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“Erm…I’m not sure, sweetie. I think it’d be a little dangerous.”

“Oh.” He jutted out his bottom lip and hung his head.

“All the guys will be meeting us up here later though so we’ll have loads of fun!” I said, trying to cheer him up.

“All of them?”

“Yeah, sweetie, all of them.” I smiled at his wide grin and carried on walking behind him.

The plan was for us to all have a barbecue up here and have some proper family time. We hadn’t been getting that lately and we were all in need of it.

Kitty still wasn’t her normal self and I desperately wanted to ask her what was going on. I needed to broach the subject with her because she couldn’t keep going like this, she was pushing all of us away and none of us wanted that.

There was a clear divide between all of us and it amazed me how when one person in the team was suffering with something, it seemed to affect all of us.

I lay on the grass when we made it to the clearing and watched Eli and Monty run around, Eli’s laughter bouncing off the trees.

After a couple of hours, they were both tired out so they lay next to me, Eli’s head leaning against Monty’s back and fell asleep. I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the top of Eli’s head.

I don’t know how long we lay like that, but I was woken up by voices.

My eyes sprung open and a shadow came over us. “Hey.” Ty smirked.

“Hey.” I lifted up onto my elbows, careful not to disturb Eli who was still asleep. Monty lifted his head, looked over at us and then closed his eyes with a groan.

“You look beautiful in that dress.” His eyes traced the length of my body before coming back up to meet mine.

I felt my cheeks warm as a blush spread, I was still so unsure of what to say when someone complimented me that I just nodded at him and looked away.

I loved to wear dresses, especially maxi dresses like this, I loved the way they flowed and how free I felt in them. It was something so simple but meant so much.

Extending his hand to me, I took it and let Ty help me up, brushing the grass off my back as I stood.

His arm came around my waist. Smiling, I lifted up onto my tip toes, putting my hands onto his shoulders and planting a soft kiss on his lips. Moaning, he deepened it, his hands roaming down to my butt and squeezing.

My hands roamed his body and up into his hair, leaning into him so that I was closer to him.

“God, I can’t seem to get enough of you,” he said, pulling back and resting his forehead against mine.

“Good.” I smiled.

Chuckling, he pulled back and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Will he be okay there?” He tilted his head to Eli, who was still fast asleep.

“Yeah, Monty’s with him,” I said and wrapped my arm around his waist, leaning my head against his shoulder.

We went over to the picnic table where they were all setting up the food. I moved over to Kitty who was sat by herself, pouring a drink into her solo cup.

“Kitty?” Sitting down next to her, I placed my hands on the table. “Fancy a chat?”

“No.” She lifted the cup to her mouth, not even bothering to look at me.

Taking a deep breath, I turned, seeing all of them staring at us. They knew that this had been coming, it was only a matter of time and none of them were going to ask her what was up so it was left to me.

Tilting my head, telling them to give us some space, they did as I asked silently and walked away.

“Out with it.” I spun on the bench seat, lifting my leg over the one side.

“Out with what?”