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I squint, focusing on one dark-haired man with a coconut bra at the far end of their little group. He stands a little bit taller than the rest. “Is that Charlie?” Caleb doesn’t bother following my stare. “Yeah, it is.” I watch as Stella’s half brother shimmies, a drink in each hand. “He drove down from New York?” “You know him. He never misses a party.”
SKDMDNFJDJSJS WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY
Dane, our town sheriff, fired him from his deputy position four months ago for being too nice.
Oh thank GOD i won't have to simp for a c*p
I don’t need the reminder that my romantic life is a disaster. That the one thing I’ve always secretly, quietly hoped for is as much a mystery to me as dark matter and extraterrestrial life. It doesn’t matter how many dates I go on; I’m as far away from it now as I’ve ever been. I don’t understand how something so easy for everyone else can be so difficult for me.
She is me :/
“And what do you get out of this little arrangement?” “Besides time with a beautiful woman?”
OH HE'S SMOOTH WITH IT
“I’m taking you out tomorrow,” he tells me. I raise an eyebrow and blink away from where he’s tip-tapping across my screen. “Oh yeah?” He hums in the affirmative. “I’ll pick you up at six thirty.”
Oh god this is so hot
“I’ll keep an eye on things too, just to make sure.” “What are you making sure of?” Eric stares hard at me from the other side of the desk. It’s a battle-weary stare, that look. The look of a man who has seen a lot. “Of things.”
LMFAOOOOO
I need a distraction or I’m going to escort Layla to the darkest corner of this room and give Eric some more material for his therapy sessions.
PLEASEEEEEEE
“Nah, there was a win.” She loops around to the passenger side, watching me from over the cab of the car. “I know you don’t like the picture that much.” I kind of do, but that’s not what I’m talking about. “I got to spend time with you, didn’t I?” She smiles, wide and bright and beautiful. “Oh, Caleb.” She sighs. She tugs open the door to my Jeep. “Ten out of ten.”
SWOON
“What’s in it for me?” he whispers. He tugs our hands until both of my arms are wrapped low around his waist, his palms smoothing up my arms. His touch is intentional, slow—heavy and delicious.
He knows what he's doing....
“Abuela,” I groan. “You told me you didn’t have any left.” She only turns halfway from the stove, her face in profile. “I didn’t.” “Then why does Charlie have half a cake?” “Because he got what was left.”
BYE LOL
“He didn’t kiss her,” my grandmother offers from the stove. “When she wanted to be kissed.” Charlie leans back in his seat with a heavy, disappointed exhale. “Dude.” His eyes are like saucers. “You gotta kiss her when she wants to be kissed.”
Charlie ily so bad
Caleb finishes with my hair and reaches for the hand with the slowly melting cone, unthinkingly guiding my messy fingers to his lips. My breath hitches when he lowers his mouth to my hand, bottom lip dragging across my knuckles, a slow drag of his tongue where the ice cream is sticky against my skin.
OH MY GOD
“Were you guys doing inappropriate things in the fields again?” Luka snickers. “No. That’s their thing, not ours.” He points at Evie and Beckett. Evie flushes red while Beckett shrugs, unrepentant. “I told you not to look at the security cameras.” Evie’s face flushes even darker. She ducks her head and tips closer to Beckett. “There are cameras?” Beckett cups the nape of her neck with his hand and squeezes. “Not at our place, honey.”
LMAOOOOOO OMG
“You told me you wanted something to be yours,” Beckett tells me quietly. His arm swings around my shoulder and he pulls me close. Stella piles in on my other side and then Luka and Evie. I guess group hugs are officially a thing for us now. “This has always been yours. Now it just says so.”
I'm tearing up on the damn bus
He presses a small kiss above my heart and then licks a hot stripe all the way up my neck. Everything in my body clenches tight. “I like to work for it,” he whispers against my ear.
HELLO.......
When I slip my fingers through one of his belt loops and tug, he grabs my wrist and guides it above my head, pressing me harder into the couch. My whole body shakes with need. Eyes like burning coals glance at me. “You’re not supposed to work for it, sweetheart. I am.” And then Caleb goes to work. He holds me down on the couch and moves against me like we’re in a bed. Like we’re in a bed, and we’re both naked, and he’s deep inside me and wants to get deeper.
OH PERIODDDDD
His grandmother arrived shortly after he left with a fleet of his cousins. She took one look at my face, grabbed both of my cheeks in her weathered hands, and said something fierce and determined in Spanish. She then smacked me on the ass and told me to chop some strawberries.
Icon, legend, etc.
“Can I make you come again?” The question slips out of me, more blunt than I like to be. But need has me frantic, hands shaking and mouth working at her neck in between every gasped word.
PERIODDDDDDDD
“If I’m going to fuck you, Layla,” the words grind out of him, rough and tight, “it won’t be because of any lessons or arrangements. It’ll be because you want me and I want you.”
CALEBBBBBBBBB AGHHHHHHHH
He helps me guide my T-shirt over my head, and then it’s just us. Bare skin in the hazy light of a summer afternoon. “Tell me you want me,” he whispers. It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever told anyone. Truth in every syllable. “I want you so much.”
GODDDDDD THIS IS SO-
“No, Caleb. You can’t do that. Tell her how you feel. How you really feel. Look at you. You’ve been floating around these past couple of weeks. You look like a—like a—” “Like someone introduced you to masturbation for the first time,” Charlie supplies around a mouthful of rice.
CHARLIE SDKHFGDSFJ
“I know I can be too much, but I think I’m just enough for you. I have no interest in forcing you into anything,” he continues. “But I want you to know that this past month with you has been the very best I’ve ever had. I should have told you that last night, but I was overwhelmed and nervous, and everything came out wrong. Arrangement or no, everything I’ve felt with you, everything I’ve said to you—” He shakes his head slightly, that smile finally tripping from his eyes to the curve of his cheeks. I get the barest hint of his dimples before they’re gone again. “It’s been the most honest—the
...more
AHHHHHHHH
“Stop treating me like I’m the guy with the lint roller or the guy at the tiki bar. Stop acting like you’re someone I can move on from. I don’t want to be anywhere but right here with you.” His thumb drags across my blush and his eyes soften. “Don’t underestimate how long I’ll wait for you.”
GODDDDDDDDD WHAT A MAN
There’s more commotion on the other end of the line, and then I hear the very clear voice of Stella whisper-yelling, “Charlie, what in the actual hell?” “What?” he whispers back, phone angled slightly away from his mouth. His voice sounds tinny and far away. “She said get him to the bakehouse.” “She didn’t say give him a heart attack.” “Fine.” His exhale is loud in my ear. “Hey, Caleb? Sorry about that, man. You need to get to the bakehouse. There’s a fire.” “Charlie!”
CHARLIE I'M ON THE FLOOR
“I say that I’ve never felt so special to anyone in my entire life,” she whispers. “I say that the way you smiled in the front seat of your car that very first night made me think I could love you, just a little bit.”
Oh layla..... 🥺🥺🥺
“This whole time—I think I’ve been falling in love with you,” she tells me. “I didn’t recognize it because I’ve never felt it before. And when I did, when I realized, I kind of freaked out. I’m still kind of freaking out about it. It turns out the thing I wanted most is pretty scary when it comes down to it. You’re going to have to be patient with me.” “I can do that,” I grit out, voice thick. “I think I’ve been falling in love with you for a while, Layla. One butter croissant at a time.”
Killing myself this is so romantic
