Page 96 of This Feeling

“Bye, Gavin!” Harper called out. He turned around, smiled, and waved.

I pulled Harper toward me and kissed her a little longer than was publicly decent before drawing back and whispering, “I’ll see you later, baby.”

Those beautiful cheeks turned pink again, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’ll be counting down the hours.”

“Gag me,” Brystol said, as she started to push the stroller with the still-sleeping Winnie inside past us.

James chuckled and hit my chest. “Let’s go, lover boy.”

He and I jogged to catch up to Gavin.

“Man, you couldn’t get out of there fast enough,” James said to his brother.

“I just don’t care to be around her.”

“Must make things awkward since your best friend is married toherbest friend,” I said as I glanced across the street. “Is that Tanner Browning again, peeking into Aurora’s place?” I asked as I pointed toward the young kid standing outside the bookstore.

Gavin strained to look. “It doesn’t look like the same kid.”

James started across the street as he said, “Let’s find out.”

Gavin and I followed. When the kid saw us walking toward him, he looked like he might take off running. Instead, he just stood there like a deer in headlights.

“Everything okay here?” James asked, coming to a stop in front of the kid.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for my girlfriend to come out of the bookstore.”

I glanced through the window and saw two young girls standing in line to pay for books. “Yeah? What’s your girlfriend’s name?” I asked.

“Autumn.”

Nodding, I moved past him into the bookstore. Aurora glanced up and waved when she saw me. Approaching the counter, I smiled at the two young girls. “One of you wouldn’t happen to be Autumn, would you?”

The girl with light red hair raised her hand. “I’m Autumn.”

“Do you know the young man standing outside there?” I pointed toward the front window.

“Um, yeah, that’s my boyfriend, Wes. Is everything okay? He got tired of waiting on us and went outside.”

“He was in here with the girls,” Aurora said. “But he got bored.”

“Great, just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

Aurora flashed me a smile. “Of course. Thank you for keeping an eye on us.”

“No problem.”

Turning, I started out the door—and when I stepped outside, came to an abrupt stop.

“What in the hell are you doing?” I asked.

Gavin and James were kneeling on the sidewalk, throwing dice. James looked up. “Wes here is showing us a dice game.”

I stared at them both like they’d lost their damn minds. “A dice game?”

“Left, Center, Right,” Wes stated with a huge grin. “I’m teaching them.”

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