Moving on, I begin to scan over the guys once more. Landon, a friend of Mike’s, sat at his side. Then there was Rhett’s goofy friends who, even though Rhett didn’t get out with us all as much as he used to, still tagged along.
I looked back at Grace, then at the guys once more, trying my best to pin what I was missing. Then it hit me.
“Grace Jackson, you did not fall for one of your brother’s friends.”
“What? No!” She gasped, jerking her gaze away from the crowd of men. “Are you crazy?”
“Are you?”
There were only a few options, and I highly doubted that Landon, Mike’s friend, was the one that had piqued Grace’s interest. He’d only just started coming around; I barely knew him myself.
“Nothing has happened,” Grace finally added, and I looked away from the guys, staring at her. For the first time, I saw the woman she’d become and not the child she’d always seemed to be in my eyes. Grace was sweet, kind, and so full of love; she always had been. But there was this vibrance about her, this alluring touch that I hadn’t seen before. I had to remember that I wasn’t talking to a little girl anymore. I was talking to a woman.
“What do you mean, nothing has happened?”
“I mean he won’t let it.” She shrugged, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses, but I could see the sadness in the way her mouth tilted downward at the corners into a frown. “Because of the age difference."
“And because until a week ago, you were a minor.” Whoever it was, they were smart enough to not let their desires overlook that fact, at least.
“Yes, and that.” Grace’s chest rose as if she took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out.
“Then, there’s your brother,” she nodded, “and your father.”
“Yes, Maddison.” A heavy, defeated sigh fell from her lips as she pushed her sunglasses up and left them to rest on the top of her head. “I know all this. The obstacle surrounding me are endless.”
For the first time, I saw sadness in her eyes as she looked back again with a longing on her face. Then Terrance looked up, their eyes connected, and I knew without a doubt it was him. My heart hurt for her, because I understood what she was feeling in that moment, the need to be with someone but knowing it was pretty much impossible.
Not to mention Rhett would gut his friend, then Reed would surely burn the pieces to hide the evidence. Then they would toast his demise over beers and pleased grins that they’d eliminated the man that threatened to compromise Grace’s virtue. Crazy, I knew, but true. Those men were ruthless when it came to Grace.
“Most guys would not have let any of those factors stop him, so I have to give him bonus points for that.” Grace hurried to look away from Terrance, but the moment she saw me, she knew it was too late; I had figured it out.
“Well, none of that will matter to my brother or my dad. To them, he’ll always be the guy who is four years older than me and my brother’s friend. It’s the ultimate friend violation, blah, blah, believe me, I know it all. Terrance repeats those things over and over every single time we find ourselves close enough that we actually have the chance to talk.”
I reached out and placed my hand over hers. She offered me a reassuring squeeze before lifting her hand to place her sunglasses back over her eyes. I was sure it was more to hide the sadness than to block the sun.
Chloe, Grace, and I remained where we were, enjoying the heat of the sun on the dock by the lake. That was until the guys decided to do cannonballs by running and jumping over our bodies to ensure we received the best possible splash. I remembered a story Aunt Kori told us about Maria climbing out onto the tree branch and her bikini bottoms getting stuck causing her to dangle in midair. This lake was one that held so many memories. And lately it was becoming a place Mike and I settled at often.
I sat back, watching him tread through the water, his hair now growing out and doing that sexy flip thing it did when it got longer. The water only added to the crazy and caused it to stick out in a million different directions.
He didn’t know I was watching him, or if he did, he didn’t bring attention to it. Instead, he swam around, roughhousing with the guys, and when he laughed, it did something to me. It made me feel this deep ache inside, a good ache. I absolutely loved his laugh, that deep husky way of it. Often, I would close my eyes when I heard it and tune out everything else around me. I could live on his laughter and smiles alone.
For so many years, I would lie in the darkness of my room at night and wonder what exactly he was doing at that very second. The fears I held over the years, especially during the times he was deployed, would keep me awake for hours.
Now that he was home safe and we’d found each other in a way we never had before, I finally felt like everything I had ever felt when he was near made sense.
We’d always had this unexplainable connection, this longing toward one another. Being kids, it was simply the kind of friendship where we couldn’t go a day without seeing each other, but what we had now had been budding and brewing for years.
I jumped
