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“God, I still remember that night. It was pouring and we got totally drenched outside the venue. We spent the entire evening screaming along to the music, soaked like a couple of drowned rats,” he laughs and actually cracks a fucking smile.
“And you bought me this, because I was shivering.”
“I’ve always loved you red,” he steps toward me and pulls me in, hovering his lips just above mine. His warm breath fluttering across my skin, “Always.”
“Shut up,” I laugh, shoving on his chest a little, but he doesn’t budge.
“I mean it. I’ll never forget in first grade when Kevin Myers pantsed you on the playground so everyone could see your Hello Kitty underwear.”
“You punched him in the eye,” I snort. “We were like 7 years old and here you were decking kids.”
“He deserved it. Anyway, they sent me to the office and when my mom came to pick me up, you know what I said to her?”
I shake my head.
“She asked me what I was thinking hitting another kid, and I told her that he hurt the girl I’m gonna marry. Wasn’t the first time I told her I was gonna marry you either.”
Smiling lazily at me, his forehead comes down to rest on mine.
“I hate you,” I laugh.
“I love you.”
“Me too.”
“Hey, so I hate to break up whatever this is, but time is ticking you two,” Riot stands leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed against his chest, leaning into the doorframe.
Travis lets out a low growl and I cover up a laugh.
“It’s fine, I think I’ve got it all anyway. At least the things that matter.”
Travis turns around and grabs the box that he just taped up, “Alright then, let’s get out of here.”
Taking the back set of steps, we head down to the back door. Riot borrowed his friend Zeke’s pickup truck and pulled it around into the back yard, within the confines of my privacy fence, so no one could nose around and see what was going on.
Travis slides the box into the back seat, and I climb into the seat afterward, clutching my t-shirt in my arms. Tinted a deep, dark, nearly black shade, the windows of the backseat offer me cover so no one will see me leave.
Riot starts up the truck, and Travis jumps up front before we back out of the gates, leaving my home behind.
“Do you want to be there?” Travis asks, looking back at me over his shoulder.
“For which part?” I ask.
“Any of it.”
I lean my head against the window. I’m not sure how I feel about the logistics of the plan.
“No, I think I want to stay at home while you guys handle shit,” I sigh.
Travis laughs.
“Something funny?”
“Yeah, you didn’t call it my house red. You called it home,” he grins ear to ear like a kid in a fucking candy store, and I catch this little glimpse of the adorable boy next door again. The one who stole my heart when we were just kids, and never gave it back.
“Shut up,” I reply, hiding a grin of my own.
Chapter twenty-six