Love Me Forever - Juliana Stone Page 0,59

the night.” He nipped at her earlobe and grinned wickedly when she groaned. “Maybe the week.” His hand slid down and gently grazed her nipple before he slid his mouth over hers again.

“Eww, Daddy.”

Shit.

Boone took a moment to get his head on straight before he turned to his son. “Sorry, bud. But sometimes a man likes to kiss his girlfriend.”

“Okay,” Benji said, snuggling back into the blanket, his voice barely discernable. “But it’s still yucky.”

Give it ten years, Boone thought.

He took Poppy by the hand, and they headed inside to prepare dinner. Between the theater, the night back at her place, and this afternoon, it had been the perfect forty-eight hours. But as with all good things, sometimes a bump in the road was needed to ground a guy. To let him know he was nothing more than an average Joe trying to get by at this game of life. For someone like Boone Avery, a man who was used to winning, the bumps on his horizon were going to test him like he’d never been tested before.

And only time would tell if he came out on top, or if this time, his luck would run out.

Chapter Twenty

The next few weeks passed in a blur of Boone and Benji and work and sleepovers. Of making love until exhausted, and falling asleep next to Boone. Of quiet evenings cuddled on the sofa with a movie (usually Disney) and popcorn. There were walks along the beach and evening boat rides out to Pottahawk Island. There was laughter and joy and quiet moments of pure peace.

Poppy existed in a cocoon made up of Boone and his son, a boy who, in a small space of time, had managed to worm his way into her heart. It seemed the Avery men owned her, body and soul.

She was happy—blissfully so—and yet there were times between twilight and dawn when she stared at the face of the man she’d loved since she was sixteen, and she wondered when it would end. When this bubble of happiness would break apart and give way to cold reality. When Boone would wake up one day and realize she wasn’t his forever love. In truth, he’d never once uttered those words, and though Poppy whispered them in her mind, after that time so long ago when she’d laid open her heart and he’d left her without a word, she was afraid to say them out loud.

I love you.

Love sucked sometimes, and at the moment, it had her twisted up like a pretzel. They were about to make their first public appearance as a couple, and she was nervous as hell, because for the last twenty-four hours or so, something had slowly unraveled inside her and come loose, and she couldn’t shake the feeling of doom that pressed into her.

“Get over it, Poppy,” she muttered, tossing another dress onto the pile on her bed. She’d been at this for nearly thirty minutes now and was getting antsy.

It was the second Saturday in August, and she was at her bungalow without a male Avery in sight. She’d worked until five, and because Boone was taking Benji to the arena for a summer skate with Coach Balfour and a few other boys, he’d suggested he meet her at Molly and Nate’s because he was going to be late. He’d promised to take Benji for pizza with the other boys after their skate.

Molly and Nate were hosting a barbecue for his brother Beck, who’d recently been tapped to star in his own carpentry/home renovation show, alongside his new wife, Sidney. The woman was a household name thanks to her popular lifestyle brand, and when Beck started to make appearances on her show, the public clamored for more.

With a sigh, she pushed all thoughts of the party aside and stared at her closet until her vison blurred. Why couldn’t she shake this funk?

Mabel’s excited barking was enough to drag her from the doom and gloom inside her head, and she turned just as Link appeared in the doorway.

“I hope you’re not wearing that to the party,” he said, dropping a kiss to her cheek before flopping onto the bed, no matter that it was covered in clothing. “A burlap bag would be better.”

She glanced down at the faded old T-shirt she’d pulled on over her bra and panties after her shower. “I might have to, because I can’t decide what to wear.”

“Since when do you spend hours agonizing over your wardrobe choices?”

“I haven’t spent hours,”