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We stared at each other, neither one of us backing down. I’d known her since we were babies. I’d splashed in kiddie pools, rode around on dirt bikes, taken my truck to the river and gotten so drunk we’d had to sleep it off in the truck bed, watched a million movies, hung out at a million club barbecues, and talked late into the night more times than I could count.
Iknewwhen she was lying.
“Nova!” my brother yelled as he came around the corner. Rumi wasn’t a big guy, he was built wiry like my dad, but when he slid to a stop and stared at Nova, he looked like he could tear apart the world without breaking a sweat. “Who?” he barked.
“Come on,” Emilia said quietly, tugging at my hand.
“Someone hit her in the fuckin’ face,” I argued, following Emilia but glancing over my shoulder at where Nova and my brother stood a few feet apart, glaring at each other.
“Rumi will take care of it,” Emilia said, yanking on my hand.
“I can’t just—”
“You can,” she cut me off. “I’ll talk to Nova about it later. Can’t you see she’s about to cry? She doesn’t want us standing there staring at her.”
“Someone hit her in the fuckin’ face,” I repeated, my free hand clenching into a fist.
“Michael,” Emilia said, spinning to face me as soon as she felt like we were far enough away. “I love you, and I love that you want to protect her, but we’re at the clubhouse. She’s safe here. Give her a minute to deal with your brother, okay?”
“Fine.”
Emilia rolled her eyes. “You think Callie will watch Rhett for a while?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because I planned on seducing you in our spot,” she said, her hands going to her hips. “But if you’re not up for it—”
She screeched as I threw her over my shoulder and stomped toward the back field.
“I love you,” she said, kissing my back as she laughed.
“Love you, too.”
Eventually I set her back on her feet and we walked hand in hand toward the little clearing that we’d made when we were kids.
We already lived like we were married, but I wanted to make it official, so I planned to bring her back again later in the summer when the blackberries were ripe to propose. I could probably put the expensive ass ring on her finger at any time and she’d happily say yes, but I was going to do the whole down-on-one-knee speech thing. She’d probably laugh and tell me to get up, tease me about it later, and tell anyone and everyone about how cheesy I was—but I had a feeling she’d also probably cry a little and I was hoping it would be something she’d remember always.
“You wanna lay out on the hammock after Rhett goes to bed tonight?” she asked easily, swinging our hands back and forth between us.
I groaned theatrically, making her laugh. “You reallydolove me.”
