you call any one of us. Even Axe. But know if you call Axe, he’s never gonna shut the fuck up about it.” It’s the most words I’ve heard him speak since I met him months ago. And his piercing eyes hold me hostage as he leans in and whispers, “Don’t let Sinclair see you cry. This is killing him already.” He straightens to his full height and puts his hand out. “Give me your phone.”
“What?” I look past him and see Cooper smiling at us, then hesitantly pull my phone from my shorts and place it in Rook’s palm.
He takes it, holds it in front of my face until it unlocks, then his fingers fly across the screen. After a moment, he does something on his own phone and hands mine back to me. “All our numbers are saved in there, including Jessie’s.” He smiles warmly at Ford’s wife, something I didn’t know this scary man was capable of. “I’ve got your number saved and added you to our tracking app.”
“You what?” I must have heard him wrong because who would do that without permission and then tell you it’s done? “Tracking app?”
“Don’t worry. We won’t use it unless we need to, and if we need to, trust me when I say you’ll want us to have it.” Rook pockets his phone and walks away as if he didn’t just add a goddamned tracker to my phone.
