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“Mom, yeah, of course. I treated her like a queen. She was perfect. I was just happy to see her again.” I smiled, remembering the feel of her hair beneath my fingers, the soft silk of her skin, the way she tasted on my lips…

Momma caught my chin, forcing my eyes to meet hers. She assessed me for a minute before grinning. “Ah, I see it in your eyes. You love her. It won’t be long. I’ll get my grandbabies.” She turned away as if pleased with herself.
 

“I have to make her love me first,” I grumped and leaned against the counter.
 

“Nonsense. I teach you how to make a good meal, and she’ll love you forever. Now get over here and help your momma cut up some tomato. You’ve only got a few hours to get this recipe right before she gets out from school.”
 

“How did you know I was making her dinner tonight?”

She grinned, shaking her head. “I know my son. You're just like your momma. You like to take care of people. Once she sees that, she’s yours.” Her eyes shone with happiness and actually went miles at comforting my nerves.
 

Maybe this night meant more than I thought. According to Momma, this night was the start of everything.
 

I headed home from my parents’ house almost two hours later with a piping hot jar of fresh marinara sauce. Leave it to Momma to send me home with home-cooked food. I whistled, checking my watch. I had just about thirty minutes before Chrissy would be home from school. Then I could show her, and tell her, just what she meant to me.
 

I turned the corner and came up the sidewalk to her house to find a guy standing on her doorstep, phone to his ear. I narrowed my eyes, wondering if she was expecting a guest that she hadn’t told me about, until I got a little closer and the shock of blond hair and icy eyes cut to me.
 

“Trent fucking McAvoy, how long’s it been?” Chad Wallace came down the stairs.
 

“Six years,” I said blankly, remembering every asshole move this guy had played on me back in high school. I’d hated him then, and by the arrogant look on his cocky face, it seemed he hadn’t changed much since I’d been gone. I was anxious to get him out of my sight. He was putting off all the wrong vibes, like a too-good-for-everyone asshole. “Can I help you, man?”

“Lookin’ for Chrissy,” he replied before his eyes trailed down to the brown paper bag in my arms.
 

“She’s not home yet. Something I can do for you?” I tilted my head.
 

“Uh, unless you’re five foot six and stacked, no, I’m fine, buddy.” Chad’s voice turned cold.
 

“Actually, if you got something to say to Chrissy, you can say it to me too.” I placed the bag on the step of the front porch. “Now let me ask you one more time—is there something I can help you with?”
 

“What the fuck do you mean, man? Chrissy’s my girl. We’ve been together for over a year, so what the fuck are you doing here at her house with this shit?” He kicked the bag over, and the vegetables rolled out.
 

“Listen here, you whiny motherfucker.” I crossed the space between us in a flash. “I know you treated her like shit—I can see it written all over her face and yours. Now I suggest you get the fuck outta here before she gets home and I have to pummel you into the fucking cement.” I clenched my fist, feeling rage pulse through my blood with every beat of my heart.
 

Chad’s eyes narrowed as his head tilted to one side. His arm angled back and his right hand balled into a tight fist.
 

“Don’t you even fucking think about it.” When he swung, I caught his fist and cinched it so tightly his hand trembled before I backed him against the side of her house.
 

“Trent, man, what the fuck? Bros before hoes. No pussy is worth that kinda trouble,” Chad spat as he laughed like a little cocksucker. “’Specially not that one.” His grin told me he’d thrown down the gauntlet with that last comment.
 

“Don’t you ever say that about my woman,” I seethed and pressed a hand into his neck. “If I ever see you even so much as look at her, I’ll castrate you with a butter knife and feed your balls to your dog, you got me?”
 

His eyes widened from fear and a lack of oxygen as I pressed at his windpipe. He managed to nod though.

“Good. Now get the fuck out of here.” I let him go and gave him a final shove just as Chrissy turned around the corner.

The smile on her face fell instantly when she saw us.

SIX

Chrissy

“What’s going on?” I shrieked as shock froze any other thought in my brain. “Chad, what are you doing here? What happened to your neck?” I approached them, trying to determine what exactly had happened in the moments before I’d gotten home.
 

“This fucking asshole choked me!” He stumbled a minute as he rubbed at his throat. “I think you should call the police.”
 

I raised my eyebrows, surprised but only because Trent had gotten physical. I was one hundred percent sure Chad deserved it. He ran his mouth to everyone he met. Actually, looking at him next to the broad-chested, tall, and masculine Trent, I wasn’t even sure what I’d seen in Chad at all.
 

“Don’t be a bitch, Chad. I’m sure you deserved it.” I rolled my eyes then turned to see Trent watching us closely.

“What? Chrissy, come on—”

“Time to leave.” Trent stepped up behind me then, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close.
 

I arched an eyebrow at Chad, waiting for him to leave. “Bye, Chad. I hope everything works out with Katrina.” I smiled sweetly as Trent squeezed my shoulder.
 

As Chad crawled into the cab of his truck and started the engine, he cast one last glance out of his window with a shake of the head.
 

“What’d you ever see in him? That guy’s a fucker,” Trent said.
 

“He wasn’t you. I think that’s what I liked.” I spun and wrapped my arms around Trent’s waist, pressing up on my toes to plant a kiss on his beautiful lips. “He was nothing like you at all, and that made it easier.”
 

I smiled as his hands wrapped around my waist and his tongue tangled with mine, right there on the front step for everyone to see.
 

The nerd and the high school quarterback making out like teenagers. It was the best kiss of my life.
 

I pulled away a moment later, looking beyond him at the bag of vegetables strewn across my sidewalk. “So… does this mean there’s no home-cooked meal for me tonight?” I quirked one eyebrow at him.
 

His grin split across his face as his hands curled into my hair and pulled my head back to his. “Still a little smartass.” He placed a kiss on my lips. “But it just so happens I love smartasses.” With a cocky grin, his hand squeezed one of my ass cheeks. “Get inside. I’d rather have you for dinner anyway.” He finished with a swift smack that sent me squealing up the porch steps.
 

We ran right by the bag of food on the porch. We had more important things to indulge in, like each other.
 

Later that night, after we’d dined on Trent’s mom’s sauce with spaghetti and French bread, we ran to the quick meeting with Trent’s football team, then we ducked home before sundown. We were now wrapped up in one blanket, cuddled together on the swing of my front porch, rocking slightly and talking as the wind rustled the spring leaves. It’d been a long day but such a great one.

“You know how you said you had a crush on me in high school?” I said as his fingers trailed soft figure eights on my knee beneath the blanket.
 

“Mhmm…” he hummed, his eyelids heavy as we swung.
 

“I always thought the opposite. I thought I wasn’t pretty enough for you. I was too nerdy or ugly…” I wished I could forget those awkward adolescent years. The only bright side had been him.

“Chrissy?” He directed my gaze to his. “How could you ever think that? From the day we moved here and I saw you in cutoff jeans and a ball cap, riding your bike past my house like a bat out of hell, I think I loved you.” His mouth twisted in a decadent smile. “I’m just sorry I didn’t kiss you when I had the chance.” He placed a kiss on my lips then, making up for all the lost ones.
 

“When did you have a chance?” I tilted my head, searching my memory.
 

“After the homecoming game, behind the locker room. You were dressed up for Halloween in that cute little mouse outfit. I wanted to pull you into my arms and kiss you until we were both dizzy. You were beautiful then, and I didn’t think it was possible, but you’re even more beautiful now.”

A blush crept up my cheeks. “No one has ever said those things to me before. I’ve spent my whole life thinking I was this ugly duckling, that I didn’t deserve someone’s love, but you... you make me feel the way love is supposed to feel. I can’t believe I wasted time on anyone else.” I smiled at him as tears filled in my eyes.
 

“God, you have no idea what it does to me to hear you say that.” He groaned then leaned in, taking me in another rich kiss as his hands moved up my body and tickled the flesh above my collarbone. “You might never get rid of me if you keep saying things like that. I might just stay forever, take care of the house, take care of you…”
 

One hand slipped between my legs, and he slowly worked the damp flesh. I sucked in shallow breaths as the pads of his fingers found my clit and sent arousal surging through my blood.
 

“Momma’s eager to get some grandbabies. Is it too soon to work on that?” His thumb swirled around my clit before one long finger sank inside my body, preventing me from forming a single thought. “Wasted enough time with you already. I’m not wasting anymore.”
 

Trent attacked my neck with his lips, his fingers working in and out of my body as we hid in the shadow of the porchlight. “Look at you, beautiful little kitten, letting me finger fuck you on the front porch.” His fingers picked up speed, and my muscles began to ache and bunch with my impending release. “I didn’t know you had a kinky side.”
 

His finger curved inside my body and hit just the right angle to have me panting and begging his name.
 

My hips arched off the swing as he worked my body.
 

“That’s it. I want you saying that name every night for the rest of our lives.”
 

His throaty voice pooled deep down in my belly, and every sensation reached a fever pitch before an orgasm coiled all the nerves in my body, racing through me like a thunderous freight train and shaking me senseless.
 

“I’m going to fuck you all over your house, starting right now.”
 

He lifted me and carried me through my front door like a new bride, stopping only to discard the blanket. He bent me over the stairs, pulled the cotton panties down my legs, and sank his tongue into my soaked pussy.

“Trent, oh my god,” I sang as his tongue swirled at my entrance from his position behind me.
 

How could he not be experienced at this? How had some other, prettier girl not caught his attention in all the years between then and now?
 

“I want every part of you. Every piece of your body belongs to me. It did back then and it does now,” he said.

My fists gripped the edge of the stairs as his tongue delved in and out of my body. My hips gyrated as his hands held my thighs while he consumed me, right there on the stairs, right in my foyer, right where we’d fallen for each other all over again.
 

“I changed my mind—I want you in our bed.”
 

Our
bed.
 

His words echoed around my lust-addled brain before his hands were pulling me into his arms, then he carried me down the hallway to my room.
 

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he murmured against my lips as he placed me on the soft cotton duvet. “If you’ll have me, I swear I’ll live and breathe to make you happy.” He dropped to both knees on the floor, his searing blue eyes regarding me as a thousand emotions pulsed between us. “I’ll love you every day until forever, Chrissy Masterson. It took me six years to realize what you mean to me, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna give you six more.” A grin tipped one corner of his mouth. “Will you marry me?”

EPILOGUE

Trent

“Chrissy!” I called, dread turning my nose up. “Need reinforcements in here!”
 

“Are you kidding? A grown man shouldn’t need help to change a diaper,” she huffed as she stepped into the room with a sweet roll of her eyes.
 

“Yeah, but I’ve only got two hands. I’m outnumbered already,” I said with a smile as I passed her the squirming little boy in my arms.
 

“Hi, Collin. Mama’s here,” she cooed at our son.
 

His toothy smile pulled at every heartstring I had, and seeing his chubby little body in her arms affirmed that every day of my life had been leading up to this one with her.
 

“’Kay, let’s tackle that diaper, buddy.” I turned back to Cam, the other little man waiting patiently on me.
 

His ruddy red cheeks lifted before he babbled a string of words only he and his brother could understand.
 

Twins.
 

Boy, had my life turned a complete one-eighty with that news. I’d married Chrissy just four months after proposing, and we’d welcomed our sons less than a year after that. Cam and Collin were a blessing though. The sleepless nights and constant feedings were well worth the joy on Chrissy’s face every time one of them smiled. She’d let me name them after football players as long as I promised to let her name our future daughter after a famous ballet dancer. I’d agreed instantly. As soon as those boys entered the world, I’d realized Chrissy was born to be a mother. She was sweet and patient and nurturing. Our babies were just another gift we’d given each other.