8. Wyatt #2
I wag a finger at her. “This is where you’re wrong.
I started to feel something this week. No, that’s wrong.
I’ve been sitting with the feelings for years, and I was finally ready—see definition for ‘mature enough’—to acknowledge them this week.
The problem is that I’m too late to the party and that boy, who you said had that crush on me oh-so-many-years ago, has moved on.
I just needed to hear it so I can close this chapter, tucking it into the ‘we really are just friends’ basket and get back to normal programming.
” I take a sip of the iced tea she’d slid in front of me while I was talking.
“I may have opened my heart to a possibility this week, one that isn’t reciprocal, but it showed me it’s time I started owning my choices.
Which is a big reason I decided it’s time to come back here. ”
Grinning, Maisey holds up her glass. “Then we need to toast to that. To making bold choices and owning them.”
“Here, here.” I raise my glass and clink hers, my grin spreading wider now that I’ve shared my choice with someone. Makes it real.
“Well, not to rush things here, but look at that.” Maisey taps her watch. “Fireworks start in a few minutes. Feel like watching them on the dock?”
“Are you kidding? I’m already walking down there.” I wink as I grab my drink and walk to the back door. “You coming?”
“In a few.” Maisey nods her head in the direction of the stairs. “Let me run upstairs and grab us a blanket to sit on. You go on, I’ll be down soon.”
I start to walk to the porch door, but double back to shove a few potato chips in my mouth. I’m well aware I’ve now moved into “eating my emotions” territory and I don’t care. Crunching away happily, I make my way outside and start down the pitch-black path to the dock.
As I approach the spot where the yard ends and the dock begins, there’s a sudden flash of brightness as the world around me lights up—and it’s not from fireworks.
In front of me, the old dock comes to life.
The path is lined with twinkling fairy lights snaking their way down to the dock.
As I follow the walkway, I look up to see where lights have been strung on the posts, outlining the embankment and adding a romantic feel that I’m pretty sure this old baby has never seen before.
On the decking, the part of the dock where we like to sit each year, someone has placed several small Mason jars full of flowers—white and blue hydrangeas and red roses, to be exact.
I recognize the flowers from the bushes around the property.
On the ground, delicate petals are sprinkled everywhere I look as if it has snowed red roses, and the effect is stunning.
In the middle of the deck area, a circle of lights border a decadent oasis: a large blanket has been spread and a bevy of pillows, both large and small, are strewn about. On the blanket sits a giant picnic basket with Wyatt standing next to it, grinning my way and holding his arms out wide.
My heart implodes.
“Ta da,” he whispers, but only loud enough so I can hear him. There’s that smile of his, lopsided, charming, and so, so sexy. I can’t stop smiling, to the point I’m worried a firefly might get stuck in my teeth. Everything inside of me is jelly.
Wyatt holds out his hand, and I step closer, ready to close the gap on the slope between us, and I realize I'm shaking. As I take my first step toward him, instantaneously the first few notes of “Born in the USA” blare across the lawn.
And of course I jump—it startles me and I’m not expecting it.
Flinching, I feel my feet shift underneath me as the dirt moves, just enough that I’m thrown off-balance on the sloping hill.
Losing the battle I’m waging with gravity, I land with a thud on the ground.
Cue the domino effect as I begin an epic slow slide on my rear for the last five feet until the tips of my toes hit the wooden planks of the dock, stopping me.
“Freya!” Wyatt is right by my side. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing’s broken, but my butt is going to be bruised for a very long time, just like my chin.
” I take his hand, letting him help me stand up.
My bottom hurts too much to stay seated.
Bruce Springsteen stops singing, thankfully.
Not that I dislike Bruce, but I need my heart to chill out. “What are you doing here?”
“Where else should I be?” Wyatt takes both of my hands in his.
“This is for you, Freya. I’ve been trying to find a way to show you how much you mean to me.
I let you put us on the backburner ages ago—and against my better judgement, I might add.
But when I look back and think about what it took for us to get here, I can only think it’s supposed to be. ”
My heart is pounding, and I'm pretty sure Wyatt can hear it, it's so loud. I will it to quiet down. “You did all this for me?”
“You bet I did. This is why Dyls”—insert Wyatt’s stern expression here—”has been helping me the last few days. We used the party as a diversion so no one would find out.”
“So there’s not a party at Dylan’s tonight?”
“There is. But I wasn’t helping her with it, I was getting her to help me do all of this.” He tips his head, indicating in the direction of the picnic basket. “Well, Maisey had a hand, too.”
Taking his hand, I step up on the dock and walk with him to the blanket. He bends over and begins to pull out an assortment of plates and treats from the basket.
“We’ve got food, drinks, and someone made sure that we have something sweet as well.” He stands up and hands me a dish. “I think this should be to your liking?”
I look down. Strawberry pie. “You know the way to my heart, Wyatt Hogan.” Holding the desert in my hands, I look around at the scene once more, my eyes filling with tears. “This is so nice, Wyatt. I think it’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“Well, I think you’re the person I’ve always wanted to do nice things like this for. The only person I want to laugh with, and at…always.”
The air around us fills with the opening strains to “The Time of My Life.” Oh, well played, sir. If he’s got Dirty Dancing on his playlist, he definitely brought in the big guns.
I giggle. Straight-up, silly schoolgirl style, but I’m okay with it. “I wanted to be the one who told you how I feel. I figured since I was the one who insisted we be friends, I should be the one to make the first move…so you don’t slice open my cheek again.”
“And take away the moment?”
“The moment?”
“The moment I get to look into your eyes and see your reaction…the moment when I tell you how much I love you. That moment.”
Be still my heart. No really, be still, I’m about to go into cardiac arrest. Part of me thinks this is insane, how do two people fall this hard in such a brief window in time?
I would think there may be some kind of passage to get from friends to here, a slower shift as we transition to more than friends—but the other part of me?
That part knows we’ve been laying the groundwork to get to this very moment for years.
And I’m going to enjoy every moment from here forward. Starting right now. “You love me?”
“Of course I do. I have for a long time, and I decided the moment I saw you that this week I was going to make sure you knew this time.” He runs his fingers through his hair.
“I wasn’t sure if you were going to be going back to New York or if you were really going to think about moving here, but it didn’t matter.
I wanted to make sure you knew that I love you.
Wow. It feels great to say it out loud finally.
I. Love. You, Freya Fredericks.” He steps closer, taking my hand.
“Well, I love you, too, Wyatt Hogan.”
“Can I finally kiss you now?”
“You’d better, cause I’m done waiting.”
Wyatt lets go of my hand and then raises his, and I feel his fingertips comb through my hair. He cups the back of my head, tilting closer so our noses brush, his lips trailing their way along my jaw until they slant across mine.
Finally .
I close my eyes, Wyatt’s lips press against mine, and I breathe him in.
Sliding my hands up his chest, I let them snake their way around his neck, tugging him closer into my body.
This kiss is better than I could ever have imagined.
It’s the kiss that says we’re more than friends.
It’s a kiss that tips its hat to our history, but also steps back to allow our future.
This kiss tastes like pink cotton candy, the sweetest lemonade from the county fair, and caramel covered apples all rolled up into one.
This kiss is the kiss I never knew I was waiting for.
Wyatt holds me close, the strength of his embrace safe and warm.
I pull away and extract myself from our lip tangle, resting my cheek on his chest. He kisses the top of my head and nuzzles his way into the crook of my neck, kissing that sensitive part that trails from the back of my earlobe down the nape of my neck.
Oh, this boy is going to be the death of me… and I’m happy to pick out the coffin.
Wyatt Hogan is mine. And I’m his.
He pulls back, still keeping me wrapped in his arms but craning his neck to look down at me. “So. Are we in this now for an adventure? For a meal?”
I open my mouth to answer, and a loud POP!
sounds off. Startled, I step back, and another loud BANG!
echoes on the lake and resounds across the water.
Looking up to the sky above, I remember it is the Fourth of July.
We’re treated to the most magnificent and extravagant fireworks display I think I’ve ever seen.
Of course, it could be because Wyatt just kissed me. I’ll take it.
Wyatt stands behind me, pulling me close to him, and holds me against his chest so tightly I can feel the rise and fall from his breathing. I let my fingers dance along his forearms and caress his biceps. My imagination runs wild with the things I want to do to him, and I love it. I love him.
I turn my head and lean back, falling harder into Wyatt’s body. I lift myself onto the very tips of my toes and press my lips close to his ear. “I’m in this for a lifetime.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Wyatt turns me around so we’re facing one another again. “Yeah? You sure about that, Fredericks?”
I place one hand on my hip and step back. “You don’t think I’m being serious?” Wyatt raises an eyebrow, then steps away, stripping off his shirt. “Whoa, wait a minute. I mean, wow—” I stare at his chest. His lickable, glistening, ripped…
“Come on, Freya. Quit eyeballing me and get over here.” Wyatt’s still in his fire department issued shorts, striding to the end of the dock. “If you’re in it for a lifetime, leap with me.”
“I’m fully dressed!” The man can’t be serious, but judging from the look on his face, he is.
It’s the moment I know I’ve been waiting for and that our relationship has come to. Grinning, I stroll over to stand beside him, kicking off my shoes as I go. He reaches out a hand and his fingers find mine, threading themselves together as if they were meant to be.
I look down, staring at the velvet dark water that reflects the brilliant and dazzling display still firing off in the sky above us. That’s some dark water. Pitch-black.
I can’t see anything, but I do know one thing: with Wyatt by my side, it’s going to be okay.
I look over at the man beside me. The man who was once a boy who lived here, in my hometown, and is my friend. My best friend. The person who I want my forever to be with. A warmth floods through me as I squeeze his hand and do the only thing that’s right.
I leap.