Fighter (Outsider Series) (5 page)

I covered his mouth with a finger. “I was just messing with you.”

“You are a cruel, cruel, woman, Sophie Beaumont.”

I laughed and pulled myself out of his arms. I wiped the sand off my clothes. That was the one downside to sand. It stuck to
everything
.

“You brought your phone right?” I asked him.

He was still lying in the sand and squinted up at me. He brought his hand up to his face to block the sun. “Yeah, it’s back with Logan. Why?”

I shook my head. “We need to call our parents.
I don’t think your mom would like it if we got back from the beach and told her she only had a week to plan a wedding.”

Caeden snorted. “She isn’t going to like planning a wedding in two weeks either.”

“Well… it’s all the time she’s got,” I smiled.

He stood and both of our smiles were huge.

“July sixth,” he twirled the words around his tongue. “It’s perfect.”

“I think so too,” I blushed.

He took my hands and pulled me to him. He kissed me quickly before pulling away and saying, “Phone.”

We walked back to Logan who took one look at our gooey faces and said, “Ew. I don’t want to know.”

I giggled. “We set a wedding date.”

“Oh,” he closed his book. “That wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. So when is it?”

“July sixth,” we said simultaneously. Caeden pulled me towards him and kissed me again.

“That soon?” Logan asked. “What’s the rush?” He paled. “Please tell me your not-” He motioned to my stomach.

I laughed. “No, Logan. No baby.”

“Thank God,” he said. “The last thing we need is Travis comin’ after your kid. And just for the record, when ya’ll do have kids, I am not changing any diapers.”

Caeden laughed. “That’ll be Bryce’s job.”

I punched his arm. “Bryce is never coming near our kids. Lord only kno
ws what he might say to them. And knowing him he’ll probably drop them on their head.”

Caeden grinned and I was wondering why
, when he said, “I think this is the first time someone has brought up the topic of kids and you haven’t freaked out.”

I blushed.

Luckily, Caeden gave me a reprieve and dug around in my tote bag for his phone. He pulled it out and put it on speaker as he called his mom.

“Hey! Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Everything’s great, mom,” he grinned from ear to ear. “Sophie and I just have something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve set a date…” He looked at me.

“For July sixth,” I supplied.

Her screams could be heard by everyone in a ten-foot radius from us.

When she finally calmed down she said, “You do realize that’s two weeks from now?”

“Yes mom,” Caeden shook his head, “we know.”

“We’re going to hang up and call my mom and then we’ll have her call you
, so that ya’ll can start planning.”

Amy shrieked some more. “You’re going to let me plan it?”

I giggled. “Yes, Amy! After the graduation party you put together, I know this will be incredible! My only request is for it to be outdoors.”

“I love you both so much!” She began to cry.
“And outside sounds perfect.”

“I love you, Amy,” I said with all the sincerity in the world.

“Love you, mom,” Caeden said. “We’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye. Have fun! Now where’s
the tissues,” she muttered.

I laughed as Caeden hung up the phone. He handed it over to me and I dialed my mom’s cell number. I put it on speaker like Caeden had done.

“Who’s this?” she answered and I realized she didn’t have Caeden’s number.

“It’s me
, mom.”

“Oh, did something happen to your phone?”

“No, this is Caeden’s.”

“Oh,” she said again.

“We’re just calling to tell you that we set a date,” I looked at Caeden to finish.

He cleared his throat. “July sixth.”

Silence.

“Mom?” I asked hesitantly.

Sniffles. “I’m sorry, they’re happy tears, I promise. I can’t believe my baby girl is getting married. And in two weeks!”

“We told Amy you’d call her as soon as we hung up with you
, so that ya’ll can start the planning while we’re gone.”

“That sounds great,” she said. “Your dad’s in the next room, do you want to tell him?”

“Of course,” I answered.

“Hang on a second.”

My dad’s voice came over the line, and Caeden and I went through the same process again.

“So soon?” Dad asked.

I laughed. “You knew we were going to get married before the end of August.”

“But July sixth is only two weeks away.”

I laughed. “Yeah, we know.”

“Well baby girl, I’m happy for you. For both of you,” he added. He cleared his throat and I knew that was a sign that my dad was emotional. “I love ya’ll. Here’s your mother,” he passed the phone off before I could reply.

I shook my head and a small smile played on my lips. My mom came back on. “Hello? Hello? You still there?”

“Yeah mom, we’re gonna go now. I love you and tell dad that I love him.”

“Alright, I love you! I’m going to call Amy!” She let out a little yip of excitement and then the line went dead.

I looked up at Caeden
, and said, “I guess we better call Gram.”

He paled and closed his eyes. “Let me prepare myself.”

I smacked his arm. “She’s not that bad.”

He grinned down at me. His white teeth appeared to be even brighter against his tan skin. “Oh, she’s pretty bad alright.”

Bryce chose that moment to walk up. “Who are you talking about?”

“Lucinda,” Caeden answered.

Bryce snorted. “Maybe she wouldn’t be so uptight and spewin’ all this sex talk, if she’d just get laid.”

My eyes widened and I paled at the thought of Gram… Ew, just ew.

“Thank you Bryce, for that wonderful image of my Gram that I’ll never ever get out of my head. Even if I could bleach my brain.”

“What?” Bryce shrugged. “It’s true.”

“Ugh, can’t you just go back over to your castle.”

“How quickly you dismiss me,” he put his hand over his heart and pouted. He had a wad of money in his hand and asked, “Can I put this in your bag?”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure.”

“Thanks,” he smiled and
presumably went back to his castle. If I weren’t such a nice person, I’d go over there and kick his castle over for putting that disturbing image in my head about Gram. I shuddered.

I still held Caeden’s phone in my hand and I quickly dialed Gram’s number while trying to get rid of the nasty image Bryce had conjured.

“Caeden?” she snapped into the phone. “What do you need? I’m busy.”

I giggled. “Gram, it’s Sophie.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well, what do
you
need?”

“We just wanted to tell you that we set a date for the wedding…” I paused, waiting for Caeden to jump in but he didn’t. “It’s July sixth.”

“No babies?” she asked.

“Gram,” I laughed, “there will be no babies for a long time. Don’t get so worked up.”

She let out a gust of air. “Your daddy made me a young grandma and I don’t need you makin’ me a young great-grandma.”

I shook my head. “Just make sure that mom and Amy don’t make the wedding to over the top.”

“I’m on it,” she said. “I’ve gotta go, love ya’ll.”

“Love you too, Gram,” I hung up.

I turned to Caeden. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”

“I guess it wasn’t,” he smiled and pulled me back to the ocean, clothes and all.

four. 

Caeden flopped across the bed and peered into the bathroom
, where I was drying my hair with a towel. I could see his grin in the mirror and how his eyes followed my every movement.

Finally he spoke, “I think we should all go out tonight.”

“To dinner?”

“No,” he shook his head, “I want to go
clubbing
.”

“Clubbing?” I stopped what I was doing and turned to stare at him. He had to be kidding. “I didn’t even want to go to prom! Do you really think I want to go clubbing?”

He pouted. “Please, baby?”

I scrunched up my nose. “I really don’t want to.”

“Please,” he begged, now turning on the puppy dog eyes. Darn him to pieces.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” I defended.

“I’m sure Charlotte or Christian have something you could borrow.”

“I hate you,” I stuck out my tongue.

He grinned. “That must mean I’m getting my way.”

“Don’t you always,” I muttered under my breath.

He stood and sauntered towards me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He swept my hair away from my neck and placed a kiss beneath my ear. I think I melted.

“No, my she-wolf, I most definitely don’t get everything I want.” He stared into my eyes through the mirror and my legs turned to mush. Thank the Lord that I could lean against his body for support. “But I think it’ll be fun,” his fingers glided over my neck making me shiver. Goosebumps broke out across my skin. “I want to celebrate the fact that in two weeks
, you’ll be my wife.”

I leaned my head against his chest and tilted my head so that I could see him. “
Two weeks.” My heart stuttered. “I’m scared,” I whispered.

He pulled away, his brow furrowing. “Of marrying me?”

“No, definitely not,” I shook my head, turning to face him. “But what if I fall? Or say the wrong thing?”

He laughed. “That’ll only make it more memorable,” he cupped my cheeks in his hands.

“Only you would say that.”

He shrugged. “It’s the truth…” He paused. “And just so you know… I’m scared of t
he same things. I think that’s normal.” His fingers tangled in my hair. “And even if you fall on your face, I’ll still love you. I just might laugh though, so don’t hate me too much.”

I laughed. “Caeden!” and smacked his arm.

“What? That
would
be funny. Wouldn’t you laugh if I was the one to fall?”

“Probably.”

“Then we’re even.”

“Clubbing?” I got back to the original topic.

“Clubbing,” he waggled his eyebrows.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I’ll send the girls up so they can help you get ready before you change your mind,” he headed for the door.

“I hate you,” I said to his retreating back.

“Love you too, babe, love you too.”

* * *

“Hold still,” Chris commanded, grabbing my chin.

“I don’t want to,” I grumbled.

“You have to,” she narrowed her light green eyes at me. “Now close your eyes.”

I closed my eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. She had already covered my face in five layers of makeup and rubbed some kind of glitter lotion on my arms and neck. She started to swoop some eye shadow across my lids and I protested, “Don’t make me look like a hooker or a raccoon.”

“Now, why would I do that?” she asked and mocked surprise.

“I don’t put anything past you.”

She laughed. “Not much longer.”

She finished with the eye shadow and moved onto eyeliner and mascara. After about ten different coats of mascara
, she pulled out lipstick and gloss.

“Don’t worry
, Sophie,” she noticed my fear. “I know you don’t like that whole dramatic look, so I went with earthy and simple. You’re gonna love it and be begging me to do your makeup every day.” She twisted the tube of lipstick and I was surprised to find that it was a pale pink instead of a starlet red. She expertly applied the lipstick. Then pulled out a gloss with just pale pink glitter. She stepped away and assessed me the way an artist would a canvas. “Perfect,” her smile was infectious. She turned me towards the mirror. “If you don’t let me do your makeup for the wedding, it would be a shame.”

“Wow,” I took in my reflection. She had curled my long brown hair so that it hung down my back in beachy waves. My makeup was flawless. The eye shadow was a light purple and pink that made me eyes pop. She had applied something that made it appear as if my skin was glowing gold. The glitter on my arms and chest shimmered in the light.

She gave me an I-told-ya-so look.

“Thank you so much,” I ran my fingers through my hair.

“You’re welcome,” she grabbed something else out of her magical makeup bag. “Just one last thing…” She spritzed me with a light, flowery scent, before handing me the bottle. “Take this with you, it should fit in your clutch. Perfume is a must have when you go to a club.”