Page 136 of Wildest Forever

“Me too,” I admit, reaching for a strawberry and pressing it to my lips before I take a bite.

Silence consumes me for a moment and a thousand questions bounce around my head at getting to know him a little better because lets be honest, we really don't know each other at all.

Sighing, I bite the bullet.

“What was your childhood like?” and he looks at me in utter confusion.

“My childhood?” he puffs his cheeks out and looks forward once more.

“Yeah,” my words echo quietly around the two of us, lingering for a moment.

“It was okay, not the easiest, not the hardest...” he pauses for a moment and looks down at his now empty glass.

“Sorry I shouldn't have asked,” I rush the words out as if they've burned my tongue and I feel stupid for even asking that question.

“Please don't be sorry.” he smiles at me but I see the sadness that sits behind his whiskey eyes.

“We don't have to talk about it,” I bite the inside of my lip and wish I could rewind back.

“No we can, I just think where everything is still so raw with my dad and everything that happened in between,” and I know he is referring to when he was shot.

“I get that,” I whisper. “I really do,” I suck in a breath and try and slow my racing heart.

“But I was grateful at having the childhood I did... grateful that we had Austin, Aspen and Harlow too,” he slips away from me a moment as if he is replaying a memory.

“I bet,” my voice cracks. “I always wanted siblings, the closest thing I got to that was Dusty.”

“Love Dusty,” he scoffs a laugh, “good man.”

I nod, “He really is.”

“Austin was like a brother to me,islike a brother to me,” he laughs shaking his head, “not sure why I am talking about him in past tense.” I don't interrupt him, just let him talk. “Aspen was always around, Austin's annoying kid sister. But we never left her out, she was more part of our gang then Harlow. She came later,” he looks up at the stars and sighs heavily. “Aspen had a crush on Riggs, she was always watching him or trying to sneak around with him, but he was oblivious at the time.”

“So, they always had a thing then?”

“Not really, she liked him, he liked her, but they never really got it off the ground until a couple of years ago when she came back to Lovelock Bay,” he nibbles the inside of his cheeks, eyes back down to his glass. “But they found their way back to each other in the end, that's the main thing... they were always meant to be. They just had a bit of a bumpy road to get there,” he trails off then moves forward, taking my glass from my hands and placing it into the picnic basket.

I sit up a little taller, legs crossed beneath me, watching his every move.I watch as the boyish grin slips onto his face and my stomach coils with excitement and nerves.

“Can I take you home,wife?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

MORGAN

Pulling up to the darkened house, he cuts the lights on the truck and turns it off.Neither of us move for a moment and I know he is trying to work out if I am okay or not.He slips from the truck and closes the door softly and I count in my head how long it takes him to get to me, my eyes watching him the whole time he is on the move.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

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