Page 71 of Four-ever Single

Standing behind her with his head lowered stood a man I quickly recognized. I leaned forward, trying to see his face, but the way my skin prickled, I already knew.

“You’re the guy who’s been following me around town,” I whispered loudly, shocked to finally see him again. Every time we thought we had him, he slipped into the darkness, disappearing into thin air.

“You’ve been following her?” his mother snapped, reaching around and grabbing his arm and yanking him so he stood in front of us. She was terrifying, and even though he wasn’t a young kid, he still seemed as afraid of her as I was.

“Speak up when I’m talking to you,” she demanded through gritted teeth.

“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured, still looking down at the floor.

“Nope. You do not look at the floor while speaking. You look her in the eye and explain yourself. You were raised in God’s house, and I will not have you runnin’ around, acting like a hellion. Look her in the eyes and explain yourself. Right now.”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, looking up at me.

The same green eyes that had been bothering me for over a month now looked at me, but this time, they didn’t spread fear throughout me as they did before. It was different. He wasn’t as old as I thought, maybe early twenties, if that. Not much older than I was.

“For what, Edward? What are you apologizing for?” She looked at me and shook her head. “I swear, sometimes I wonder if he was raised in a barn. He can be smart as a whip but loses his mind when a pretty girl is involved.”

I bit down on my tongue to keep from laughing. I kinda liked his mom, and from the looks of it, she was going to put him in his place.

“I’m sorry for following you around and freaking you out,” he replied quietly.

Gone was the intimidating, creepy guy who had surprised me in this restaurant not that long ago. In his place was a timid kid who didn’t look like they could be menacing if they tried—though I knew how he had acted when his mother wasn’t around.

“Louder.” His mother smacked the back of his head. “You know how to talk to a woman, so act like it.”

“I’m sorry for following you around town,” he said louder, practically yelling as everyone turned to look at us.

“And?” she pushed, nudging him with her arm.

“I’m sorry for scaring you and sending the emails.”

“Which ones?” I asked, tilting my head.

“All of them.”

“Did you keep making new email addresses every time I blocked you?”

He nodded, only to be smacked in the back of the head again.

“Boy, we’re gonna have a come-to-Jesus meeting when you get home. I didn’t raise you to act like this.” She glared at him before turning to me. “I swear, they turn eighteen, and all common sense and logic falls out of their head. I’m sorry my son has been such a pain in the ass and caused you so much stress. I guarantee you it won’t happen again. I didn’t know any of this was going on until I caught him—well, we won’t say what he was doing to pictures of you. When I confiscated his phone, I was disturbed by what I found, and rightfully so.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” I said, trying not to laugh as she grabbed the phone from the table and shoved it at him before pinching his ear and dragging him away.

“Well, I guess that solves that,” Lia said, leaning back as she popped a chip into her mouth.

“Yeah, but there’s still one big problem that we haven’t solved yet,” I replied, looking over at Kensy. “What’s the best part?”

“We’re getting married in Hawaii!”

We all squealed and shrieked with excitement as I looked over and found the guys watching us with huge smiles on their faces. Maybe things were going to be alright after all.

Epilogue

Bella

Nine Months Later

I walked through our house, my fingers lightly tracing over the framed photos on the wall in the hallway as I headed to the guest bedroom that was currently being turned into a nursery. After we finally went to Italy in December so I could gather the things my grandma left, we took a slight detour and spent two weeks exploring while enjoying our honeymoon.

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