“They would never say no to you,” she tells me, getting out of the truck and walking with me. Her hand is in mine like it’s supposed to be, and I bring our hands to my mouth and kiss her fingers.
“Everyone is going to know we’re together,” I say as we get closer to the backyard, and I hear more voices today than any other time.
“It shows you’ve been away from home for a long time,” she tells me, looking over at me. “The news we were together spread yesterday when you made out with me half the day.” She laughs. “Have you looked around?” she asks, and I finally look around. “Half the town showed up today to see if we’d appear.”
“You think so?” I ask, and when we walk around the corner to the backyard, there is no denying that they are here for this.
“See all the prying eyes.” She leans closer to me, and I stop her from walking and turn her around to face me.
“Well, if they are already talking, we might as well give them something to talk about,” I say, grabbing her face and kissing her lips. “You know, just in case they were confused.”
She shakes her head and just lets me kiss her. We spend the rest of the afternoon getting warm wishes from everyone.
“It’s about time you got your head out of your behind,” my grandmother says to me when I go to say hello to her. She grabs my face, just as she used to do when I was younger. Kallie is the next one to grab us, her smile all over her face as she blinks away tears.
“I knew it would always end up like this,” she says and then looks over at my father, who just stands away. “Jacob, didn’t I tell you?”
He swallows, and the sadness in his eyes hits me in the stomach. I was shot and left for dead. I was beaten to within an inch of my life, and I’ve never felt more helpless than I do at this moment right here. “Great news.” He nods, never making eye contact with me, and he turns to walk away. Kallie blinks tears away, smiling at us, and walks away, slipping her arm with his.
“You need to talk to him.” I hear from beside me, and I smile at Emily, knowing that I have no choice. It needs to be done. “The longer you go, the worse it will be.” I don’t say anything to her, the lump forming in my throat.
My mother comes to us next. “Does this mean I can finally give Emily back her money?” She winks at Emily, who shakes her head.
“That house is mine,” she says, slipping her arms around my waist. The rest of the day slips by, and when we get into the truck, she looks over at me. “Do you want to swing by the house and get the rest of your clothes?” she asks as she fastens her seat belt.
I smirk, turning to her. “Is this your way of asking me to move in?”
She shakes her head and turns to look at me, putting her back against the door. “Is that your way of telling me that I can kick you out?”
“I live there,” I say. “I’ve been living there since Tuesday.” Her mouth opens. “I gave Casey back the key on Wednesday.”
“But you just brought over one bag.” She picks up her hand, showing me one finger.
“That’s all my stuff,” I say. “Never had more than a couple of shirts and pairs of jeans. I wasn’t into material things. Besides, the only thing I had that was of great value to me was your picture, and I carried that with me everywhere,” I say. She gets quiet and looks out the window, and when I pull up to the house and turn off the car, she rips her seat belt off and crawls in my lap, grabbing my face in her hands.
“I want to buy you stuff,” she says with tears running down her face. “I want to buy you sweaters and shirts, an iPad, a laptop, all of it. I’m going to buy it, and we are going to put it in our house.”
“Baby,” I say softly. “I don’t need any of that; I just need you. Besides, my most cherished item is right here.” I rub my nose against her. “Your heart.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Emily
“Wake up.” I hear his voice softly, and I want to push him away. “It’s almost time.”
“For what?” I grumble and cuddle deeper in the bed.
“It’s almost sunrise. Come on, get up so we can go watch it.” He slips his hand around my naked waist. It’s been three days since we’ve been officially back together, three days of waking up with him, three days of cooking for him, three days of him making love to me every single chance he got, even when he came home at lunchtime because he forgot something. Three days of bliss, three days, and it’s like he never left me. “You can sleep when I leave,” he tells me even though he knows I won’t go to bed after he leaves, especially since I have to go clean out my classroom today.