Holding You (18 page)

Her eyes widened as she wore a shocked expression on her face. Opening the bag I took the ring out and held it up for her.

Her mouth fell open and she let out a small chuckle. “The ring I wanted.”

Almost three years ago we had all been in Austin shopping and Lauren had pointed to a belt buckle ring that she wanted. When we all walked out of the store and headed to lunch, I doubled-back and bought it for her.

Swallowing hard, I said, “I bought it that day. The day you looked at it in James Avery.”

Placing her hands over her mouth, Lauren slowly shook her head. “You’ve had it this whole time?”

Letting out a gruff laugh, I said, “Yeah, I know it was stupid but—”

Lauren’s eyes gleamed as she threw herself into my body and kissed me. Wrapping my arms around her, I deepened the kiss until we were completely lost in it . . . again.

Lauren barely pulled back as she talked against my lips. “You’ll never know how special you make me feel, Colt Mathews. I’ve never felt so loved and desired in my entire life.”

Breaking our contact, I took a step back and reached for Lauren’s hand and slipped the ring onto her left ring finger. “I’m yours forever, Lauren. No matter what, I’ll never leave your side.”

“Forever,” Lauren whispered.

Reaching out, Lauren pushed my pants down as I pulled them off of my feet and tossed them to the side. “I know you want to try what you learned tonight, but right now, sweetheart, I just want to hold you.”

Placing her hand on my chest, Lauren’s face beamed with happiness. “That sounds perfect.”

Pulling my T-shirt off my chest and throwing it onto the floor, I reached and picked Lauren up. Carrying her over to her bed, I pulled back the covers and gently set her down. Crawling over her, I slid in next to her and pulled her body up against mine. “I love you, Colt.”

Kissing the back of her head, I pulled her closer. “I love you more, Lauren.”

Everything in this moment felt perfect. It felt right.

“Never stop holding me, Colt.”

“Never,” I whispered.

FOOTBALL PRACTICE IN
the spring was closed to the public, but players’ girlfriends were allowed to attend the practices, as long as they were not a distraction. Glancing over to the stands, I saw Lauren with her nose buried in a book. She had a huge test she had been studying for.

Lining up, I got ready for the play. Roger seemed to have moved on since he found out how serious Lauren and I were. We’d been dating over two months and I couldn’t believe how amazing things still were between us.

Roger called hike and I took off running. Roger threw and I jumped and caught the ball and took off down the field. Making the touchdown, everyone ran up and gave me a high five.

Coach nodded his approval and told the team to huddle up.

“Great practice. This was our last spring practice. We have a scrimmage this weekend and I expect a repeat of what I saw on the field today.”

Everyone hooted and hollered. “Now go shower up and get out of here.”

Walking toward the locker room, I turned to find Lauren. She was talking to a girl I’d never seen before. She must have sensed me watching her because she looked up and smiled at me. Smiling, I gave her a wave and then held up both hands telling her to give me ten minutes.

Nodding her head, she blew me a kiss. Laughing, I turned and headed into the locker room. After taking a quick shower I got dressed and was about to head out to meet up with Lauren.

“Good catch, Mathews,” Roger said as he walked over to me with a towel still wrapped around his waist.

“Thanks. Good throw.”

Roger smirked. “Now that everything seems to be settled between us, friends?” Roger stuck his hand out for me to shake it. Grabbing his hand tightly, we shook. I didn’t trust the look in his eyes. Lauren had told me about Marie stopping to talk to her and how Roger had been digging for information and using Marie to gather it all up. What a dick.

“Friends it is.”

Turning, I headed to the door. “Oh hey, Mathews, one more thing.”

Glancing back at him I asked, “What’s up?”

“Stay focused in the game.”

Pulling my head back and giving him a confused look, I said, “I always am.”

Pushing the door open I headed out of the locker room area and up to Lauren.

That was three times now someone had told me to stay focused.
Was I not focusing?
I hadn’t dropped a single ball, I made every play. What in the hell was wrong with everyone?

Running my hand over my short hair, I dreaded this fall. For some reason coach did not like me having a girlfriend. I was going to have to learn to balance both and I didn’t think I would have a problem doing that. Lauren knew how much I loved football and she would never get in the way of that. Ever.

I just wasn’t sure how much I loved football.

GRACE AND I
were walking out of the library laughing when Grace smacked right into a guy. “Oh shit! I’m so sorry.” Grace said as she bent over to pick up her books. I couldn’t help but notice how the guy was staring at Grace. She was, of course, oblivious to it.

My heart broke for Grace. As much as she tried to brush off the fact that Noah had pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth, we all knew it killed her. Noah had been texting Grace and she would text back but her fear of committing to anyone stood in the way. Then when he didn’t tell her he was getting married and he kept texting her, that just reaffirmed to Grace that men sucked. She stopped texting him back, yet she wouldn’t date anyone. It was as if her heart had been given to Noah, even though she denied it, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. Then, Noah just stopped texting.

Handing Grace her last book the guy flashed a smile at Grace. “Grace Johnson, right?”

Grace stared at the hottie standing in front of us. His light-brown hair was a mess, clearly he just got done running, and his emerald eyes had Grace’s eyes pinned in on him. “Um . . . do we know each other?” Grace asked as she tilted her head.

Laughing, he said, “Yeah, Hunter. I’m in your psychology class.”

Recognition moved across Grace’s face as she pointed to him and said, “Oh yeah. Well, so sorry for running into you like that.”

Seeing he was losing the moment he ran his hand through his hair and asked Grace out. “Hey, you wouldn’t want to go grab dinner and a movie would you?”

Grace never missed a beat. She kept her smile sincere as she turned the poor guy down. “Awe, thanks for the invite, but I’m going to have to pass. I’ll see you in class though.”

Hunter’s smile faded some as he nodded his head. “Right. Okay sure. See ya in class.”

Grace walked off and I fell into step next to her. The hot breeze made me wish like hell I had worn shorts today and not jeans. May in Texas could be a hit or miss as far as the weather went. It could be sixty-two one day, and eighty-two the next. It just so happened yesterday was sixty-two and today felt like ninety-nine.

“Grace, why didn’t you take him up on his offer?” I asked.

Rolling her eyes as she glanced over at me she laughed. “Lauren, school’s out for summer in a few days and I’ll be heading home for the summer. Why would I want to go out on a date? If he wanted to ask me out, he should have done it like three months ago.”

Frowning, I nodded my head. She did have a point there. I never did understand why guys waited so long to make their move. Glancing down at my ring Colt had given me, I smiled. Even Colt, buying this ring so many years ago and hanging on to it as long as he did. My heart felt as if it skipped a beat whenever I thought about Colt being in love with me for so long.

Pulling my books closer to my chest, I smiled.

“Oh dear lord, you’re thinking about Mathews aren’t you?”

Chuckling, I asked, “How did you know?”

Grace reached out and gave me a playful push, causing me to stumble a few steps. “It’s all over your damn face. What, did you have hot sex last night or something?”

There was no way I could hide the happiness I felt. “Sex with Colt is hot every time.”

“Ugh. Gag me, Lauren.”

Laughing, I laced my arm around hers. “I can’t wait to get home. I’m so over school.”

Grace waved to some guy who walked by and said hello to her. “Me too. I just want to dig in the garden with Grams and not have to worry about anything.”

Grace and Alex were both going to school for Horticulture. They loved getting their hands into Grams garden. Me? I enjoyed gardening, but I preferred to be with the horses. This summer Daddy was going to train me on the books and I was beyond thrilled to be able to gain knowledge on a piece of his business. But I wanted to gain more on the horse side of the business. Daddy even had a few trips planned to take a look at some horses and Colt and I were both going. Smiling slightly, I couldn’t believe how threatened I was before about Colt working for my father.

Grace and I walked back to the house instead of taking the bus. It had felt good to get fresh air and just talk about stuff. Colt only had one final left, while Grace, Alex, Will and I all had two left. Once we all finished with our finals, we would be heading back to Mason. Will and Colt had been packing up stuff and getting the house ready to lock up for the summer. Colt would be coming back for football early and I was trying to figure out a way to let my parents know I’d be heading back early with him. They were not going to be happy about that. Colt was the first really serious relationship I was in. Roger was just . . . fun times. We hung out, the kissing got hot and heavy a few times, but my mind wasn’t consumed with him twenty-four hours a day like it was with Colt.

“Besides the hot sex, things seem to be going good between you and Colt,” Grace said as we walked up the driveway to the house.

“Amazing. Perfect. Amazing.”

Grace laughed. “That bad huh?”

Stopping, I turned to Grace as she stopped and stared at me with a goofy smile. “Grace, sometimes . . . well sometimes I feel like I’m living this dream and I’m so scared that I’m going to wake up.” Glancing down, I shook my head before looking back up at Grace. “I pushed Colt away for so long, fought feelings that I had just because of my pride. I guess I’m just scared that this is to good to be true. Like I’m waiting for the floor to be ripped out from underneath me.”

Grace reached out and took my hand as she rubbed her thumb back and forth. “Lauren, what you and Colt share is amazing. The fact that three of my very best friends have found this amazing love makes me so happy for y’all. Honey, you can’t keep worrying about the what-ifs. Look at Will and Alex. Luke and Libby. They are so in love and happy. Sweetie, if it’s meant to be it will be. Enjoy every single day together, Lauren. Each day is a gift so don’t ever take it for granted or think you can put something off until tomorrow because you might not get the chance.”

A breeze blew as I watched it toss Grace’s long hair around. Why hadn’t Grace, Maegan, and Taylor been as lucky as the rest of us? Grace and Maegan were both battling demons they both insisted on fighting alone, and Taylor was so caught up in being the perfect student for her parents, she wasn’t enjoying her life.

“Thank you, Grace. I really hope that your time is coming next. You deserve to be in love and happy. To find the frosting to your cake!”

Grace laughed as she rolled her eyes. “You and your damn sayings, Lauren.”

As we walked back to the house I finally got the courage to talk to Grace about Noah. “Grace, may I ask you something personal?”

“Of course you can, Lauren.”

Worrying my lower lip, I asked, “Grace, why did you push Noah away? Alex and Libby said you seemed to really like him a lot.”

Grace’s whole body tensed as we continued to walk. “I do really like Noah. Or did like him anyway. He’s married now, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Knowing Grace needed to talk about this, I pressed on. “But that doesn’t answer why you pushed him away.”

Grace chuckled. “It’s pretty simple. I was scared of my feelings. That seems to be a common thing in our little group.”

Nodding my head, I whispered, “Yeah, it sure is.”

Grace pushed her hair behind her ear as she inhaled a deep breath and slowly let it out. “When I was in high school I let a guy have almost complete control over me, Lauren. I vowed to never let that happen again. Actually, I vowed to never get lost in another guy again. One night with Noah and I was completely and utterly lost. He brought out feelings in me that I had never experienced before. The way he looked into my eyes was as if I was the very air he breathed. It felt like it was too much too fast. If that makes sense.”