Young Truths (Young Series) (52 page)

She nods at that, curling into my embrace. These are the moments I live for—knowing she wants me to hold her as much as I want to. It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly we seem to fit together. Samantha has said it before, but I suppose I just thought it was a girly thing to say. She’s right. As always.

I’ve spent nearly every day for eleven years wondering what it was that I’d done to ever deserve just knowing the woman currently in my arms. Even now I’m nowhere near coming to a conclusion. There have been so many instances when I’ve hurt her so deeply that it probably would have been in her best interest to disappear to the farthest reaches of the world never to be heard from again. For some reason, she seems to be just as much in awe of me as I am of her. Perhaps that’s what makes us so good together: neither of us is so confident in our relationship that we take anything for granted. At least not anymore.

“Now who’s thinking too deeply?”

I grin at the sweet, teasing voice, nuzzling against her hair. “Not deeply at all,” I counter. “My thoughts are very superficial, I’ll have you know.”

She twists around in order to meet my gaze. “Is that so?” she asks skeptically. I nod, smirking. “And what
thoughts might those be?”

Her confident expression falters slightly at the mischief in my eyes. Glancing up at my mother’s house, I see all the lights are out. Not that she has a clear view of the dock. That was deliberate; Samantha and I tend to enjoy private time down here and I wasn’t particularly comfortable thinking there was a possibility my mother might be watching us.

“She’s not home,” Samantha tells me knowingly.

I look at her in surprise. “What? Where is she?”

She smirks. “On a date,” she says, amusement thick in her voice. “With Stuart.”

My eyes widen as her words register in my mind. “I don’t even want to know...” I say tonelessly, shaking my head. The revelation in recent weeks that my mother has gone back into the dating world is still a little disturbing, despite how much I actually like the guy she’s been seeing. And she seems to be happy, so I suppose
that’s what’s most important. Of course Samantha thinks it’s absolutely adorable and has no qualms encouraging my mother at every turn.

“Probably best that way,” she says, nodding wisely. I narrow my eyes at her and her grin breaks through.

“You’re entirely too cocky right now,” I say warningly.

“I learned it all from you,” she responds in a singsong voice.

Raising an eyebrow at her, I only think for a second about my next move and in the next moment, my wife is fully-clothed in the lake spluttering through the water while I laugh loudly enough to block out her threats of retaliation. When I hold out a hand to help her out, I don’t even resist when she tugs on it, pulling me in with her. We spend a few minutes splashing each other while she pretends to be annoyed with me until I pull her into my arms again, kissing her apologetically, something I’ve perfected over the years. Before I know it, apology turns to tenderness and her fingers find their way into my hair to hold me against her, not that I need the encouragement. I know where this is headed and while I’ve got no problems with it in theory, the last thing I need is for anyone to walk up on us. Her legs wrap around my waist and I begin to move us closer to the shore. More specifically to a cluster of trees that seemed to grow for the sole reason to give us some privacy.

I take a few moments to remove a blanket from the box we use for swim toys and towels
, and arrange it on the ground.

“You’re very forward tonight, aren’t you?” Samantha asks with a raised eyebrow.

I grin at her. “Wouldn’t want you getting cold,” I tell her huskily.

She watches me for a moment and I know she’s not genuinely prote
sting to our proposed activity. Her eyes dart towards the house.

“They’re asleep,” I promise her, reaching around to where I left Harrison’s baby monitor, showing her the display so she can clearly see our son is safe and sound.
She watches for a few seconds before her body relaxes and I put the monitor aside, walking forward to push her wet hair from her face and kiss her gently. “You’re shivering...” Grabbing another blanket, I pull her along with me as I sink to the ground, never breaking our kiss.

As we lose ourselves in one another, I can’t help but think once again how lucky I am to have the beautiful woman currently moving and moaning beneath me. She makes me think and feel things no one else on earth
has ever done and there is nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for her. She’s saved me so many times, bringing me back from places I never thought I’d be able to recover from, and there is no way I’ll ever be able to repay her for that, though I think making love to her under the light of the full moon might be a good start.

It doesn’t matter that I never thought I’d be where I am right now or that nothing about us is perfect. Samantha once said the thing she wants most is for us to have a happily ever after and at the time, I thought she’d been reading a few too many romance novels. Now, though, I understand her desire for that and while we’ll probably never achieve absolute fairytale ending status, she and our children are my happily ever after and I couldn’t ever imagine living any other way.

After 20-plus years of writing in notebooks, I’ve finally gotten enough nerve to do something with my hobby. Having spent my life reading everything from fantasy to horror to romance and everything in between, and the only thing I ever really wanted to do was write a book and publish it. Samantha and Matthew have provided the inspiration for me to finally see that dream through, and now I don’t see anything stopping me. Whether it’s pen and paper or typing on a computer, my imagination will never let me stop until I get my ideas out.

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