Page 98 of Connected By Stars
I shake my head and laugh, not quite believing that everything is out in the open. Jax comes over and slaps me on the back. “Just take care of each other, and everything will fall intoplace. I knew it would take someone special to capture that heart of yours. I don’t think you could have made a better choice.” He bends down and kisses Bell’s head before heading to the cooler.
Our parents join Sophia and Luna in the water as Mimi and Papaw look for seashells.
“They took that better than I expected,” I say when we’re alone on the beach.
“I told you that you had nothing to worry about. They love you almost as much as I do.” She smiles at me, and my heart does that flip that only she can make me feel.
“Come here,” I say softly. I pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. Now that I don’t have to hide anymore, I have every intention of being as close as I can to her. “I’m sorry I got so upset earlier and blurted everything out. It’s definitely not the way I planned to go about it,” I bury my face in her hair. “He just rubs me the wrong way. I’ve had more than a couple of talks with him to stay away from you, and the little fucker just doesn’t take a hint.”
“It’s kind of hot how you’re so protective of me, but you also know that I can take care of myself, right? You have to know that I’m not interested in anyone else and never will be.”
“I know you can take care of yourself, and I also know you want to be with me. I’ve been protective of you my whole life, especially from assholes like him, so it’s going to take some time for me to get used to the idea that guys are still going to look and hit on you even if I am by your side. Just don’t get mad at me if they need a little reminder every now and then of who you really belong to.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” she chuckles. Turning her head, she kisses me softly on the lips.
“Ow! Ow!” I hear Sophia yell from the water. Laughingagainst her lips, we look over and see everyone watching us. Our moms couldn’t be beaming more.
“We better join our nosy and loud family before they start picking out baby names for us.”
She laughs and stands up. “That sounds exactly like something they would do.”
I scoop her in my arms, and she yelps as I carry her to the water. I look down at her with a mischievous grin.
“Don’t you dare.”
“You knew exactly who you were falling in love with, so don’t start being surprised that I would still throw you in even though you’re my girlfriend now.”
“Don’t I get special treatment? I think girlfriends should get a throw pass.”
“Oh, you get special treatment, all right. Those scratches on your back are proof of that.” I give her a wicked grin before she shrieks in the air and flies from my arms into the water.
She comes up laughing and jumps on my back like she always has, trying to dunk me, too, but always failing. I fall on my back, dunking her again as we both go under.
I come up, shaking the water out of my hair. Both of us drenched and laughing.
“I guess some things never change,” my mom says, laughing.
I grab Luna next and throw her before she has time to run from me. “Mav!” She yells seconds before she hits the water. I grin as she comes up, splashing me. I swim over to her and bob in the water, wanting a moment with her. “Are you good with me dating your sister, Lunabug? I feel like I should get your permission since you are my best employee I have.”
She looks to be deep in thought as she thinks about what I said. “Do you love her?”
“I do. Very much.”
“Does she love you?”
“Yeah, she does.” I try to hide my smile at her seriousness.
“Then I’m good with you being her boyfriend. Does this mean you’ll be my brother one day when you get married?”
I choke back a laugh. Leave it to Luna to get right to it. “Technically, I already think of you as my sister, and you always will be, but yeah, if we get married, then I would legally be your brother-in-law just like Emma is your sister-in-law.”
“Cool.” She dives under and swims back to our parents. Well, that was easy. Maybe telling Noah isn’t going to be so bad after all.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Bella
“I can’t see a thing,”I whisper. “Don’t let go of my hand.” We left Mav’s apartment before the sun came up. He took the day off, wanting to spend our last day together before seeing Noah and Emma tonight. I didn’t know it would involve sneaking through his parents’ backyard in the middle of the night.
