“One day you’ll have a daughter, if you’re lucky one as amazing as mine, and you’ll understand,” she says, squeezing my arm.
It’s weird. I’d never pictured my future children before, but now I am, with messy brown hair and blue-green eyes. Lincoln Carlson has single handedly changed my brain chemistry and I’m trying to not let anything damper that.
I glance over at my smiling mother and my heart sinks a bit when I think about her reaction. I shake it from my thoughts, pushing that conversation to the side, if it ever even happens.
I put the necklace on during the car ride home, Jessa seems a little out of it and I wonder if Maggie said something to offend her. I love my aunt Maggie, but the woman can be intrusive as hell.
When we get back to the beach house, Jessa says she’s taking a walk on the beach and I go to follow her, but she clearly needs a moment to clear her head, so I stay back at the house, waiting for the guys to get back from fishing.
My dadand Uncle Jeff are grilling up the fish they caught today while my mom and aunt nap.
Aiden and Jessa are MIA, and the twins are probably up to no good somewhere around here.
I’m prepping some sliced potatoes and vegetables in the kitchen as Lincoln walks toward the fridge, looking around, before opening the fridge and glancing around.
I can’t help but glance over at him as I continue food prepping. His skin has some redness from being out under the sun today, but other than that he looks absolutely perfect. It’s truly unfair how ridiculously good looking he is, and it hits that he’s completely mine. I smile to myself as I attempt to slice and ogle him at the same time.
He grabs the orange juice from the fridge before grabbing a glass from the cabinet. He looks around one last time before placing a chaste kiss against my lips, before resting his hip against the counter.
“How was your day?”
“Fine, it would have been better if you came. How was shopping?” he asks.
He turns, pouring the juice into the simple glass with palm trees imprinted all over it.
“I got something today you might like,” I say with a smile, putting down the knife from chopping the potatoes into thin slices.
“What’s that?” he asks with a devastating smile.
He tilts his head at me and I can tell that if we weren’t on this trip with family around we would be doing a hell of a lot more than chatting in the kitchen.
His demeanor from when this vacation started to now are like opposites and I can’t deny liking that it’s because of me. Lincoln makes me feel like the most important person in the world and I wonder how I can do the same when we can’t be ourselves in the presence of our family.
I grab the charm on the necklace between my fingers and show him. He leans in close, the juice in one hand as he gently touches the necklace, his thumb grazing over the words.
He laughs and tenderly puts it back against my collarbone.
“That’s cute, Pen.”
“I thought so,” I reply. He’s so close to me that all I’d have to do is lean forward ever so slightly to steal another kiss, but he pulls back ever so slightly.
He takes a sip of the orange juice, a rivulet traveling down the side of his mouth, which he cleans up with his thumb. I track the motion and lick my lips as he pulls his thumb away, sickly I wish he’d push the juice-covered thumb between my lips just like he did that night at Key Club.
“You thirsty, baby?” he asks.
I know he means it in more ways than one; I nod my head for both cases. I’m both parched and in desperate need of him. He smiles, fuck I missed his smile. I can’t even be upset about him being a cocky bastard, because he always delivers, his cockiness is completely deserved.
“Open your mouth,” he commands.
I don’t even question him as I part my lips. He presses his thumb against my chin as he brings the cool glass to his lips, putting the juice in his mouth.
It’s nearly in slow motion the way he tilts the glass back, holding the liquid in his mouth, before putting the glass on the counter, it clinks against the countertop and shivers erupt over my skin.
He holds the back of my head with one hand, keeping his thumb on my chin. His lips meet mine as he transfers the sweet citrus into my mouth.
The citrus flavor splashes against my tongue as I swallow.
Some of it leaks out of the corner of my lips as I press a kiss against his lips, that taste like oranges and sin. His tongue lashes out, licking up the sweetness off my skin and I can’t repress the moan I was holding in.
