Page 86 of Count On Me

I’m still frowning and can’t let it go. “Do you know what’s going on? What does he want to talk to her about?”

“No idea. Maybe he’s trying to talk her into being your bridesmaid.” He grins and I frown harder.

“What does that mean?”

He tightens his arms around me and laughs softly. “Nothing. Let’s not worry too much about them. I’ve got a surprise for you. Come with me.”

I tilt my head in curiosity, but instead of answering my unspoken question, he just chuckles and grabs my hand and leads me into our garden. It’s the one place I haven’t really sorted yet. Yes, it looks neat and tidy, but there’s so much space. I have a few ideas about what to do in it, but haven’t set anything into motion yet.

Jaxson walks us past the area where I want to plant loads of trees to make a grove. Somewhere I can sit in the summer months that shelters my fair skin from the sun but still lets me enjoy being outside reading one of my books.

He leads me over to the big oak tree and places his hand over my eyes. I giggle and try to pry his fingers apart, but he doesn’t let me. He wraps his other arm around my stomach and pulls myback against his front. I can feel his hard bulge digging into my back and I can’t help but grind back onto him.

“Stop that, Eddie, or I’ll fuck you up against this tree and not care if anyone sees us.”

His words make me stop, half of me terrified he’ll act on his words and the other half excited by it.

“Fine, I’ll behave,” I tell him and he laughs at my pouting.

“I did something for you. You said you wanted a little bit of Syracuse here with you. Climbing the tree in Mama and Pops’s garden provided some of your favourite memories, and I wanted to bring some of those memories to our new home.”

He moves his hands away and places me in front of our tree. He holds his phone up and shines the torch onto it where he’s carved a heart with ‘Jaxy + Eddie 4Eva’ in the centre. The same words he carved into the tree the day before I had to leave to come home. The day I knew I loved him unconditionally and that I wanted no-one else in this world but him. The day I wanted to tell him everything but couldn’t because he lived in Syracuse and I lived in the UK. We were sixteen. Neither of us could leave home to be with the other. So I kept quiet. I said nothing.

“I knew how you felt back then. I felt it too. I wanted to tell you to stay. To live with us. But we were just kids. Our parents would’ve laughed. It wasn’t the right time. So I carved my feelings into the tree. I didn't want to put BFF because you were so much more. I knew we would be us forever. I knew that one day, that tree would mean more. And now we have one in Syracuse and one here. A little piece of our childhood in our own backyard.”

Happy tears fall freely and he wraps his arms around me. He kisses my head, rests his chin on top of it, and his nose goes straight to my hair and inhales.

“I love you, Jaxson Brady. Always have and always will. Forever and eternity. You’ve always been my forever.”

I spin in his arms and look at him, his ocean eyes meeting mine. We don’t speak. I let his eyes tell me everything I need to know. They show me just how much he loves me, needs me, craves me, and I can’t wait to spend our happily ever after together. A fairytale that started when an eight-year-old little girl first saw the dimple-popping American dream in front of her. And one that won’t stop for all of time.

The End

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