“Ridiculously.”
He kisses my nose and says, “Wait until you see this next part.” As we come around a corner Eric watches my expression. I gasp at an enormous sculpture of a woman’s serene face. Through her green hand pours water into a fountain. “They call her Earth Goddess,” he smiles. “She’s made of plants and flowers, see that?”
Looking closer I’m stunned. “She’s so beautiful! Whoever created her was a visionary!”
“Guess how tall she is?”
“I can’t.”
“Twenty-five feet.”
“No! Oh my God, can we get a picture in front of her?”
He grins, “Sure,” and politely stops a couple as they pass by, their eyes just as filled with awe. “Excuse me, could you take our picture?”
“Only if you’ll take ours,” the older man barters with a twinkle in his eyes. They light up more, this time with recognition. “Hey now, aren’t you the Falcons’ quarterback?”
Eric holds out his hand. “I am, yeah. What’s your name?”
“Hank, and this is my wife, Betty. Congratulations on the Super Bowl.”
Betty gushes, “You slaughtered ‘em!”
“Thanks! They didn’t stand a chance. Where you from?”
“Arizona. It was ninety in Phoenix last week,” she announces, clearly not pleased with it. “Can we take a photo with you?”
I offer to do it, and the couple stands on each of Eric’s sides, him towering above them. Neither of them can be taller than five-six.
“Got it!” I smile, offering the camera. “Take a look. I gave you some choices.”
Glancing to the screen, they huddle, excited. “I can’t wait to tell Connie, she’ll be so jazzed!”
“I’m gonna be the star of the poker game next time, I can tell you that,” Hank grins. “Oh, let us take yours.”
Eric hands him his cell. “Use my phone. Wren forgets to text me photos of us.”
“I do not!”
“Don’t lie.”
“Well, I get distracted,” I mutter as we walk over to stand with the Earth Goddess and soothing sound of water, behind us. Hank and Betty stand a good distance away, angling the phone to get a better shot. I go for Eric’s hand but he mutters, “Hang on,” digging in his pocket. “Did I forget my keys in the Jeep?”
“I hope not. You want to go back?”
“No, I’ve got ‘em, sorry. Hank make it video, okay?”
“Okay…Ready!”
Frowning I ask, “Why video?”
Eric bends his knee, holding up a diamond ring between his thumb and forefinger. I gasp, hands flying to my lips as his smile becomes intimate, hopeful, and filled with love. “Wren, be my wife. Marry me?”
Tears of happiness spring up and hover as I breathe a quietly shocked, “Yes.”
“Louder so my family can hear you later,” he winks.
“Yes! Oh yes, I would love to marry you, Eric!”
My finger trembles as he slides the ring on. I stare at it, and it winks back. Quietly so nobody but us can hear, he smirks, “I love you, Sweet Tits.”
Biting my lip on a grin I whisper back, “I love you, Cocker, you jerk, more than you know.”
“You’re going to have lots of time to show me.” Pressing a firm, final kiss to my smile he rises up and deepens it, briefly but with promises of more to come. We glance to the strangers who will forever be a part of our lives in this memory. “You get that, Hank? Betty?”
The couple beams, nodding. “Got it!” He hands the phone back and loops his arm around his wife. “We’ve been married thirty-two years. I hope you’re as lucky.”
We thank them and say goodbye, but as we leave with our arms around each other, too, Eric’s cocky, lopsided grin flashes and he calls back, “We’re gonna beat that, Hank, I promise you.”
Laughing I quietly chide him as we stroll away, “You’re so competitive.”
“Life is a game,” he murmurs into my hair, our footsteps keeping time. “Play it to win it.” After a few moments he laughs, “I know what my Mom is going to get us as an engagement present.”
“Oh yeah, what?”
“Your membership card to the Gardens. You might be an only child but you’re going to have two moms, two dads now…and a huge fucking family to go with ‘em.”
CHAPTER 42
WREN
At his apartment, Eric undresses me slowly in front of the glass walls that take up the entire east side of his home, the full moon our light, casting a blue glow, shadows deep. I raise my arms and have the dress lifted away before his lips work their way down my body, calloused fingers pressing first into my lower back, next my ass, and settling into the soft round crease underneath. His mouth stops in front of my pussy and presses a kiss to it.
I start to ask, “Was your team mad you left the bachelor party early,” but the words fade into a moan.
“Do I look like I care what they think?” he murmurs into my dampened hair. “This is why I told you to wear no panties. I planned this all along.”
“Sneaky sneaky,” I smile, and tell him as he spreads my lips and tongues my clit with deliberate slowness, “The girls loved that you showed up. Oh that feels so good!” Lacing my fingers into his hair I can barely get out, “Hannah was just kidding about you ruining the bachelorette party.”
He laughs into my slickness, and slips a digit inside, locking eyes with me from down there, the hazel darkened with lust. “I had enough ‘bachelor parties’ when I turned pro.”
Fisting his hair I tilt his head up and challenge him, tightening my grip, “You want to bring that up now?”
“Ow,” he grins. “Sorry. It’s always been you. I was a virgin before. Honest!”
My shoulders shakes with laughter and I point at my pussy, “Back to work, Cocker.”
His smile disappears and he dives in, licking and sucking until my legs tremble. He lifts and backs me into the window. “You want to give the world a peek at greatness?” he smirks, jerking his chin to the sleeping, treelined neighborhood of Virginia Highlands, Georgia, below.
Arousal deepens like a shot of adrenaline, and I
