Текст книги "Complicate Me"

Автор книги: M. Robinson

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 1 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

Table of Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Epilogue

Connect with M. Robinson

Copyright © 2015 M. Robinson

All rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, dead or alive are a figment of my imagination and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s mind's eye and are not to be interpreted as real.

Boss man. My husband. Best friend.

Thank you for always supporting me in everything I do. I love you.

Dad: Thank you for always showing me what hard work is and what it can accomplish. For always telling me that I can do anything I put my mind to.

Mom: Thank you for ALWAYS being there for me no matter what. You are my best friend.

Julissa Rios: I love you and I am proud of you. Thank you for being a pain in my ass and for being my sister. I know you are always there for me when I need you.

Ysabelle & Gianna: Love you my babies.

Rebecca Marie: THANK YOU for an AMAZING cover. I wouldn’t know what to do without you and your fabulous creativity.

Heather Moss: Thank you for everything that you do!! XO

Silla Webb: Thank you so much for your edits and formatting! I love it and you!

Michelle Tan: Best beta ever! Jen Dirty Girl: I love your voice! And you. Tammy McGowan: Thank you for all your support and boo boo’s you find! You love to give me heart attacks. Michele Henderson McMullen: LOVE LOVE LOVE you!! Dee Montoya: We’re are some sexy bitches. Just saying… Roxie Madar: Thank you for your honesty and your friendship. Jessica Winstead: You’re amazing!! Thank you! Rebeka Christine Perales: You always make me smile. Adrian Culbreth Perkins: Your feedback means so much to me!! Mary Jo Toth: Your boo-boos are always great! Argie Sokoli: Thank you for coming in like a boss and getting it done! Ella Gram: You’re such a sweet and amazing person! Thank you for your kindness. Michelle Kubik Follis: You always make me laugh!! Kimmie Kim: Your friendship means everything to me. Tricia Bartley: Your comments and voice always make me smile!! Isabel Montes: Thank you so much for helping me find a title for this book! I appreciate it so much!

To all my author buddies: T.M. Frazier: I love you, you Ginger. Jettie Woodruff: You’re my sister from another mister. K. Webster: I love your face! Stevie J. Cole: You’re a whore. The end.

The C.O.P.A Cabana Girls: I love you!!

To all the blogs A HUGE THANK YOU for all the love and support you have shown me. I have made some amazing friendships with you that I hold dear to my heart. I know that without you I would be nothing!! I cannot THANK YOU enough!! Special thanks to Totally Booked for sharing my exclusive prologue reveal and Like A Boss Book Promotions for hosting my tours!

Last, but most definitely not least, to my VIP GROUP. Oh my God ladies…words cannot describe how much I love and appreciate every last one of you. The friendships and relationships that I have made with you are one of the best things that have ever happened to me. I wish I could name each one of you but it would take forever, just please know that you hold a very special place in my heart. You VIPs make my day, every single day. THANK YOU!!!

“You look beautiful, Alex,” Lucas whispered from behind me, his voice broken and torn. The errors of his ways finally catching up with him, it was evident in his tone. It pained me to hear him sound like that, no longer the carefree boy I grew up with.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” I replied, trying to keep my own voice from breaking. The physical ache surrounding and consuming me in ways I never thought possible. The gravitational pull we had toward each other wreaking havoc on our souls.

This wasn’t supposed to be this hard. Today was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life. I should be celebrating, not wallowing in the memories that I hold so deeply in my heart and soul. I hadn’t seen him all night and then he just appeared out of nowhere.

I blinked and he was there.

I felt him from across the room before I even found his stare. I didn’t think he would show up, I should have known better. He always did what he wanted, since we were kids there was no telling him what to do. It’s one of the things I hated the most about him.

“I’m not,” he simply stated, the fervor of his voice radiating from behind me and burning a hole in my back.

“Are you happy?” he added.

I closed my eyes as a single tear fell down the side of my face. I had spent endless nights crying over him.

Over us.

“I just want you to be happy, Half-Pint.” He hadn’t called me that in years. Not since we were kids.

“Are you happy, Bo?” I countered, throwing his question and nickname back at him, knowing it would have the same effect as it had on me.

“Only you would be standing out on the sand in a dress like that,” he brushed me off, changing the subject.

“I was never afraid to get dirty,” I reminded him, digging my feet into the sand and dragging my dress along with it.

“Always trying to be like one of the boys. What are you doing out here on the beach? You looked so happy until you saw me. What took away your happiness?”

I scoffed. “Do you even have to ask me that? Does it make it easier for you? To be here? To see me like this? Is that why you’re here?”

“It’s never been easy,” he softly spoke.

“What did you expect from me? What did you want me to do, Lucas?”

“You know what I wanted. You’ve known since we were kids and I carried you around on the handlebars of my bike. It hasn’t changed, it never changes between us. You know that as much as I do.”

I wrapped my arms around my torso in a comforting gesture, it didn’t help. Nothing was more comforting than his arms around me.

“Why didn’t you use the abandoned house, Alex?” he quickly followed.

I hated that he knew so much about me, our childhood entwined together like the weaving of a tight rope. Our names being synonyms of each other, there was no Half-Pint without Bo. Except now we weren’t kids, we were just Alex and Lucas.

“You know why,” I softly hinted, my voice catching in the wind and the waves of the ocean.

It was a soothing calm to the chaos all around me, everywhere he went he brought his hurricane with him. He was always the eye of the storm. When we were kids I loved it, I wanted to be pulled into his winds and let him take me wherever he wanted to go. I'd follow him anywhere. But as we got older I realized it was too late for me to seek refuge. He was already my destruction and there was no way to get past the heavy gusts of our complicated love.

“Tell me anyway.”

I shook my head. That was Lucas, true to his nature, wanting what he wanted when he wanted it. “It’s ours,” I admitted, giving in to what he needed to hear from me.  I could never lie to him.

“Damn, you look so beautiful. So damn beautiful,” he murmured into my ear, engulfing me with his scent. I couldn’t move if I wanted to and he didn’t falter. “I know, Alex, I have to live with the fact that I messed up. I lost you.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“You’re lying, Half-Pint. I know you, so stop pretending like I don’t. Do you love him?”

I took in a deep reassuring breath and nodded, not being able to say the words.

“More than me?”

“That’s not fair,” I argued, trying to control the emotions that were threatening to take over by hugging myself harder.

“I never said life was fair.” He brushed my hair to the side of my neck and softly kissed my bare shoulder. I tried not to shudder from the feel of his lips on me.

“You should get back in there, Alex.”

“I know.”

“You know I can’t go in there before you. I can’t walk away from you again. I’ve done that too many times and it nearly killed me the last time.”

“And what makes you think that I can, Lucas? What makes you think that it’s any different for me?”

He turned me to face him and his hand immediately grazed my cheek, gently easing my chin up to look at him. There it was…

Our connection.

Along with all our stolen moments placed in between us.

Then came a cold, distant allure in his eyes when he said…

“I wasn’t the one that said ‘Yes.’”

I love her.

I debated for weeks on whether to attend her engagement party or not. I looked at the invitation so many damn times I had memorized every word.

I sat in my truck for hours, debating on going inside or driving back home. It was near 10 PM when I finally managed to pull myself together enough to walk through the doors and into her future.

A future that didn’t include me.

At least not in the way that I had once hoped it would. We would always be best friends though, over the last few years our conversations and interactions became less frequent, shorter and almost non-existent. I knew every time she looked at me that I had broken her heart. I had hurt her in the worst ways possible and I had to live with knowing I did that. My hand was firmly placed in my pocket, holding the necklace that I had bought her after our first kiss. She wore it for years, until one day she didn’t.

It produced a false illusion that she was still mine.

The second I walked inside I saw her. I stopped dead in my tracks just to take her in, she was a vision. There was no beauty in this world like Alex. She was wrapped around her fiancé, his hands firmly locked in place on the woman that belonged to me. I claimed her a long time ago. She looked breathtaking, smiling at everyone with her long brown hair framing her mousy face and her big brown eyes that always made my heart skip a beat. She wore a long white dress that hung loosely on her body, always a tomboy at heart but still managing to make it look sexy. I remembered a time when she hated dresses, fighting with her mom because she kept buying them for her.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, it took everything inside me not to make a scene. I couldn't control the internal battle that surfaced in the forefront of my mind, it was a tsunami of emotions. I loved her, I knew I loved her, I always have and I always will. She owned every part of me. My heart was hers since before I knew what her having it even meant. But she deserved to be happy, so I had to let her go.

It wasn’t fair to either of us.

Especially her.

She suddenly looked down at the ground as if she felt me. The look on her face exposed the girl I grew up with, the same girl that couldn’t hide her emotions from me. Her face frowned and her mouth parted, instinctively pulling away from her fiancé who didn’t pay her any mind. I didn’t know if she did it for my benefit or hers. Then she looked up and right at me. There was no wandering in her stare as she found mine from the corner of the room. We stood on the dance floor gazing at one another like there was no one else around us, like the room wasn’t filled with our friends and family. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. We had spent over two and a half decades worrying about everyone else’s feelings.

I saw nothing but pure unadulterated fear as she placed her hand on her heart, as if she were trying to hold it together. Slowly breaking her gaze from mine, our connection was broken. It mirrored our love. My feet moved of their own accord as I followed her out to the beach.

Our beach.

Grasping the necklace tighter in my pocket.

We exchanged words that will forever haunt me, adding to the pile of endless confessions, secrets, and betrayals. I inhaled the sweet and tantalizing smell of Alex, the lingering scent of her vanilla shampoo and the sunscreen that I knew she still put on every morning. The smell of her cherry lip-gloss brought me right back to childhood when she used to be mine.

I kissed her because I couldn’t not kiss her.

I pecked my lips on the only spot I knew wouldn’t be crossing the line, even though a line was never drawn.

She belonged to me.

Plain and simple.

Our emotions were running wild, trying to accept the bond our hearts will forever have. We laid our love out for each other years ago. I fought a battle I knew I could never win. The emotional turmoil ate away at me the closer we got to saying goodbye. That’s what happened when two halves of a heart come together and become one.

We would always be linked.

We were destined to be soul mates.

Star-crossed lovers.

When I spun her to look at me, the little girl with pigtails wearing boy clothes was gone and all that was left was…

The woman getting married to a man that wasn’t me.

“Guys, this isn’t fair!” I shouted from below.

“Life’s not fair, Half-Pint,” Lucas called out.

“But I want to play in the tree house, too.”

“Can’t you read?” Jacob yelled, pointing to the crappy sign that looked like it was drawn with women’s lipstick. The bright red, boy handwriting clearly stated, “No Girls Allowed.”

“That’s a stupid rule if I ever heard one. I’m not a girl, I’m one of the boys, exactly how I’ve always been. I’m one of you.”

I put on my best boy stance, as they peered down at me, leaning all my weight on one leg and crossing my arms, giving them one hell of a standoff. If they didn’t let me up there, I would find my own way. Even if that meant I had to climb the tree all by myself. By the look on all four of their faces, they knew it, too.

We grew up in the small town of Oak Island, North Carolina. Our families had all been friends growing up in this Southern beach town. My parents, Nathanial, and Jana owned a restaurant right on the water where I spent most of my childhood along with my four best friends, who all happened to be boys.

Jacob Foster was the oldest. He took on the "Big Brother" role before all of us could even walk. He was thirteen and tall for his age, nearly six foot. He was still a gangly kid, all skin and bones, but with the sweetest smile and vibrant green eyes. He always had a ball cap permanently glued on his head. He was like the poster child for surfing, always wearing all kinds of different surf brands. He protected me fearlessly, but I didn’t need any protection, I could carry my own weight and I often reminded him of that. His parents, Ginger and Lee owned a grocery store up the road, where they sold all kinds of tourist crap and food. They preserved a farm on his grandparent’s old plantation in South Port that they only opened on Sundays. The church folk would gather together and go to town just to get the freshest produce near us. He had two younger sisters, Jessie, and Amanda, who bored me to no wits end.

Why would I want to play with dolls when I could be climbing trees and building forts?

Dylan McGraw was thirteen, just a few months shy of Jacob. They were always the closest to one another. I think it’s because their personalities were somewhat the same, both acting as if we owned the beach whenever kids passed through town on vacation. He was also tall, almost the same height as Jacob, with hazel eyes and skin that tanned like the best of them. He had long blonde hair that went past his ears. His mom was always on his butt to get it trimmed but he refused, saying it was his style. During the summer the sun and salt water would bleach his hair almost white. His parents, McKenzie and Steve mostly worked from home. They had an act for refurbishing old furniture and turning it into something modern, new, and unique. Some of the items were sold in local shops, some from their online store, and some were loaded up and hauled to flea markets, where tourists flocked and overpaid for the quality work. Dylan and I both had the only child syndrome.

Austin Taylor was eleven and the shortest among the boys, although he would punch you in the face if you ever told him that. He was a rambunctious kid that was always trying to make up for the fact that the other boys were bigger than him. He was a cute kid with red hair and green eyes. His mom said he had some Scottish bloodline, hence the red hair. He hated it growing up, but once we reached high school, it had its perks. The freckles on his face became more prominent, which were very enticing to the girls at Oak Island high school. They fawned over him because he looked so different from the other boys around here. He had a baby brother named Hunter, who was five years younger than him.

Last, but definitely not least was Lucas Ryder or Bo, as I called him. It meant commander and that was him to a T– born to lead, not to follow. He was twelve, almost thirteen, and had a temper like no one else I had ever met before though he was always the sweetest boy to me. No one could tell him no and if you did, he would do it anyway just to spite you. We’re the closest to one another. He always looked out for me and defended me when the boys called me a girl. I hated when they pointed out I couldn't do something they could do, just because I didn't have something dangling between my legs.

Who would want that anyway?

Nothing pissed me off more than being called a girl.

I was constantly showing them up because I had to. I was always covered in bruises, skinned knees, and dirty clothes. My hair tied up high on my head, either in pigtails or a ponytail. When I was four years old I took a pair of scissors that I found in my mama’s nightstand and walloped off all my hair, cutting it short just like the boys. From then on out they hid the scissors from me and always tied my hair up, fearing that I would do it again if given the chance.

Lucas was secretly my favorite out of all the boys. You could even go as far as saying that I loved him a little bit more than the rest of them. I didn’t know why, I just did. It had always been that way for me and I often felt like the feeling was mutual. Though we never spoke about it until we were older and understood the emotions that circulated through the years. He was always the most handsome out of all the boys and girls were pining over him since the day he was born. He had dark hair that complemented his baby blue eyes that resembled the ocean water on a warm summer day. He had prominent facial features that I never got tired of looking at, and even at that young of an age, he knew it.

Lucas was just as tall as Jacob, maybe slightly taller. He was built broader than the other boys because he surfed like crazy. All the boys did, but Lucas was obsessed with it. You could always find him on the waves whether it was night or day. He wanted to grow up to be a professional surfer, often riding waves that no one else dropped into and making all of us nervous.

The boy had no fear.

He had a baby sister, Lily, she was a few years younger than me, but we didn’t become friends until much later in life. I swear the girl came out singing with a guitar in her hand, they put her in lessons by the time she was five. Their dad, Dr. Robert Ryder was one of the only doctors we had in town, often seeing patients that weren’t even part of his medical degree, while his mom Savannah was a housewife.

I couldn’t tell you how many times Dr. Ryder stitched us up right in his very own living room, not bothering to take us to his office. Bringing home medical supplies became a thing of the norm since we were constantly getting hurt. I remembered the first time I needed stitches. I was six years old and tried to jump off the riverbank like Dylan and my knee caught the rock at the bottom of the river. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t cry, I never cried. I bit my lip as hard as I could to keep the damn tears from falling down the sides of my face. Lucas tried to sit me on his handlebars, but it hurt too much to bend my knee. So I sat facing him on his lap as he rode his bike home.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on as tight as I could, while my good leg draped over his lower back and my hurt one sat stiff as a board in the air. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, but I couldn’t hold back the tears. I cried the entire way to his house. His shirt was covered in nothing but my sissy tears by the time he parked his bike on his front lawn. He didn’t say a word about it when he kissed my forehead, telling me everything was going to be alright and that he would never let anything happen to me. He carried me inside while the rest of the boys patiently waited for the wrath of our mothers, knowing they would be yelled at for letting me do something so careless.

Lucas held my hand the entire time his dad stitched me up and not once made me feel bad about crying. The rest of the month, while my knee healed, I rode on the handlebars of his bike. The boys continuously offered me to hitch a ride with them, but Lucas was adamant that I was only riding on his handlebars. If they thought he was being possessive over me, they never shared it.

That’s just how we were with each other and they knew it.

And then there was little ol’ me, Alexandra Collins. The truth was everyone thought I was supposed to be a boy, even the doctor. Much to my parents and families surprise I came out a girl, screaming like a bat outta hell to put me back in. My parents already had a name picked out for me. They were going to call me Alexander, Alex for short. Seeing as they didn’t have much time to decide on another name, they wrote down Alexandra on my birth certificate and still called me Alex for short. I grew up with these boys, at ten years old I was a Half-Pint compared to all of them. They had been calling me that since the day we watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie and the dad called Laura Ingalls, Half-Pint.

I never crawled, I went right to walking and my first word was, “Shit.” My mom slapped my dad on the back of the head the moment it came out of my mouth, at least that’s what they told me. Like I said before, I was the only child, Dylan and I had that in common. I never wished for siblings, I didn’t need to I had my boys. I stuck to them like gum did on the bottom of your shoe. One way or another they were my big brothers. I loved each one of them in my own way. The feelings were very much mutual, I would do anything for them and vice-versa. We were best friends, day in and day out.

I stomped my foot on the ground to emphasize my words. “You let me up there! Before I… before I…” I stumbled on my words.

“Before you what, Half-Pint? Go running to mommy and daddy and tellin’,” Dylan shouted.

My mouth dropped open. “I would do no such thing! I ain’t no tattle tale. Now you let me up there, ya hear?”

“Come on, guys, just let her come up,” Lucas reasoned, looking from me to them.

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah come on, guys, just let me up there,” I repeated.

Sometimes they would get a stick up their ass and just want to pick on me for no good reason. I hated when they did this, I think they got a kick out of me not backing down. They wanted to see my feisty spirit, the same one they so proudly claimed was due to them.

Austin rolled his eyes. “I knew you would be the first one to cave!” He pushed Jacob in the chest. “Told ya! You owe me five dollars.”

Jacob glared at him and then back at me. “Fine! We were just teasing you, we were going to let you up here anyway. You’re so easy to tease, being a Half-Pint and all.”

“Yeah, whatever.” I shrugged, brushing him off. “I could take you on any day, just tell me when and where, Jacob Foster.”

“You and what army, Alexandra!”

“Don’t call me that! My name’s Half-Pint.”

Lucas laughed and threw down the ladder for me to climb. As soon as my foot touched the last step he held out his hand for me to take and I smiled as he pulled me up the rest of the way.

“Wow! This is awesome!” I said, looking all around me. They had made it into our own little fort, but their heads barely cleared the roof. I opened the lid of one of the compartments near the front entrance.

“No!” Lucas shouted, shutting it forcefully behind me, making the floor rattle.

The rest of the boys broke out into laughter.

I cocked my head to the side, confused. “What?”

“Nothin’. You don’t need to go in there is all,” Lucas justified.

I put my hands on my hips. “Why not?”

I caught Austin blushing. Jacob and Dylan were grinning like two fools. I thought their faces might get stuck like that.

“What?” I repeated, wanting to know what the big deal was about.

“Just let her look, Lucas, she’s going to find out eventually what’s going to happen to her,” Jacob interjected, making Lucas scowl over at him.

“What’s going to happen to me?” I asked, even more curious than I was before.

Lucas sighed, knowing I wouldn’t back down until I got my answer. He stepped aside and let me open the lid again. I looked down below and all I saw were women’s faces looking back at me. They were barely dressed and posing like something you would see Jessica Rabbit do.

I told them over and over again not to bring those magazines up here. They knew that our Half-Pint shadow would get her way and be up here hanging out with us. Everywhere we went she wasn’t that far behind us. I swear the boys did it on purpose, constantly wanting her to admit that she was a girl and not one of us. We all loved her in our own way, it wasn’t coming from a bad place but she was just a girl, and we never let her live that down.

I loved picking on her as much as the other boys did. I believed it was in my blood to do it. My dad picked on my mom relentlessly, and my grandfather did the same with my grandmother. It was a Ryder trait. If we didn’t pick on our girls, then we didn’t love them enough. My dad constantly reminded my mom that the day he stopped picking on her would be the day he stopped loving her.

I watched her bright brown eyes widen as she picked up the July issue of one of the magazines. She opened the first few pages and gasped letting it go. It fell to the ground at our feet. The guys all busted out laughing and it took everything in me not to kick them each in the balls for what I knew she must have seen.

“Why are they doing that?” she quickly questioned, the subtle red approaching her cheekbones while her stare remained on the magazine laying open on the floor again.

“They’re posing,” I simply replied, knowing it wouldn’t be enough of an answer for her.

“Yeah but why they posin’ like that? They’re naked.” She wouldn’t look up at me and I knew why. She didn’t want us to see her looking embarrassed and insecure. The pigtails on top of her head already made her appear like a child.

I glared at the guys, they all cockily held my penetrating gaze, not paying any mind at how pissed off I was. I had a bit of a temper. I could go from zero to ten in nanoseconds. That was also a Ryder trait.

Dylan patted my back. “It’s alright, Lucas, I’ll tell her. Those women are posing like that.” He nodded toward the ground. “Because men use those magazines to play with their—”

I shoved him and his back hit the wall. He bounced off of it and laughed so hard that he nearly fell over. “Oh come on, Lucas, stop being such a pansy and just tell her. She has a right to know what happens when we all grow up,” he justified, infuriating me further.

“What happens?” her soft voice trailed, making her pouty lips pucker out.

Jacob smiled. “Nothin’ to worry your pint-sized head about. It’s just boy stuff, and one day when Lucas doesn’t get his panties all in a bunch about it we will tell you.”

“But I want to know now,” she replied, looking over at him. I'm not going to lie, it stung like hell that she looked at Jacob but wouldn’t look at me.

Why didn’t she look at me?

“Of course you do. Can I tell her, Lucas? Or are you going to push me again if I do?” Dylan asked, watching me like a hawk.

I shrugged, sweeping the hair back from my face and walking toward the back of the tree house away from all of them. “Whatever.” I leaned against the wooden wall and placed one foot in front of the other, getting comfortable and crossing my arms.

I tried to ignore the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted Alex to stay innocent. We were all changing – our bodies, our needs, our emotions. They were evolving into something I didn’t quite understand yet. It terrified me that she might think less of me if I wasn’t the boy she had grown up beside and loved.

He stepped closer to her and reached for the magazine. “This, Half-Pint, is a nudie magazine. These girls get paid a shit ton of money to show men their bodies.”

Her face frowned, taking in his words. “Why?”

“Why not?”

“I understand why men would want to look at them, I’m not stupid.”

She didn’t get it. She was just trying to save face.

“But why would the women want to be looked at like that?”

“Some women want the attention. One day you’ll look like that and you will understand.”

Her head jerked back, offended. “I will never look like that, Dylan, you’re dead wrong about that one.”

Damn straight she wouldn’t. I’d never let her.

He chuckled. “You will and Lucas over there is going to use you to play with his di—”

“Shut your hole!” I yelled, my fists clenching at my sides.

He cunningly grinned. “You’re too easy, Lucas.” He threw the magazine back in the cubby and put his arm around Alex, tugging her closer to him and kissing the top of her head. “One day you won’t be our Half-Pint. Let’s keep you just the way you are for as long as we can, huh?”

She looked up at him with complete adoration and love. “I’ll always be your Half-Pint,” she whispered, nestling in close to his chest.

I nodded.

She took the words right out of my mouth.