chapter twenty four

Three Months Later… She’s staying with me. My baby’s okay and she’s staying with me. I can’t even to begin to describe how that feels. Making up also came with the best sex. I mean, we always have great sex, but it was more than that. I love her to pieces.

Trace has been slowly coming over more and things have gotten back to normal. He’s happy for me and Summer, but I think he misses having someone of his own to shower with affection. Jenna’s a constant fixture in the house now as well. Summer isn’t surrounded by guys all the time and appreciates being able to talk to a girl.

Jenna’s inside with Summer, painting her toenails some sexy color that the call “Vamp” from Chanel. Where do they come up with these names? Can’t they just call it a color? Whatever.

I walk into the family room with a box of pizza. Trace came over to hang out, so he’s lying on the floor with the girls. I think he has fallen in love with Sum, having deemed her his little sister. I set the pizza box on the floor and curl up next to Summer as she pets Whiskers.

“So anyway, I get in to Justin’s house, and he has the poster for New Kids On The Block on the wall, with his mother’s leather jacket on, singing into a hairbrush in the mirror.”

Summer doubles over in laughter and Jenna tries to catch her breath. Trace chokes on his beer, “You never told me you did that.”

“Okay, okay, enough embarrassing stories about me. Thanks a lot Jen.”

“No problem.” She says with a giggle.

I play with Summer’s hair, “You guys want to hear an embarrassing story about Jenna?”

“Oh no!” Jenna covers her mouth, “Do not make me look bad Timberlake ‘cause I got a thousand stories where that one came from.”

“Jenna was walking into the mall and insisted on wearing these ridiculously high pump. She goes to walk in the mall, and trip. To make matters worse, the mall was packed and Jen was wearing a skirt. The skirt went up to reveal Tweety Bird on her underwear.”

“That doesn’t top my story.” Trace says laughing, “I was trying to impress this girl, so I was showing of my basketball moves. I didn’t notice that a shovel was lying on my driveway and as I went to make a lay-up, I stepped on the shovel and it came up to smack me in the face.”

“I remember that. You told all the guys you went boxing and got a few bruises before knocking out a guy.” I laugh with Jenna and Summer as Trace scowls at me.

“It was a good excuse.”

“Yeah right man.” I snicker.

“Well, my most embarrassing moment was when I was fourteen. I was doing a certain chemistry problem in school and had forgotten the formula because I had gone to a late movie and left without studying. I tried to mix the formula, but couldn’t get it. My chemistry teacher came over to look at it and the liquid exploded, dying my teacher’s face purple.”

I laugh hard, “You, my little bookworm forgot to read your own formula?”

Summer nods, “Yeah, and it was picture day. My teacher could barely look at me after that.”

Jenna holds her stomach as she laughs and Trace bites into a slice of pizza. I rub the stubble from my face that I have yet to shave on Summer’s soft skin. She smiles and rubs my head as I lay it down on her stomach.

“So what’s next for you Justin? Now that the tour’s been over for a while, what are your plans?” Jenna inquires.

“I think I’m just going to relax with my baby for a while. I’ve missed laying low and relaxing.”

“Sounds nice. I have to fly out to LA again to get some work done there for a week, but I’ll be back in time for someone’s birthday.” Jen says, squeezing Sum’s hand.

“I can’t believe its June already and Sum’s going to be twenty two.” Trace says.

“It’s pretty surreal. Life sure isn’t what I thought it was going to be.”

“But it’s pretty good now, right?” I ask as I tickle her knee.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, although it would help if you could actually put your dirty clothes in the hamper instead of leaving them NEXT to it, my life would be perfect.”

Trace wrinkles his nose, “Justin’s a natural born slob. There’s no hope for him anymore.”

Everybody laughs, and I get up to throw away the pizza box.

Jenna digs through her purse for her car keys, “Hey Trace, you want a ride home?”

“Yeah, that’ll be great thanks.”

Summer hugs them and we wait at the door and wave to them as they pull out of the driveway. Sum looks so beautiful. She’s got this white dress on that hits just above her knee with a flowy like bottom to the dress. She lets her hair hang down and refuses to put shoes on, preferring to be barefoot. She likes to keep life simple. Just having her around influences how I look at each day.

I have to do this, I can’t take it anymore.

“Why don’t we go outside to the backyard?”

Summer puts her hands on her hips and mocks seriousness, “Oh, now I can go back there? You haven’t let me see what’s behind those trees since I was sick.”

I take her hands in mine without saying a word and we walk outside.

“Nothing’s going to pop out and bite me is it?”

“Just relax.” I laugh.

I lead her through the trees to a clearing, and she gasps, “Oh my gosh!”

I’ve had landscapers here for the last couple months and had to jet set Summer of with me to Hawaii to keep her from finding out. I was able to come up with the excuse that I was having the house finished, which looks amazing now. Every room in the house is finished so now my mom can stay over in the house instead of the in-law sweet.

“It’s a garden.” She breathes, looking at all the rose bushes and gladiolas in bloom. The lilies smell incredible and I’m glad there are so many of them.

“It’s your own secret garden.”

I watch as she walks over the swing tied to the tree I had put in and touches it softly, “It’s so perfect.”

I walk over to her and put her on the swing. She pulls my face down and kisses me softly, “I love you.”

“I love you too. More than life itself. And that’s why I’m going to ask you something.”

I get down on my knee and pull out a box from my pocket, “Summer, will you marry me?”

Her eyes go wide and she stares at me for a minute, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.”

She wraps her arms around my neck, “Of course!”

I let out a breath and resume my regular breathing as relief floods over me. I kiss her face all over as she laughs. I open the box and slip the ring on her finger. It’s a princess cut with two pink diamonds on the side on a platinum band. I think that the thing that means the most though is that her eyes are on me, not the ring.

“Were going to have to tell my mom. You know she’ll want us to live next door to her so she can keep a close eye on everything.”

“You think I care as long as were together?”

I smile and pick her up, “To celebrate, I’ve got a bottle of champagne and I thought we could take a ride down to the ocean.”

Summer stands up and wraps her arms around my waist,” Sounds good to me.”

I grab the bottle from the fridge and jump in the car with Summer and Layla as we drive down the highway.

“So how long have you had that ring anyway?” Summer asks.

“Since the day you left.” I say, entangling my fingers in her hair, “I figured that if you ever came back, I wasn’t letting go again.”

She grins and kisses my arm, “I can’t believe you asked me to marry you.”

“Hey, I’m just glad you said yes.”

“Well, you know the only reason I said yes is because it’s so hard to find a guy with the first initial “J” that now resides on my bikini line.”

“Funny. Very funny.”

We pull up to the beach and let Layla out of the car as she starts running down the beach. I grab a blanket from the back of the car and I hold Summer’s hand, fingering the ring as we walk down the beach.

I spread out the blanket on the sand and Summer lays down on it. I lay on top of her and wrap my arms around her petite body.

“How do you feel about spending the rest of your life with me?” I whisper in her ear.

She giggles, “You? How about me? I pms, drink juice from coffee mugs, hide books in drawers throughout the house, insist on having my toes painted at all times and I love to be loved. I will practically molest you to get it.”

I smirk, “I think I can live with all of that. Especially the latter.” Layla is jumping in and out of the waves, playing with the fish.

“Come on.” Summer gets up and pulls me down the beach as dusk settles over.

She walks as the water laps the beach, wetting her feet and splashing up on her ankle. Summer twirls around and I grab her from behind as my jeans get soaked as I drag her further into the water.

“You are so beautiful.”

I kiss her lips and she reaches for my belt and undoes it, “You want to go skinny dipping?”

“Really?” I sputter.

“Really.”

“Summer unzips her dress and throws it on the beach, “Come on, you better get used to my spontaneous side.”

I pull of my shirt, jeans and boxers and I look back to see Summer already naked in the water. I swim out to her and she wraps her arms around my neck as I hold her.

“You better hope the cameras don’t get a picture of this, because if they do, I’m going to tell them that it was my sexy fiancée’s fault.”

“I’m okay with that.”

“So am I.”

My hands run over her body and Summer puts her head on my shoulder. Her long hair drapes over her back and shoulders and I can see Layla waiting on the blanket for us. I knew I loved that dog.

“I can’t wait to marry you.”

Summer picks up her head, “Me either. Did you know next month we will have known each other a year? I can hardly believe it. We’ve lived through the drama and come out on the other side. I think we can make it through anything.”

“I don’t think, I know we’ll be able to handle anything that comes our way.” I assure her.

She smiles, “Your right.”

“It’s about time someone noticed.”

She rolls her eyes, “Yeah, because your judgment has never failed you.”

“Okay…. So maybe it has failed me once or twice, but I did ask you to marry me.”

“Alright, you did one thing right. I’ll give you that one.”

I spin her around in the water, “So, when do you want to get married?”

She shrugs her shoulders, “It doesn’t matter to me as long as you’re there when I walk down the aisle.”

“I was thinking sooner than later.”

Summer squints in confusion, “How soon?”

“I was thinking next month.” I say quickly.

“Next month? Don’t you think that’s a little soon? Weddings take a long time to plan.”

“I think we could pull it off. Besides, that’s what wedding planners are for.”

Her lips connect with my nose, “I’ll take you anyway I can get you.”

I start humming “Here Comes The Bride” and Summer shakes her head, shivering a little. I feel Goosebumps on her arm and carry her out of the water, “I think we should get going.”

I wrap a towel around her and grab one for myself. We pack up our stuff and head back to the car.

“I think I’ll like being married.” Summer muses.

“I KNOW I will. I get to make love to this whenever I can pin you down for long enough.”

“Well, when we get home, you can try to pin me down for a while.”

I step on the gas.

I love her.

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