Scottie, you should have let me protect you, just this once. What the fuck would I do if he hurt you? Or worse, if he made me do it while he watched?
As if reading my mind, Don Angelo seared images of how it would play out into my mind, saying, "Every time you even think of reassembling the dead man's switch, I want you to picture him on his knees. A gun in your hand, while I make you decide who gets to put a bullet in his brain, you or me. Not his knee caps or his elbows or his ankles like you prefer. His fucking brain. You will live the rest of your life knowing that you have defied me for the last time, all this was for nothing and you can't have Scott."
"How do I know you won't just kill him anyway even if I come back to you?" I asked, defeat settling over me like I knew it would all along.
With Don Angelo getting lost in the crowd, unable to help myself, I gingerly took steps to cross the room to go to Scott. He beamed at me reassuringly and my heart hurt. Was this how it would end? We deserved so much more. As the woman he loved, he deserved all that I was. Am. Will become. Everything that would always be his no matter where I was.&nbs
"I know you don't want me here, but—" he began, his body pressed gently up close against mine as we swayed to the music."I'm glad you came," I said, not adding that he probably saved Jenny's life by showing up at the church."How did it go?" he asked, taking my cheeks into his hands to look into my eyes.These were our last moments. I didn't want to cry, pay attention to my heart being shredded or worry him. However long I could, I wanted to delay breaking his heart."Just dance with me, Scottie," I said, my eyes falling to his lips, tempted to claim them.I laid my head down on his chest and listened to his heart beat, pounding away fast. Still I didn't say another word and neither did he. I don't know how long I was in his arms, obsessing over how I'd never dance with him again. Hiding from him before the desperation to hear him speak again
Everything I knew about making smart decisions told me this was the wrong choice. I was compromised, thinking with my heart instead of my head and Scott wasn't about to allow that to change.He raised his hands to my face and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears, then wrapped his arm around my waist so slowly I got frustrated. Gently pulling me forward, nudging my nose with his, he waited for me to look him in the eye so he could lay the moves on me. His patience was unrelenting, eventually winning me over and I looked up into his brown eyes. He flashed me his dimples and asked in a soft, doting voice, "Do I have you, Kendrick?"The big did he have her or not question was a popular time pass between Kenny and I. We made a drinking game out of whether or not Scott could land a girl using his stupid moves. How besotted was I that he hadn't needed them to land me?"You have some nerve, trying that shit o
Luca offered Jenny and I an arm each as we walked out of the house. Once we got into Luca's car, Jenny turned to me and said, "Ask Scott to follow us."Stacy: Ready to follow me to hell and back?Scott: Guessing that means to follow Luca? Satan himself?With a giggle, I texted back.Stacy: Just drive the damn car.We stopped at a gas station a few miles away from the estate and got out of the car. While I closed the door, a rush went through me as Scott turned me around and cupped my neck, pinning me against the door and slamming his lips against mine."For fuck's sake. Didn't you just do this?" asked Luca."So now what?" I asked, smiling shyly at Scott."Call this number. It's Grandpa Kendrick. He's a billionaire/veteran. Tell him you're his granddaughter. Tell him Jenny sent you if it helps and
"Fuck me dress," said Scott, coming to stand behind me. I was standing in his childhood bedroom in front of the mirror, trying on dresses from the bag he had packed for me for Vermont. Willow and his mom Lisa would be home soon. We landed in Ohio an hour ago, but they didn't know we were here as he wanted to surprise them. "What are you talking about? Because it's backless? It's stunning and modest. There's like no cleavage," I said, defending my choice. "Not because it’s backless, but that helps," he said, running his hands up my naked back. "There's this," he said, piling my hair onto one of my shoulders and kissing the back of my neck before he pulled the strings secured around my neck and pulled the front of the dress down. "Easy access, so much better than cleavage," he said, laying hands on my strapless bra clad breasts and squeezing them, before whispering huskily, "Fuck me dress.""Then just don't pull the strings. Problem solved," I said, my breathing quickening. He slid
"He's carrying her like a bride the first time he brought her home to meet his mom. This is a sign, right?" said Lisa's voice."That they're doing marital activities? Sure," said Willow, both women standing in the front door, watching us fool around.I pulled away from Scott's face, beaming at him as he set me down on my feet, his ears reddening. So much for us surprising them."Hi mom. Willow. You guys know—""Let me get a good look at you. You're gorgeous," said Lisa, taking my hands in hers, her whole face lighting up with excitement. "You know he's never brought a girl home before. That must mean wedding bells are ringing soon."Willow went into stitches, grabbing onto Scott's shoulder while I sucked in my lips trying not to do the same."Stacy," Scott finished, burying his face in his hands. "I did warn y
"Shut up and wear the fucking pearls," Scott whispered into Willow's ear."I don't want to wear the fucking pearls. Stacy is loaning me this diamond necklace," said Willow, showing off the bing around her neck."What the fuck? Mom is going to flip. You know how she feels—" Scott ranted and I grimaced, shooting him an apologetic look."I got this," said Willow, taking the pearls clean out of Lisa's hands when she walked back into the room with them and laying them around my bare neck. "So much better on her than me," said Willow, clapping her hands together after she tied the clasp behind my neck.The frustration left Scott's face and he stared at the pearls around my neck, awestruck."But it's prom. You have to wear the family pearls. I wore them to my prom and on my wedding day. So did my mom and her mom," said Lisa, looking betw
True to his word, probably not wanting to hurt his mother's feelings, Scott snuck me into a high school prom. I got to watch him claim Willow's first dance while he gave her date shit. Watching him with her made my heart melt. Could he really give them up for me? "What a dipshit," said Scott, complaining about Willow's date. "All teenage boys are," I said, overwhelmed with emotion when he took me into his arms.Being with him and his family all day was going to my head. He was surrounded by so much love. How could I just take it all away?"They probably would have lined up for you if you went to school. I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to make things weird. We don't have to stay if you don't want to. It's just, when Willow put those pearls on you, for some reason I didn't want them to come off. It's stupid, I know," he said, wrapping his arms around my waist as mine went around his neck. "No, I get it. I know what you mean. Same," I said, touching the pearls around my neck bef
That last part was such a her thing to say. Was that really what she thought? It would explain how I apparently caught her off guard. "Please, for the love of God, let me sleep and shower first. There are dark circles under my eyes. And my make up—" What the fuck was she talking about? She was fucking flawless. Perfect in all her imperfections. "Shut up. I won the bet about Kenny and Marlene," I said, laying the phone down on the ground and starting the five minute timer. "So now Scott says shut up. You've said more than enough in the last few hours. Now just listen." She clasped her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth nervously, her eyes dropping to the timer. Words failed me. I had a whole speech and everything. Even if I didn't, I was me. I always knew what to say, except right that second I was tongue tied. "That photo's taunting me," I said, spitting out the thought in my he
By this point, she had me watching her from behind a lens. Flashes of the thousands of times she had me taking her photo went through my mind. Watching her was my favorite thing to do until she started letting me touch her. I loved every last one of them. Studied the thousands of photos frequently, especially this past week, like some junkie trying to get a fix. The sweet ones where she looked like an angel. The dirty ones where she looked like the perfect whore. The goofy ones that I made sure I was a part of. The everyday ones where she had a pencil in her hair while she read or picked something out at the grocery store. Every last photo I took of her and every memory attached to it flooded my brain. "Fucking stunning every time," I said, trying to calm my raging heart as the sun began to rise, the silhouette of her before it. Slightly trembling fingers took several photos, as the excitement of holding a camera surg
"Can't we do this another time? Surises come along every day and it's been such a long night," Stacy moped. Not this sunrise. Not this moment I wanted to give her. It was all she could do to hold onto the tripod towards the end, so I let her get on my back and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way up my mountain. "You knew this was coming. I warned you I'd be making you miserable by bringing you out here before the crack of dawn while we were in Fiji. Sacrifices have to be made to please your future husband, Stace," I said, enjoying the feel of her body pressed up against my back. The morning was chilly, contrasting with her body heat. Or was I sweating? Maybe she was right and this just wasn't our moment. It would come once though. The sunrise of our one year anniversary. I had this picture of how it was going to go down in my head and I just wasn't ready to give it up. "On our anniversary? We just spent two ho
"Is the world's greatest commitment phobe still proposing today after this shit storm?" Kenny asked me as I watched Stacy sit across from Jeff to read through her immunity deal. "You just get the champagne ready. Be on standby, Ken. Call in sick. You'll get the call soon," I said, sharing an excited smile with him before I opened the door to Jeff's office to sit down next to Stacy. "You can have your lawyer look it over before you sign. Take your time," said Jeff, waiting patiently on her. "She's her own lawyer. She's like two classes away from being one?" I boasted as I watched her brilliant mind go to work while she read. "Three," she corrected me, eyes still darting over the words on the page. "Besides, we trust you. Don't we, Scott?" That's what she said, but she carried on combing the document. In about two minutes, she'd have tons of questions for him. "Yes, we do," I said to my fath
"I will never let anyone hurt him, Ken. On my life, I will always keep him safe," she professed one more time. "I know you will, Stace. For the record, you were always my favorite best friend," he said, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as he started sobbing. "Same Ken," she said, returning his embrace readily, rubbing his back. Eyes still on me, she stuck her tongue out at me, making me chuckle as I got up to join them. "Un-fucking-believable. What am I, chopped liver?" I said, watching Kenny pull back as I shot him a nasty look. "You're okay. Tolerable. Second best. I keep you around because of her," he said, wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves. "I can't believe you fucking told her you were proposing. What the fuck is wrong with you? How will you survive marriage?" His stupid remark had us chuckling between the three of us. We all wrapped an arm around the other an
There was that promise of forever she said I couldn't have until I asked her to marry me. It was as good as a yes to my proposal. My heart was doing flip flops in my chest. I knew it was for their benefit, maybe even just because she was nervous about talking to them instead of me, but her words were aimed directly at me. Sweeping me right off my feet. Claiming every bit of me as hers. Allowing me to let go of the tiny part of me that wondered if she really could have killed me in those woods. It wasn't just luck or the words I said to her that made her want to save me. I was happy if I gave her the strength to do what she needed to do, but I firmly believed she would have gotten there anyway. She had been doing it for eight years. From the moment we met, she had been protecting me. Even when she pushed me away. She chose me for eight years. Came back again and again, no matter how many times Don Angelo called her home, to make me fall dee
He pulled out a chair for himself, then one for me, urging me to sit next to him. With a resigned sigh, I sat down two chairs away from Kenny, as close to Stacy as I could. I gave Willow and my mom a pleading look so they would follow suite across the table. Stacy took her seat and folded her hands in front of her. Folding her hands was her tell for when she was nervous. They all looked away uncomfortably. No anger. No malice. Just sadness and fear. It was all I could do to stay seated. Not grab Stacy's hand and storm out. She asked me to let her do this though. All I could do was sit back and watch helplessly. "Marlene, you're right. We should have reached out and talked to you all about what happened. It sucked that she was the only one of you to come by and ask us what happened though. Instead of going off the news and wherever else you got your information from. Still, I'm sorry we didn't reach out either. We were trying to figure things out betwe
"No, you're not leaving," said Marlene, grabbing Kenny's arms and turning him towards Stacy and I. "Your best friends are getting engaged today. You've been brooding about this whole situation for over a week and I'm sick of it. Deal with your shit, Kenny," said Marlene, her arms folded and chin jutted out. Go Marlene. Marriage looked good on her. She surprised me more and more all the time. "Does everyone know I'm proposing today?" I asked, focusing on the wrong thing entirely. It got my nervous, half asleep girlfriend to smile though. I'd take that. "You weren't exactly trying very hard to hide it," said Stacy, momentarily caught up in my eyes. I wished I could have her look like that for the rest of the day. A light blush tainted her cheeks and her smile was enough to bring armies to their knees. The way she looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people alive. As much as I appreciated wha
"Soooo… Do you think there's more?" he asked in his most innocent voice. "I'll kill you if you try and find out today," I said, equally as breathless and sweaty as him. It took me a moment to realize I just threatened him without flinching or apologizing. I forced myself to let it go and enjoy the afterglow of the best sex of my life. The heat and sweat coming off our bodies should have been enough to get me off him, but it wasn't. Despite my threat to get off him, his arms wrapped around me gently. "No promises. I love you," he said, completely at ease as he started stroking my hair. "I expect to be told about all future… Locations and phrases." "I love you too. That's no fun. I'm not doing that," I said, out right refusing his request. "Is that right? We'll see," he said cheekily, kissing my temple. "Let me take you to lunch. I want you to enjoy your first day of freedom."