Beautiful Goodbye (14 page)

Climbing into
my bed, I made sure to face away from Larkin but within minutes, I
felt him rolling over and wrapping an arm around me and pulling me
to him. I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face. I knew I
shouldn’t be allowing myself to get this close, but I couldn’t stop
myself. He was everything that scared me, everything I needed to
avoid. But, damn him for putting a spell on me. There was something
about him, something that pulled me right into his arms. Closing my
eyes, I fought to turn my brain off and not think about that large,
sexy man lying next to me. Finally, I found sleep.

CHAPTER 15

The rest of
the week was full of stress, not just from school but also worrying
about Larkin’s family. I never even met Jacob’s family, they didn’t
get along…go figure. Attempting to pack I was rummaging through my
closet when I heard my bedroom door open.

“
Jenna?” Gage’s called out.

Walking out
and dropping a pair of jeans into my suitcase, I smiled at Gage.
“Hey, how was practice?”

Eyeing my
suitcase Gage drew his eyebrows together and asked, “You moving
out?”

“
No, Larkin asked me to go home with him this weekend.” Seeing
Gage tense I immediately added, “Just as friends. I need time to
work through some of my own shit before dragging another person
into it.”

Gage nodded
once then bit the inside of his lip. “When will you be
back?”

“
Well I guess Sunday night since we have class and y’all have
practice. Would you watch Dollie for me?” I asked.

“
Sure,” Gage sighed.

I could tell
this was getting to Gage, but he was trying to be supportive for
me.

“
Well I guess I will let you pack, I was going to see if you
wanted to go to dinner but never mind.”

As Gage
started to turn around I grabbed his arm and said, “Dinner sounds
good. I have until tomorrow afternoon to have my shit
packed.”

“
Ha. But I know how you pack, you probably should have started
this process six weeks ago just to be done by Saturday
afternoon.”

“
Don’t be a dicktwizzle. Let’s go eat.” I smacked his arm as I
walked passed him.

“
Pizza sound good?” Gage asked as we got into his
truck.

“
Mmm yeah, I think Hound Dogs sounds yummy.” Hound Dogs was
one of the best pizza places in Columbus. It was where our little
group of friends went most times when we would go out. They were
open twenty four hours. After a long night of partying a greasy
pizza was perfect.

Gage looked
over at me before returning his gaze to the road. “We haven’t eaten
there in a while, it does sound good.”

We rode in
comfortable silence, just singing along with the music. Poor Gage
would never win karaoke. I don’t think he knew more than three
words to any song.

Pulling into
Hound Dogs, Gage shut his truck off, and before I could open the
door he grabbed my hand and said, “J, I just want to say be careful
this weekend. Don’t let Larkin talk you into something you’re not
ready for. I know how you feel about him but I think you need to
focus on you for right now. Make yourself happy and figure out what
you want.”

Rubbing my
hand over Gage’s shoulder I gave him a soft smile before saying
“Gage, if you’re asking if I’m going to have sex with him this
weekend, I can’t make you any promises but I promise I won’t come
back married.”

Gage rolled
his eyes then kissed my forehead. “I just want you happy, babe. Now
let’s eat some pizza.”

After Gage
ordered a Hot Mama pizza, barbeque chicken pizza, and a meat
lover’s pizza, yes all of those were for him, I ordered a pizza
sub.

Gage took a
sip of his water then asked, “So are you nervous?”

“
Nervous? About meeting Larkin’s family, hell yes. I have
never met anyone’s family and we’re not even together so I think
this will be awkward but whatever. I told him I would go so I’m
going.”

“
You don’t have to go, if you’re not comfortable. Stay here.
We can have a weekend of movies and junk food. I won’t even go to
the gym on Sunday.”

The waitress
brought our food and let her eyes linger a little longer than
necessary on Gage before walking away. I laughed as I said, “I
think you have an admirer, sir.”

“
Psh, the ladies love me. What can I say?”

Rolling my
eyes I took a bite of my sub and let a little moan escape my mouth.
Gage smirked, “That good huh?”

I nodded as I
took another bite and stuck my tongue out. “How’s your eighteen
pizzas?” I asked through a mouthful.

“
Three, I ordered three pizzas, not eighteen. You do know how
to count, right?” I flipped him off and he laughed. “They are so
damn good. If I could eat this every day I would be in
heaven.”

Wiping my
mouth I joked, “You could eat it every day but you would look like
that white toilet paper blimp man.”

Gage scrunched
his face, “The what?”

“
You know that giant white toilet paper looking blimp
thing.”

Gage slowly
blinked as a smile formed on his face before he joked, “Babe, you
can be so blonde. Are you talking about the Michelin
man?”

Taking another
bite I shrugged, “I guess. Does he look like a giant toilet paper
roll?”

Shaking his
head Gage snorted, “I fucking love you.”

“
Love you too, douche juice.”

**********

Looking
through my suitcase one more time, I checked to make sure I had
everything. Zipping it up, I dropped it on the floor and rolled it
to the living room. Picking Dollie up I kissed her head and told
her bye. My nerves were goin crazy, in just a few hours I would be
meeting Larkin’s family. It really shouldn’t matter if they like
me, it’s not like Larkin and I are together, but I still wanted
them to. Leaving my suitcase by the couch, I put my ‘OSU’ hoodie
and made my way to the game.

Not able to
focus on the game I just cheered when Sadie did and followed her
like a shadow. The game seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, it
was over and our boys had once again won. Grabbing Sadie’s hands,
so we didn’t get separated in the crowd, we made our way down to
meet the guys. Seeing the number twenty one and one very sweaty
Larkin turning around to look at me had me melting into mush. Just
that look in his eye told me everything I was hoping would happen
this weekend, would in fact, happen.

Feeling my
cheeks flush I leaned in to hug him saying, “Awesome
game.”

“
Thanks, baby.” Larkin kissed the top of my head and wrapped
his arms around me.

Pulling back I
looked around, trying to find Gage. Standing on my tippy toes I was
still close to a foot shorter than most of the people around me.
Huffing in defeat I turned back to Larkin just as a large arm
wrapped around my shoulders. “Hey babe, I was hoping I would see
you before y’all left.”

“
I
was looking for you, I wanted to say bye.”

Gage pulled me
into a hug and whispered, “Be safe, love you babe.”

Smiling I
whispered back, “Don’t turn our apartment into a revolving door of
whores while I’m gone and I love you too.”

Gage laughed a
laugh I hadn’t heard in a long time. It was like I had my old Gage
back. “You don’t have to worry about that. Party at Trent’s
tonight.”

“
Please be careful and don’t drive if you drink.”

Gage winked
then kissed my cheek. “Yes, mom.”

After Larkin
showered and changed we packed his car and started down Interstate
70.

Turning down
Papa Roach I asked, “So are you going to tell me anything about
your family?”

Larkin flicked
his eyes to me then smiled. “What do you want to know?”

“
Well for starters, who am I going to be meeting?”

“
My mom, sister, and grandpa.”

“
And do these people have names?” I questioned.

“
They do,” Larkin nodded. “My mom is Carrie, little sister is
Cobie, and my grandpa is Ross.”

“
Ok. I can remember that. What else do I need to
know?”

Larkin pursed
his lips and said, “There’s nothing you really need to know. They
live on a farm. My mom is not your average mom, she’s crazy. Gramps
is the coolest old man alive, and my sister well she annoys the
shit outta me but I love her.”

“
How old is she?” I asked.

“
Cobie? She’s eighteen. Ok, enough about me. Let’s play a new
game. Tell me three things about you.”

Groaning I
laid my head against the window, “Easy. My birthday is December
twelfth, love the beach, and I have a slight obsession with shoes.
Your turn.”

“
Woman, I have seen your closet, you don’t have a slight
obsession you’re fucking crazy about shoes. Ok, about me…let’s see,
my birthday is January ninth, I love seafood, and I want to play
for the San Diego Chargers someday.” Larkin reached over a grabbed
my hand, kissing it before resting it on his thigh. Oh boy I was in
trouble. “Now, tell me your biggest fear and your biggest
dream.”

“
You have to promise not to laugh.” I smiled shyly.

“
Uh, ok.” Larkin snorted.

“
Clowns and nuns scare the shit outta me.”

“
What? Clowns, they make people happy. Now the nun thing I can
understand, someone who vows to never have sex their entire fucking
lives scares the shit outa me too.” Larkin was fighting his
laughter.

“
I
hate clowns because of that damn clown from
It
, Pennywise.”

Larkin shook
his head. “Ok, so no circus for us. What’s your biggest
dream?”

Letting out a
big breathe I chewed on my lip before finally answering, “I learned
you can never have a dream, they just get destroyed. You have to be
realistic with what you have. Dreams are for little kids not for
someone like me.”

Larkin looked
at me from the corners of his eyes and questioned, “What? You can’t
be serious. Life is all about dreaming, the bigger the better. My
dream has always been to make it to the NFL and have a
family.”

Hearing Larkin
talk about having a family caused a pain in my chest and sent
chills down my body. Closing my eyes I tried to focus on my
reality. “Dream on, sweetie. So what is your biggest
fear?”

“
I’m going to sound like a girl but I’m terrified of needles.”
Fighting my giggles I sucked in a deep breath before slowly letting
it out. Larkin shot me a look then said, “We’re here.”

Pulling my
eyes from him, I looked out the windshield to see a huge white
farmhouse with black shutters and a red door. The house was nothing
what I expected. I was expecting a little, old farmhouse with a red
barn in the backyard. But this, this place was the mecca of farms.
This was what all farms dreamed of being when they grew
up.

CHAPTER 16

I slowly
opened my door and was instantly covered by three dogs, being
licked and jumped on. “Bandit, Rosco, Porky! Down, now!”

The dogs
paused for a moment to look at Larkin before turning their
attention back to me. While trying to divide my attention between
the three dogs, I heard the front door open and footsteps were
bounding their way to us. “Larkin!”

Looking up I
was met with gorgeous, warm brown eyes and one of the prettiest
girls I had ever seen. Throwing her arms around him she exclaimed,
“I missed you bub! I can’t believe you came home.”

“
Chill Co. I’m only here until tomorrow night. Not like I’m
moving back, that will never happen.” Larkin gently kissed the top
of her head then turned her to face me and said, “Cobie this is
Jenna, Jenna this is my annoying little sister, Cobie.”

I didn’t have
a chance to say anything before Cobie was squealing, “I am so
excited to finally meet you. Larkin won’t shut his damn mouth about
you. I have never met Larkin’s girlfriend before. Well, he really
never has had a girlfriend. Just wait until mom meets her
Larkin.”

Larkin shook
his head and growled, “Jesus fuck, Co! She’s not my girlfriend, we
are just friends. Take a breath and calm the hell down.”

Smiling at the
two of them, I reached out to shake Cobie’s hand. “Larkin has told
me so much about you, ok well that’s a lie,” I admitted and shook
my head, “All I know about you is your name and that you’re
eighteen.”

Cobie giggled,
“Ah, leave it to Larkin. I have to say for the past few months he
hasn’t shut up about you and a few times I wish he woulda skipped
the detail.”

Feeling my
face flush I wasn’t sure what to say. Larkin stepped forward to
grab my hand, “Let’s go inside so you can meet my mom. She’s crazy
but my sister makes her look normal.”

Following
Larkin and Cobie up the steps and into the house I saw the cutest
old man walking down the hall towards us. “Larkin, your momma has
been a mess today. After you told her you were bringing a girl home
she has been all over herself. Good to see you, boy.”