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“It’s tradition,” they tell me.
Tradition my ass. I nervously bite my lip. They want me to jump into the frozen pond naked. “I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation. I don’t like the cold.” My eyes drift to the water. “I’ve tolerated it since being here, but I’m a warm-weather girl. I am not getting in that pond naked for a year of good luck. My nipple rings will freeze to my tits.”
“I knew you had nipple rings.” Morgan looks up, smiling, his cowboy hat still on but he’s buck-ass naked. I haven’t looked. I swear. Do you believe me?
Didn’t think so. Let’s just say the Grady brothers have it going on in the south.
“Don’t look at her tits,” Barron snaps, tossing his boot at his brother and then falling to the ground.
“If I’m doing it, so are you,” Lillian screams, jumping from foot to foot, trying to will warmth into her body. She’s naked too. I can vaguely make out her skinny white ass in the darkness enveloping the frosty field.
They’re taking their clothes off and I look like the insane one for being dressed.
“It brings good luck,” Barron tells me, stripping down. Fuck. He tosses his shirt at my head, grinning. Luckily, Bishop and Lara Lynn took the girls back to their place so they’re not seeing their dad naked. “Come on, darlin’.” He steps closer and licks his lips, his eyes narrowing in on mine. “Strip.”
I can’t resist him when he talks like that and he knows that Southern drawl in a weapon. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I shriek, removing my jacket, shirt, jeans, all of it landing in a pile next to Barron’s.
Barron reaches for my hand. “To new beginnings,” he says, so quietly I almost don’t hear him. It’s all the encouragement I need though.
Our eyes hold in the darkness. “To new beginnings.” And then we plunge into the frigid waters of the pond. I swear, my life flashes before my eyes the second I’m in the water. “Holy mother of coldness!” I scream.
“Motherfucker!” Lillian yells.
The guys utter their own swear words as we scramble from the water. It’s not like we go for a swim. It’s a quick dip and we’re out, trying not to get hypothermia.
“This better bring me the best luck ever!” My teeth are chattering so hard I can barely get my lips to form the words.
Standing in front of me, Barron brushes my wet hair from my face, searching my eyes in the pale moonlight. “You’re beautiful.”
Together, we exist in this nothingness. The world falls away and it’s just me and him.
Forever.
“And you’re perfect.” Standing on my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck, threading my hands in his hair to pull him down to me. His mouth finds my jaw first, kissing along it until he meets my lips. “Your cracks, wounds… I plan to fill them all with my love.”
He laughs, shivering as he tries to warm me up. “I’d say I could fill you, but I’m gonna have to warm up a bit.”
I grin. “I’ll say.”
I didn’t see it playing out like this.
BARRON
9 MONTHS LATER
“Hand me that hammer.”
“Can I have my own room?”
“You have your own room. You just don’t sleep in it.”
Camdyn hands me the hammer. “Because Sev always wants to sleep with me. I can’t help it; she likes me so much.”
I glance at Sev, who’s sitting in a pile of dirt with her cat, not a care in the world, and I’m pretty sure she’s naked. Also, her hair is black. She painted it yesterday with spray paint, and I haven’t figured out how to get it out, so she has black hair for now. Or maybe we have to wait for it to grow out. We’re not sure yet.
“Sev!” I bark at her. She jumps at the sound of my voice, eyes wide, and drops the dirt in her hand. “Where are your goddamn clothes?”
Pushing her hair from her eyes, she points to the porch where she hung them on the door handle.