Page 9 of Meant for Stone (Meant For)

“I went running,” he tells me, and I just stare at him. “What is that smell?”

I lift my arm. “Probably me.”

“Okay, let’s get you up and in the shower,” my mother urges. “Unless you can stay longer.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I have to be back in the office tomorrow.” I move out of bed, but it takes me like five minutes because I have to stop twice.

“What a wedding,” I declare, looking at my parents. “Thank God she said yes. Can you imagine?” I shake my head when I finally put my feet on the carpet. “What were you guys going to do?”

“She wasn’t going to say no.” My father is quick to say, “She loves him.”

“I don’t know why, but who am I to judge? In my last relationship, he was more interested in his cat cam than me standing there naked. I was doing cartwheels, and he was ‘look at my cat.’” I shake my head. “He should have looked at this cat.” I point at my vagina.

“La-la-la-la-la.” My father puts his fingers in his ears. “There are things I don’t want to know.”

“Dad, I’m a single woman in my prime,” I remind him. “This is when I’m supposed to make mistakes.”

“Yes,” my mother adds, “make the mistakes, but can we also talk about Stone?” I stop moving and look over at her.

“What?” I pretend not to know what she’s talking about. “Who?”

“Oh, please.” My mother rolls her eyes at me. “The man who followed you around all night, making sure you didn’t fall on your face.”

I put my hand to my chest, the pounding in my head moving to my rib cage. “No, he wasn’t.” I shake my head. “He was following Zoey around.”

“Sure, if you say so.” She appeases me, smiling before she walks over to my dad, grabbing his hand.

“You and Stone?” my father says, shocked. “I didn’t even know you knew him.”

“I don’t.” I hold up my hands. “I’ve met him twice.” I avoid looking at their eyes. “Now can I shower, please?”

“I’ll bring you coffee,” she says, and I smile at her.

“You’re the best mom in the whole world,” I say. “If Dad ever hooks up with another girl, we’ll put shrimp shells in the curtain rods.”

“Good God,” my father moans, then looks at my mother with a stern look on her face. “Why would you tell her that?”

“There is nothing wrong.” She smiles up at him and gets on her tippy-toes to kiss his lips. “We ended up together.”

“Thank God for that.” I hold up my hand. “And to think, I was the fastest swimmer.” Throwing my other hand in the air, I spout off, “I think I’m still drunk.”

“You think?” my father mocks me before he turns and walks out of the room with my mother.

I walk over to the bathroom and painfully, ever so painfully, get in the shower. I have to sit down midway just to get my bearings for a bit, and I think I even nap. Needless to say, when the car comes to pick me up two hours later, I still feel drunk.

Kissing my parents goodbye, I head to the car. I’m wearing gray sweatpants that are tight at the ankle and a white T-shirt. My hair is in a ponytail, and I stole a baseball hat from my father while sunglasses block out the light. I don’t even bother conversing with the driver like I normally do. Instead, I sit with my head back and my eyes closed. When we get to the private plane, I get out and grab my purse and backpack, then walk up the four steps. “Welcome, Ms. Beckett,” the flight attendant greets me.

“Hi,” I mumble, trying not to sound like I’m dying, but I think I actually am. I walk over to the couch on the plane and sit down. “Is it okay if I lie down?” I ask, and she nods.

“Your father sent this,” she offers, taking out a brown bag, and you can see the grease stains on it. “A double cheeseburger and fries.”

“I love him.” I hold out my hand to her. “He’s the best dad in the world.”

I pull out my phone and I’m about to text him when I see my lock screen is a picture of Gabriella and Romeo with all of us around them. I’m standing next to Romeo, holding his arm, and Stone stands beside me, his hand on my hip, while he smiles at the camera. I have to say he has to be the hottest one in the bunch, and that’s saying something. I open it and text my father.

Me: You’re the best dad in the world. I don’t care what anyone else says.

Opening the bag and grabbing the burger, I decide to go through my camera roll. I groan as soon as I see the first picture of me trying to take a selfie with someone. It’s blurry, and all that’s there is my shoulder. I swipe and see a bunch taken on the dance floor. I have to give it to Gabriella’s family—they can party. Everyone was there, and, by that, I mean everyone; not one person from the family was missing. It was enormous and overwhelming and, at the same time, so fucking amazing. The love they have for each other is hands down something you see in movies and think it can’t be real, but it is. Swiping, I see there is one with me in it, and I don’t even know what move I was doing. But I was holding my dress up in my hands, and I’m squatting with my bare feet. I take a bite of the burger at the same time the plane door closes, and I see I’ve taken a candid snapshot of Stone.

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