Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia #2) (20 page)

“Not as much as I love you,” he gasped, cupping my cheek and forcing my eyes to meet his.

I closed the distance between us, kissing him deeply.

There was no talking after that.

Nothing else needed to be said, we only needed to feel our love for each other.

Something was brushing against my skin and it was super annoying. I swatted at it and laughter met my ears. With a groan, I opened my eyes slowly.

I was sprawled on top of a grinning Trace and he was tickling the bare skin of my shoulder with a piece of my hair.

“I was sleeping.”

“And my body is numb. Did you know you’re kind of heavy when you’re sleeping?” He tapped my nose with the chunk of my hair he was still playing with.

“Did you know that you’re annoyingly peppy in the mornings?” I rolled my eyes, reaching for my shorts and scooting off of his body. I’d put my bra, tank top, and ripped panties on before we fell asleep. After I got my shorts on I crawled over the seats and into the front of the car.

“Face it, you love my cheerful personality.”

I looked back to see Trace sit up and stretch. The ways his muscles flexed and rippled when he did that left my mouth watering. I never thought I’d be one of those girls constantly checking out guys—or in my case,
guy
—but I had a hard time taking my eyes off of Trace.

He pulled his jeans and shirt on and climbed over the seats like I had. He sat in the driver’s seat, staring out the windshield. I looked to, wondering what had captured his attention. A dancing cow, maybe? But there was nothing there.

“Tr—”

“Marry me?” He cut me off.

“Uh,” I raised a brow. “Did I dream that, or didn’t you already propose? I’m kind of confused right now.” I frowned, looking at him like he’d grown three heads.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “That’s not what I meant. What I mean is, marry me…today.” There was no playfulness in his gaze or smile. He was dead serious and I was…shocked.

“Today?” I whispered, my voice fleeing me.

He nodded. “Today.”

“Why?” I gasped. When he frowned, I hastened to add, “Not that I don’t want to marry you today, but our families aren’t even here. Why now?”

“Why not now?” He questioned, taking my hands in his. “It’s not that I don’t want them here, but this is about the two of us and our commitment to each other. We can have a wedding with a dress and cake and all that other crap, when we get back. I’m sure they’ll insist. But I don’t want to go another day without you as my wife,” his hand glided up my arm, causing me to shiver, and then rested against my cheek.

My eyes closed and a shaky breath gusted between my lips.

I had always thought I’d get married with my family surrounding me while wearing a white dress, but what Trace said was making me think differently. Marriage was between the two of us everything else was just pomp and circumstance.

“Your mom is going to kill us,” I eyed him.

He kissed me quickly and pulled away grinning. “I don’t care.”

“You know,” I glanced down at my shorts and plain white tank, “I never really imagined getting married dressed like this.”

“Here,” he shrugged out of his red plaid shirt, “put this on.”

I laughed as I put it on. “I didn’t picture getting married in your plaid shirt either.”

“Who wouldn’t want to get married in plaid?” He scoffed, throwing a wink my way.

I shook my head, fighting a smile. “Are we really doing this?”

“We are,” he entwined our fingers together and brought our joined hands up to his lips, kissing my knuckles.

“I really hope your mom doesn’t kill us,” I mumbled.

He chuckled. “I think we should be more worried about your mom. Pregnant ladies can get pretty crazy.”

I snorted, gazing out the window as he pulled away. “You’re probably right.”

“Now,” he smiled, slipping his sunglasses on, “we need to find the nearest courthouse.”

Unfortunately, our rumbling stomachs ceased our search for a courthouse, at least for the time being.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, taking a bite of my egg sandwich. “You were really cold last night and I was scared you might get sick.

A boyish grin lifted his lips as he leaned back casually in the booth. “I’m fine. Lucky for me, I had someone to warm me up.”

“Stop it,” I groaned, throwing my wadded up napkin at him.

“What?” He batted his eyes innocently. “You did a really good job.”

“You—just—ugh.” I buried my face in my hands. I was going to have to start leaving Trace at home, or in this case—the car, if he kept talking like that in public.

“Don’t be embarrassed. You were hot last night—no pun intended,” he smiled crookedly. “It was nice having you on top for a change.”

“Trace!” I shrieked, causing an elderly couple to glance our way. I knew my cheeks were bright red but I didn’t care.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he continued, “I prefer being on top, but it’s nice to mix it up every now and then,” he winked.

My heart was about to race out of my chest as I looked around to see if anyone had heard him.

Based on the smirk the guy in the booth next to us was wearing it was safe to assume he had.

“I can’t believe you,” I frowned.

“Hey,” he draped an arm across the back of the booth, “you knew what you were getting into when you met me.”

“That I did,” I groaned. “I must have been insane.”

“Or wowed by how amazing I am,” he chuckled.

“How about amazingly immature?” I retorted.

He leaned forward so there was little space between us. “Look at us, we’re already bickering like an old married couple and we haven’t even signed any official documents. The next seventy or so years of our lives seem so promising.”

“Where do you come up with this stuff?”

“My mind. It’s a spectacular place to reside. Mere mortals like you can’t fathom it,” he bit his lip, eyeing me.

I tried not to, but I couldn’t help laughing. I was weak and it was impossible for me to stay mad at Trace, even if he was speaking publicly about our sex life. That was the power of his charm.

“Your mind is bound to be a strange place,” I giggled.

“Strangely fascinating. Unicorns and dragons frolic here while drinking tea and discussing the winner of the latest quidditch match,” grinning, he tapped his forehead.

I shook my head, at a loss for words. What
did
you say to that?

“What? No response?” He grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Have I rendered you speechless?”

“Pretty much,” I laughed, finishing the last bite of my egg sandwich.

“Wow,” his lips quirked up in a small smile, “normally you always have a witty comeback for me. This day is one for the record books.”

Before I could reply, my phone began ringing. I saw my mom’s name on the caller ID and cringed. I was being a horrible daughter and not keeping her updated on our road trip. With her hormones she was liable to hunt me down and drag me back home.

“Hey, mom,” I answered.

“Liv, is everything okay? You didn’t call yesterday.”

“Everything’s fine. We got caught in a bad storm last night so it slipped my mind to call you. I’m—”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry,” her voice was stern. “I’ve been worried sick and now you’re telling me that you were driving through a bad storm. Do you want to send me into preterm labor? One day, you’re going to have your own daughter, and then you’ll see just how worrisome children are. I thought you were in an accident or something.”

“Mom,” I said calmly, “don’t be dramatic.”

I heard her take a deep breath. “Sorry. Forgive me, Liv. This whole being pregnant thing is messing with me,” she sighed and I pictured her hanging her head in her hands. “Last night I was crying over an Oreo commercial because I wanted an Oreo and we didn’t have any.” I couldn’t contain my laughter at that. “Anyway,” she huffed, “what’s your plan for today?”

“Uh—” I stalled. There was no way I could tell my mom that we planned on getting married today. She’d lose it. Before we left for our road trip she’d already showed up at the apartment three different times with stacks of those wedding catalogs and asking me about colors and cake flavors. I mean, it wasn’t like we were eloping in Vegas…but it was kind of a shotgun wedding. If I told her, she’d try to talk me out of it, and I didn’t want that. Like Trace, I was ready to be married. “No plans,” I finally said after a lengthy pause.

“What are you two up to?” She questioned curiously. Moms always knew when something was up. It was like they had radar or something.

“Nothing,” I blurted and ended the call, dropping my phone straight into my glass of water by accident. “Crap.”

Trace snorted. “Well, that was effective,” he pointed to my swimming phone.

“Shut up,” I groaned, fishing my phone out of the ice water. The screen was a rainbow of colors before going completely black. I sighed. “At least she can’t call me back now.”

“That’s for sure.”

“Oh no,” our elderly waitress said as she stopped by the table. “Did you get your phone wet?” She nodded her head at me, where I was currently drying it with a napkin.

“Yeah. It fell out of my hand.”

“I’m so sorry about that,” she frowned.

“It’s not your fault,” I shrugged, glaring at the black screen. “I’m the idiot that dropped it.”

Choosing not to comment on that, she laid our receipt on the table and said, “If you need anything else, just holler. Pay whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” Trace smiled, already pulling out his wallet. Nodding to me, he added, “We’ll stop by the Verizon store and get you a new phone…maybe one with a waterproof case.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Not funny.”

“Why did you drop it?” He asked, laying his credit card on the table.

“Because,” I groaned, “she wanted to know what we were doing today and I couldn’t tell her we’re getting married.”

“Then you should’ve lied.”

“I
can’t
lie. Besides, she’s my mom. She would’ve known,” I reasoned. Leaning my head back against the booth, I said, “Our moms are
so
going to kill us.”

“That’s what you keep telling me,” he smiled crookedly.

“Gramps will be pissed too.”

Trace frowned at that but didn’t comment.

The waitress came by again and took his credit card. He grabbed his phone and looked at the screen intently.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for the nearest place to get a marriage license. No one’s going to perform the ceremony without the license,” he mumbled, scrolling through his phone.

“Oh,” I nodded. I hadn’t thought about that part.

“Looks like there’s a clerk’s office just around the corner,” he smiled triumphantly. Sobering, his emerald eyes met mine, “You are sure about this, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been sure about you since I trusted you with my list,” I confessed. “I wasn’t sure where it would lead us, but I knew you were special.”

Chuckling, a smile spread across his face, “Oh please, you wanted me from the moment you saw me. I saw you licking your lips when I got out of my car.”

I rolled my eyes. “It was the tattoos.”

“
Sure
,” he smirked cockily, taking the pen and receipt from the waitress. He wrote down the tip amount and scrawled his signature. “Come on,” he stood, holding out his hand for me. I placed mine in his larger one and let him pull me from the booth, giggling. “We have a marriage license to get,” he pecked me on the lips in front of the whole restaurant, but I didn’t care who saw. I was getting married to the man of my dreams today. Nothing could dampen my mood now.