Page 12 of An Ex Affair

Someone was out there.

I shoved my feet in a pair of flip-flops, told Hayes to hold down the fort, and snuck out the back door in my underwear. Thieves might think little old Sofia lived on this property by herself, making her an easy target, but I was about to teach them a lesson they’d never forget.

CHAPTER FIVE

Tully

PAST

The grassalways tickled my neck. Colson put down towels for us on the riverbank after we went swimming, but with all the kissing and rolling around we did, I always ended up on the grass.

“That one looks like a bunny!” I lazily lifted my arm and pointed out the fluffy white cloud in the shape of a rabbit. The swimming and sun had gotten to me. I could take a nap snuggled up to Colson.

He snorted and pointed at the cloud behind it. “That one looks like a pair of boobs.”

I sat up on my elbows and glared down at him. His skin was bronzed from all the afternoons we spent at the river. Colson had been working for the forest service each morning over the summer, making extra money and putting on muscle I particularly liked.

“Colson Wolfe! Watch your mouth or I’ll be telling your mama!”

I would not be telling Gigi any such thing, but a little threat here and there helped to keep him in line.

Colson gave me that grin that always made my insides flutter. “Not my fault you have such pretty boobs it’s all I can think about.”

We’d taken things to third base at the beginning of the summer. I knew I was torturing him with my insistence on waiting until we were adults. I knew Joey and Gabi had already gone all the way, but I figured I was worth waiting for. And so far, Colson had agreed.

“All you can think about is boobs? Really?” I sat up in a huff.

Colson sprang to his feet and pulled me upright, wrapping his arms around my waist so I couldn’t run off. “You know I think about more than that. I spend equal amount of time dreaming about turning eighteen and asking you to marry me.”

That had my heart melting. “Go on…”

His lips hooked to the side. “Every night when I go to sleep, I think about you in a white dress walking down the aisle toward me. You with my ring on your finger. The house I’m going to build you. I think about you all the time, Tully Cassio.Allof you.”

He dipped his head and kissed me. My mind spun, and like it always did, time stretched out to where nothing outside of Colson mattered. He pulled back eventually, gazing down at me with so much love in those golden eyes.

“Would you be mad if I said I don’t want a traditional wedding?” I asked, giving voice to the niggling doubt in the back of my head. I liked Colson’s vision for us. Except for that one detail.

His eyebrows drew together. “You don’t? Why not, princess?”

I licked my lips and tried to explain why it sounded like something I wanted to avoid. “Gabi keeps talking about marrying Joey. She even has a binder with all these magazine clippings of everything she wants at her wedding.” Colson nodded, following along.

“But there’s this one page and it has a man in a tuxedo with the bride holding his elbow as they walk down the aisle.” My heart twisted in my chest. Grief built up so badly I felt like it might crush me. “My daddy can’t be there, Colson.”

My father had died one day at work when I was eight. Heart attack, they said. Mama had never been the same. Life changed for all of us that day. Mama quit her job at the high school and stayed home baking so many pies, I had to start giving them out to friends or risk the house being overrun with sugary goodness. I had to take over paying the bills and buying groceries. Mama quit leaving the house altogether. Her friends had rallied around her, though, in true Blueball fashion. At least one came by every day to check up on her. Colson and Gabi had been the ones to check up on me.

Colson’s arms went tight around my waist. “I understand. We’ll do a courthouse wedding.”

I stared up at him, my eyes filled with tears. “Really? You don’t mind?”

Nobody in Blueball did courthouse weddings unless they were pregnant and needed that piece of paper quickly and without a lot of gossip.

Colson dipped his head again to look me square in the eyes. “I will do anything for you, princess. Just say the word and it’s done.”

PRESENT

SeeingColson after all these years had caused a headache to bloom. I changed into comfy sweatpants and a tank top, then told Mama all about our run-in at the fire station. She’d been angry at me for fighting with him.

“I will never understand you two.” She shook her head and went back in the kitchen to prep for tomorrow’s pie baking.

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