“I love you, too.”
He stops walking and pulls me into him, dropping my hand and cupping my cheeks. “I love you so much, Everlee. I hope you know that.”
“I do, babe. What’s-” going on? What’s wrong? What happen last night? These are all the questions I want to ask, but can’t. So I just kiss him. I wrap my arms around his neck and he lifts me into his arms. My ankles lock around his back as my heels dig into his ass. The kiss is deep. Intense. Passionate. Full of emotion.
He pulls out of the kiss and presses his forehead to mine. “I…” He hesitates, then stares at something in the distance.
“What?” I whisper, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck start to rise.
He slowly sets me back on the sand and grabs my hand, strolling up the beach.
“What?” I whisper, looking off in the distance. There’s something large moving, and my heart starts to race.
He pulls me in front of him and wraps his arms around my waist and holds me there.
About fifteen feet in front of us is a sea turtle. She’s huge. At least three or four hundred pounds, and she’s digging a hole in the sand to lay her eggs.
I’m in complete awe because I’ve never seen it happened before. We stand there for a while, watching her, then slowly slink to a sitting position. Jax positions me between his legs and continues to hold me, never breaking his grip on me.
The turtle continues to work the sand forever, digging down deeper and deeper. She hovers for a moment, then paddles the sand back into the hole.
She laid her eggs.
I turn to look up at Jax, the moonlight causing his eyes to sparkle as he looks down at me and smiles. He kisses the tip of my nose and we turn back and watch her slowly make her way back to the ocean. It takes forever, and she pauses several times to catch her breath or regain her strength. As she gets closer to the water's edge, we stand and follow her, still keeping our distance, and then watch her hit the water, then swim off.
“Holy… wow. That was amazing,” I say breathlessly.
“Yea. That was pretty amazing.” He looks up at the moon, then says, “We should probably get back. It’s late.”
“Yea.” I don’t know why he wanted to go on the walk or what he wanted to say, if he wanted to say anything at all. Perhaps he will tell me whatever is weighing on him when he’s ready. All I can do right now is to be a rock for him. Support him and love him through whatever it is.
BECKETT - SURPRISE
Thirteen.
That is the number of hours I, we, have left of being Knox’s little bitch boy. Even though Jax also won, he’s not taking advantage of the situation as much as Knox is, or at all, really. And to be fair, Knox has cut back quite a bit. I think Everlee said something to him, because he went from asking me every five minutes to get him something to every couple of hours.
Everlee has calmed down with the wholethe world is ending and mom is showing up. She was pretty antsy most of the day yesterday, but finally started calming down near the end.
Today’s the fourth and we’re going to have fun!
Lizzy, being Lizzy, has gone all out and has an entire basket full of goodies. Light up necklaces, headbands, glasses and more. Pretty sure she raided the entire party section of the store and bought anything that had red, white, and blue on it, or looked like it belonged to the holiday. She’s been on us all day to stay decked out.
One thing I’ve learned about Ev’s guys is that they love her big. Like super big. Anyone who would willingly be trapped in a house for an entire week with Lizzy must really love her. I’ve seen snippets of her relationship with the guys when I’ve visited, but nothing like spending nearly every waking hour with them.
I really like them. They are all so different, but God. They rotate around Ev. They are the planets to her sun. I love that for her so much. I hated dickface and when she told me they broke up, I was equal parts sad and happy for her. Sad because she was going through all that hurt and pain, but so happy for her because she was finally done with him. The thought of her marrying him terrified me. She was convincing herself she was happy with him and they would have likely gotten married, had two point five kids, bought a house and lived for several years in a blissful-like state, but it would have ended. He was always a dick, in more ways than one. I’m just glad he showed his true colors to her before it was too late.
Then when she told me about the guys, well, let’s be honest, she never really had to tell me, because the chemistry between the five of them is electric. Anyway, when I found out about her little polypod at Easter, I was nervous. It’s a lot, but they seem to have most things figured out. They are still relatively young in the relationship, but from what I can tell, they are stronger than some couples who have been together for years.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Will asks me, nodding at Lizzy and Everlee bobbing in the ocean.
“I have no idea, but with those two in can’t be good.”
Will lets out a throaty laugh. Damn, he’s a handsome man, and he’s all mine. The last couple of months have been a complete whirlwind as I’ve helped him through the whole coming out in public. He told the firehouse first, and they were super accepting. I’d like to think I helped pave the way for future firefighters who wanted to come out, but that’s also the selfish prick in me wanting to take credit for someone else’s accomplishments and successes and really any general positive thing.
“You want to toss the ball around?” He nods to the football perched on the top of Ev’s Rainbow colored Bogg bag.
“Sure!”
