PrincessAurora: Maybe.
Me: That word was supposed to be stricken from your vocabulary.
Me: And stop wasting your minutes.
PrincessAurora: Trevor gave me one of his old phones. I think he pulled one over on me because it looks brand new. Transferred my number over to it. Unlimited minutes baby! Living the life!
She sends another text with an attachment.
PrincessAurora: This is now.
The next picture she texts me is of her and a whole hell of a lot of people—women and kids, that I don’t know or have met—eating breakfast at a very long twelve-person dining table. They must be the other families that are living at the house. An adorable boy, maybe ten or eleven years old, with blond hair and nerd glasses, is behind Aurora making rabbit ears, and much to my annoyance, Knox is sitting next to her and has his arm wrapped around her shoulder. I ignore the pinprick of jealousy. She looks content. Happy. It looks good on her and makes me determined to do everything in my power to keep her happy.
When I pull up at the Montgomery place, Aurora is standing in front of the fountain, waiting for me. She opens the passenger door before I can get out and do it for her.
“Hey,” she says, her voice like a breath of fresh air. “Thanks for picking me up.”
“Uh-uh. Kiss first, then hellos.”
Those adorable blue eyes roll as she meets me halfway and I lean over the console to take her cupid-bow lips in a slow, commanding kiss.
She collapses back against her seat when we pull apart and sighs a dreamy sigh. “I like your good morning hellos.”
My eyes linger over the bruise on her face. It’s barely noticeable this morning. She sees me looking.
“It doesn’t hurt this morning.”
I don’t say anything, just give her one more kiss, then link our fingers together. I hold her hand on my thigh as I put the vehicle in drive and pull away.
“How was your first official morning being a Montgomery?”
“Crazy. How was your morning?”
“Same old shit from my dad.”
She looks over at me. “JD, I’m sorry. Want to talk about it?”
Damn, this girl. She has such a good heart. A strong heart, too. One that survived after all the horrible crap she had to face in her life. I knew a little already from Cam, but after last night, I see Aurora in a whole new perspective, and I respect the hell out of her for what she’s had to overcome.
“Thanks, but I’m good. My dad can just be very intense when it comes to football. He actually gave me a curfew of eight tonight. Said I needed a proper night’s sleep or else I was going to fuck up the game tomorrow.”
“You’re kidding me? Wow, that’s just wow,” she repeats when she sees I’m serious. “Not to change the subject JD, but there’s something I wanted to ask you before we got to school.”
I bring her hand up and nip her knuckle with my teeth, enjoying the sound of her giggle. Yeah, I admit it. I’m already pussy-whipped.
“What do you want to ask?”
“This, between us. Is there a label for it?”
“You mean, am I going to stand on the bleachers and announce with a bullhorn that Aurora St. Claire is my girlfriend?” I leave the Montgomery part out. She asked me and the guys last night before we left to keep her new ties as a Montgomery on the downlow.
“Am I your girlfriend?” she asks me, looking out her window so I can’t see her face.
We arrive at school, and I park in the student lot and turn off the ignition.
“Stay right there,” I tell her and get out.
I circle around and open her door, helping her out. She looks up at me with questions dancing around in her blue irises. Giving her a mischievous smile, I press her back against the truck and kiss the shit out of her. She makes a sexy little moan and grips my shirtfront when I take the kiss deeper. Several whistles go up around us and we both smile against each other’s lips.
