Page 106 of Just Forever

Lake glances at me and sends me a quick smile before he looks at Eloise again. “Almost three years soon, officially. We’ve known each other since we were kids, though.”

“Sweet.”

“Christ, no. Lake was anything but sweet,” I say with a grin, which makes Eloise laugh and Lake raise a brow before he rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, he’s right about that. But Ryk happens to have the patience of a saint, so it works out.”

His arm is on the backrest of my chair and occasionally his fingers move over the skin just below where the sleeve of my T-shirt ends. He does it almost absently, and warmth spreads through my chest every time he does it.

“It’s a front,” I say. “The whole I-scowl-all-the-time-and-like-nobody. He actually is very sweet underneath it all.”

Lake sends me an unimpressed look. “Are you trying to rehabilitate my reputation? Because they’ll know you’re lying sooner rather than later.”

“Youaresweet,” I say.

“I’m really not.”

“You’re a mushy marshmallow inside.”

“Dear God,” he mumbles.

“He’s kind of right,” Sawyer says.

Lake gives him a look of betrayal.

“Not you too.”

Sawyer shrugs and throws a look my way. “He has all your texts.”

I have no idea what he means by that, and that must show on my face.

“He has all your texts,” Sawyer repeats. “I’m talking, all of them. From the time he got his first phone. He has them all. He used to have this ancient Motorola, remember?”

I nod.

“He still has it safely stored in some box because he couldn’t transfer those messages to the next phone he got. So, yeah, he has every single message you’ve ever sent him. Even the basicones. I’m pretty sure there are dozens of them that just say ‘Hi’ because you were clearly a real smooth talker at eleven.”

I turn to look at Lake, who’s currently busy throwing Sawyer a sour look.

“Really?” I ask.

He tries to look annoyed, but he fails miserably.

“I… I have a soft spot for you,” he says.

I stare at him. He shrugs.

And then I lean toward him, take his face in my hands, and kiss him.

Hayes clapsme on the back and says goodbye, then heads to the Uber waiting at the curb. I go back inside and close the front door behind me. All the guests have left.

Lake is cleaning the last of the plates off the makeshift dining table. He’s already stacked the folding chairs in the corner and closed the window and the door that leads to our tiny backyard.

He looks up and smiles when he hears me come in.

“All good?” he asks.

I’m not a hundred percent sure exactly what he’s referring to, but I nod anyway because it’s always all good when I’m with him.

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