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Dylan just smiles, shaking his head as he stops between me and Heidi. Mom hands him the jar. He loosens it with a pop before handing it back to her.
“At least your hands work,” Heidi says, backhanding his stomach.
He feigns hurt.
“Oh, his hands work real good,” I blurt out.
“Riley!” Mom squeals.
I cover my face to hide my embarrassment.
“So hot,” Lucy mumbles.
“Gross,” Heidi jokes.
Next to me, Dylan chuckles. I remove my hands and glare at him. Then throw a chip at his head. “What?” he laughs out. “I didn’t do anything!”
He pulls out his phone after it beeps with a text.
I watch his lips curve to a smile as he reads it. “Your other girlfriend?” I ask.
“Wife, actually.” He shows me the phone, a message from Mike O’Brien is on the screen with a picture of him and his brothers and his mom standing in front of a house. The caption reads “Casa de O’Brien.”
“They got the house?” I ask.
“Looks like it.”
Dylan had been talking to Mike a bit lately on Facebook. Yes, Dylan got a Facebook. Apparently Dave’s personals were sent to his family, so he and Dylan have been going through the stuff they received. They were waiting on the gratuity payment to come in so they could move out of their tiny apartment and far away from where Mr. O’Brien could find them and hurt them. In a way, I think it’s kind of therapeutic for Dylan to speak to someone who knew Davey like he did, and not just the Marine version of him.
A car horn has Dylan pocketing his phone. “That’s the guys.”
“And Micky and Amanda!” Lucy says, clapping.
“What are you pretty girls planning on doing tonight?” he asks me.
“So hot,” Lucy whispers.
I laugh. “Not much. Probably talking books.”
“No!” Heidi stomps her foot. “Let’s do girl stuff. Like… Oh my god! Makeovers!”
“We’re not twelve,” I tell her, the same time Mom says, “Yes!” She points to her. “I like your thinking, Heidi. I’ve been wanting to makeover Riley for years.”
“Don’t you change a thing about her,” Dylan says, blocking me from their view.
Lucy sighs. “So hot.”
He turns to me. “Walk me out?”
I take his hand and lead him to the bedroom, where he grabs his bag, and then out of the house, meeting Micky and Amanda on the driveway carrying sleeping bags.
If the guys get to go on a boys’ night out to some cabin in the woods, why couldn’t we have a girls’ night in?
“Hey, Riley,” Jake shouts, waving and grinning like an idiot as he pulls Cameron out of the trunk of his car. Logan and Jake are dressed in black, war paint smeared on their cheeks.
Cameron groans as he finds his feet, his hands tied behind his back, his mouth duct taped and his eyes blindfolded.
“What the hell?” I whisper.
“Quack quack!” Logan yells, ripping the tape from Cameron’s mouth.
Cameron curses and starts kicking Logan’s legs as soon as the blindfold is off him.
“Why are you quacking?” I yell walking down the path toward them.
“Hey Ry,” Dylan says, stopping on the sidewalk. I turn around in time to see him reveal a jar of sugar from behind his back.
“What is that?”
He smiles. “I wanted to give you some sugar.”
I take the jar off him. “Huh?”
Then his arms are around my waist, pulling me toward him. He smiles, right before he dips his head, his mouth warm and soft and wet against mine.
My body melts into his, one arm around his neck, the other too busy holding onto the jar. The force of his kiss has me bending backwards, gasping into his mouth. I smile against his lips as he slowly pulls away.
“Have a good night,” he says, releasing me completely.
“Wait.” I grab his hand. “Did you just tell me you wanted to give me some sugar and then kissed me?”
He laughs, his blue eyes bright against the evening sun. “Yes, Riley. I did.”
“Such a grandpa joke.”
“You love it.” He starts to walk backward, his smile getting wider. “And you love me.”
“I do.”
“And I’m madly in love with you, Riley Hudson.” He stops in his tracks, scans me from head to toe, before running back to me. His hands go to my face, cupping my cheeks and tilting my head up. “Hey, when I get back, maybe we can go away for the night? It’ll be all romantic and stuff. Hearts, flowers, the works.” He presses his lips to mine again. Just once.
I flatten my palms on his chest and look up at him. “I don’t want hearts and flowers, Dylan.”
“No?”
“I want your heart and soul.”
“Well, you already own that.” He smiles before turning around, leaving me standing in my front yard, my smile wide, my heart full and my future walking away from me.
I go to speak, but Cam beats me to it. “Hey everyone! Dylan’s got a boner!”
* * *
Dylan: How’s it going?
Riley: Good. You there yet?
It’s a dumb question. They only left a half hour ago. Still, it hasn’t stopped me checking the phone, checking the time, waiting to see which one of us would crack first. Luckily, it was him. And lucky for me, his texting has gotten a lot better since he started talking more with Mikey.
