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“How do I look, Uncle Owen?” I can hear the waver in her voice.
“Tessa,” he says again.
I hand him my tissue.
“You look like the very best parts of your mom. So beautiful. So grown up.” Tessa gives a watery laugh.
“No,” Brontë blurts out. “No crying. I’m not spending another hour touching your face up.”
She does the trick of breaking the moment. Everyone laughs. Then the pictures begin. Colton shyly presents her with the corsage he’s been clutching. He looks like he just won the lottery. In my eyes, he did.
My dad, true to form, takes at least a hundred photos with his camera. The kids are posed in front of everything under the sun, including several taken in the yard. I’ve tried pointing out it’s already dark, but he assures me his camera can handle it.
Finally, Owen and Justin (Colton’s dad) manage to get them loaded into Justin’s car. They drive away with my dad in the middle of the street snapping photos.
“I can’t believe how old she’s getting,” Owen says, wrapping his arm around me as we watch the taillights disappear. My family disappears back inside to scavenge the snacks. “Thank you for giving her this.”
“Thank you for becoming a part of my life. For bringing Tessa into it.”
“We’re like a goathead sticker. Hard to get out once it’s there. You’re mine. I’m not letting you go now. Neither is Tessa.” He pulls me into his arms. His warm lips press against mine. “Now, if I can just get these people to go home, we have several uninterrupted hours of wicked naked time.”
“Hmm,” I say, considering. “We could always slip away to Brontë’s and have wicked, naked hot tub time.”
“So, a little breaking and entering is what you’re proposing?”
“Are you in?”
“Hell yeah, I’m in,” he answers with a grin.
Grabbing his hand, we race off toward my sister’s house. He pulls me to a stop suddenly. His lips are on mine, his tongue exploring my mouth.
“You never have to ask,” he moans when he pulls away. “I’ll always be all in.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask, pulling away. “You’ll have to be fast to catch up with this wild child.” I turn and sprint for the hot tub.
“Challenge accepted,” he yells.
I smile, hearing his boots racing after me. When did we fall in love, you ask? I think it was somewhere between the firecrackers and jumping off the cliff into the freezing water. Would I change anything? Never, because everything before led me to this place. And this is a pretty damn good place to be.
Owen catches up and sweeps me up into his arms with a laugh. Yep, a pretty damn good place.
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