Page 69 of Should've Been Us
Chapter Sixteen
Connor watchedLulu from across the room, heard her tinkling laugh and felt his heart clench. God, he was so in love with her. He’d only thought he loved her before this trip to Mexico. He’d wanted her, lusted after her, wanted to be the man that she turned to for everything, but he hadn’t known how Lulu finally letting him in would affecthim.
He thought about her all the time. Every second he was apart from her, he was planning for the next moment he got to see her. He looked for her around every corner and when they were in the same room, like now, his eyes automatically sought her out. His hands itched to reach for her. His heart raced and his body yearned forher.
Now that he had her, he didn’t intend to ever let hergo.
His gaze drifted to the center of the room and the happy newlyweds who were wrapped around one another, foreheads pressed together, whispering to each other. He waited for the feelings of jealousy and unease that he’d begun associating with Derek years ago to come. But theydidn’t.
If he were a better man, he’d have stopped worrying about the hold his best friend had over Lulu when she’d told him that she was over Derek, but he hadn’t. Even earlier, when Derek had asked to see her, he’d felt that age old resentment flare inside of him. He hadn’t honestly thought Derek would send him to fetch Lulu so that they could run away together, but he hadn’t been able to shake his worries. Not until Lulu had come back out of that room and smiled athim.
She’d smiled and he’d known then that she loved himtoo.
Lulu had come to him, straight into his arms, and kissed him with so much passion it had threatened to drown him in his need for her. She’d known. She’d taken one look at him and known that he needed her reassurance and she’d given it to him, without hesitation or question. She’d told him with her kiss and her touch, with her eyes even if she hadn’t used words, that she washis.
She loved him and Connor had been fucking floating like a pre-teen girl with her first crush all daylong.
Even though he’d seen her before the ceremony started, something had happened to him when Lulu had walked down the aisle on the beach earlier. The sunset ceremony had been beautiful. The sky turning gorgeous shades of pink and orange that reflected off the beautiful blue green ocean. The white sand beneath his feet had all but glowed and the whole setting had seemed magical in a way that he knew Aubrey couldn’t have planned better. But then Lulu had stepped to the head of the makeshift aisle and everything else had faded away forhim.
She was all he’d seen in that moment. Lulu with her dark hair curled and flowing loose over her bare shoulders. Her sun-kissed skin looking warm and soft. The bridesmaid dresses hadn’t been awful despite tradition and the slinky slip of silk had skimmed Lulu’s lithe body and beautiful curves perfectly. She’d smiled when she saw him then too, a sweet almost shy smile that had made him want to rush up the aisle to her, pull her into his arms and kiss hersenseless.
Instead, he’d locked his knees and let her move towards him in slow, measured steps that gave him plenty of time to fantasize about her walking towards him down another aisle, like the one back home in the Fate Baptist Church, where her dress would be white and where when he got to kiss her it would mean that she was his foreternity.
He really had turned into a teenage girl at some point this week if he was planning their wedding but he couldn’t bring himself tocare.
The truth was, he’d thought about being with Lulu a lot. He’d wanted her for a long time. He had plans for them. Even if she wasn’t ready to hear about that plan, it didn’t mean he didn’t haveone.
They were together now. They would go home together tomorrow. Once they were back in Fate, he knew they’d have to go back to their real lives in the real world. They had jobs and responsibilities. They had family that would want to see them and spend time with them. They wouldn’t be able to lock themselves in a bedroom and ignore the outside world the way they’d been able to while they were inMexico.
There would be obstacles to overcome. Lulu thought moving in with him was too fast. He almost laughed at the thought. Fast? He’d been in love with her since he was a kid. He knew he could persuade Lulu to move in with him but she wasn’t the only stubborn Nichols sibling he’d have to deal with. Lulu’s brother and his coworker at the Fate Sheriff’s Department, Lance Nichols would undoubtedly have something to say about Connor’s relationship with hissister.
Lance didn’t like Connor. He never had. No matter how Connor had tried to befriend the older man, Lance had never given him a chance. After that conversation he’d overheard he understood some of Lance’s issues with him but until he got back to Fate and talked to the man, he wasn’t sure how he could go about convincing Lance that he was good for Lulu except by being there for her, at her side, and showing them both that he was serious about them making a lifetogether.
“Heyloverboy.”
Connor glanced up when someone knocked into his side, pulling out the chair next to him. He narrowed his eyes as Dean plopped his ass down in one chair and then kicked his feet up on another and leaned back as if he were lounging at home on his couch and not in a ridiculously overpriced all-inclusive Mexicanresort.
Dean had shed his tie, like they all had when the ceremony was over, and rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt. His dark hair was messy as if he, or more likely one of the bridesmaids, had been running fingers through it. His five o’clock shadow took away some of the boyishness that still softened his sharp features until he grinned, flashing his dimples and making his brown eyes sparkle with that mischievous glint Connor knew far toowell.
“Loverboy?” Connor scoffed, “Are you relinquishing your title orsomething?”
“Nah, love ain’t got a thing to do with me. Playboy is more my style.” Dean smirked, rearranging himself in the chair so that his big hands were laced together over his stomach, “You’re the one with love in his eyes. Hell, you looked like you were sitting over here all but mooning about Lulu. You got it bad,huh?”
“Yeah.” Connor didn’t hesitate or hedge, didn’t worry about his friend making fun of him or laughing, he just admitted the truth and smiled when Dean chuckledknowingly.
“Yeah. Bout time you admit that you’re crazy about thegirl.”
“I couldn’t admit it before, she wasn’t ready to hear it.” He took a long drink of his beer before putting it back on thetable.
“Neither was Dare I wouldimagine.”
“Exactly.”
“But you got the girl, in the end. That’s all thatmatters.”
“This isn’t the end.” Connor shook his head, “This is only thebeginning.”
“I’m glad.” Dean’s lips curled up at one corner, “Happy looks good on you. It looks good on the both ofyou.”
