Page 101 of Crazy for You
As if a bell had sounded, Grady and Colton sauntered in.
Colton wasn’t the star QB, but he was the hottest guy in school. I hopped up. “Hey.”
He encased me in his muscular arms. “Everything good?”
“Everything is perfect.”
Maybe Ashley and I would get to know each other, or maybe we wouldn’t. Either way, I would be okay. Colton was my family now, and my future was with him. That much I was certain of, and I couldn’t be happier.
Epilogue
My senior year passed in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t believe I was no longer in high school. A lot happened after Dad died and I met my birth mom.
Ashley and I had developed a friendship. I still couldn’t bring myself to call her Mom. That title was and would always be reserved for Candace Lawson, my adoptive mother, who had poured her heart and soul into raising me. I wasn’t saying Ashley didn’t deserve the title. What had happened hadn’t been her fault. Maybe one day “Mom” would drop from my lips when I referred to her. She didn’t care if I called her Ashley. She gave me the impression that “Mom” would make her day, but baby steps.
“Skyler Lawson, where are you?” Georgia shouted over the music and chatter of people packed into Grady’s house. “We need to sing Happy Birthday.”
I hid behind Colton. “Shh.”
He chuckled as he spun around and pinned me against the counter near the stove. “I’m with Georgia on this. It’s your eighteenth birthday and we need to celebrate.”
I ran my hands up his chest, not caring if anyone was watching us. “Traitor.”
He leaned down and nibbled on my ear. “I have the best birthday present for you later.”
I giggled like a crazy schoolgirl. “I can feel it.”
Colton and I had been inseparable since we started dating, with the exception of the week after graduation, when he moved his mom to South Carolina. We’d thought his house would sell when they put it on the market back in the fall, but with the new construction of homes throughout the beach town, older homes were harder to sell.
Georgia huffed. “There you are. All I have to do is find Colton and I know I’ll find you.” She tried to pry Colton and me apart. “It’s time to sing.”
“Do we have to?” I protested. I was all for a birthday party, but I didn’t like to be the center of attention.
“You know it.” Then she whistled, and the people who were scattered about the kitchen stopped talking. “It’s time to sing Happy Birthday. Gather around.” She waved her hands.
Colton moved to my side, giving me a full view of the long island where my four-tiered cake acted as the centerpiece amid a variety of finger foods and goodies.
“Nan, if you’ll light the candles,” Georgia said.
Guests were coming in and finding spots where they could.
Once Nan lit the candles numbered one and eight, she held out her hand. “Come here.”
I slid over to her with Colton nudging me forward.
“Don’t look so pained,” Ashley said from the other side of the island.
Mr. Dyson, who had his arm around his sweetheart, laughed. “I don’t like the attention either,” he said to me.
Mia emerged through the crowd, her cheeks flushed, her dark hair messy. Behind her, Grady came in looking like he’d been doing something he shouldn’t.
Whether his dad noticed or not, he didn’t say a word.
I rolled my eyes at Mia.
She shrugged as she stood beside Ashley.
I couldn’t blame her for sneaking away with her boyfriend. I desperately wanted to do just that with my hunk of a man.
