“Oh, it was for sure,” Mrs. Huggins says solemnly from her seat next to him on their couch.
Logan and I sign off on our license, and Mrs. Huggins coerces us into staying for some sweet tea so she and the mayor can, “Be the first to toast the happy couple.”
“I know we must be the first.” Mayor Huggins chuckles. “Because Logan had to have gotten down on one knee as soon as his plane landed.” He winks at me. “You had him right where you wanted him, didn’t you, doll?”
I look over at Logan with a smile, and when we leave, Logan mutters to me, “I’m never gonna live this down.”
“I’ll make sure they all shut their mouths,” I promise him.
Logan and I arrive at my parents’ house holding hands, but before we can say anything, Free rushes over to show me her diploma.
“Mrs. Tiensley just dropped it off last night! Isn’t it beautiful?”
Logan gives her a kiss on the cheek, and I wrap her up in a hug.
“Amazing,” I say. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you for helping me through the rough spots,” she says to me.
“I didn’t do much. You came out pretty brilliant.”
She’s too distracted to catch on to anything between Logan and me.
But Riley isn’t. “Oh, my God, you guys finally did it, didn’t you?!” she shouts from about twenty yards away.
Daddy looks up sharply from the grill, and Mama lets out a joyful scream as Logan puts his arm around me protectively.
“That’s awesome,” Ben says as he walks over to us and holds out his hand—palm up—to me.
I bite back a smile as I reach into my purse and hand him a quarter.
“Even though I didn’t actually bet,” I whisper to him.
“Details.” He pockets it before Logan can open his mouth to ask why.
Free smiles. “So cool. You two are the only couple I know that don’t make me want to hurl.”
“Thanks,” Logan says to her. “That’s quite a compliment coming from you.”
“Took you long enough,” Riley says as she comes up and hugs me. “But I bet it was worth it, right?”
I glare at her. “First of all, not that it’s any of your business or anything, but as you well know, it wasn’t the first time we’d slept toget…”
But Riley’s looking closely at my face. “Oh, it was worth it,” she says, laughing. “It was definitely worth it. Look at your flushed cheeks and those bruised and battered lips. You two must have been up all night long just screwing each other senseless…”
I put my hand over her mouth.
By now, Daddy’s really agitated. His eyes narrow in on Logan, who nods at him calmly. Mama looks over at Daddy and hurries to raise her glass of sweet tea in a toast. “To Freedom, my brilliant high school graduate, and to Macey, my oldest baby on her twenty-sixth birthday. The Henwoods are very proud.”
Then, she races over to Logan and me to give us both hugs.
“You just always loved that boy,” she says to me. “And him you. To think, he was your first time.”
“Mama!”
I turn in horror to Logan, but he’s grinning.
“What?” he says. “It’s a great story.”
